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CAM PAIG N OF '34.. 

BIOGRAPHTES 

OK 

S. aROYER CLEVELAND, 

THE JJEMOCIiATIC CANDIDATE FOH I'RESIDEXT, 
AND 

THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 

THE DEMOCRA TIC CA XDIDA TE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT, 
WITH A 

DESCRIPTION OF THE LEADING ISSUES 

AND THE 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 

TOGETHER WITH A 

HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE UNITED STATES: 

COMPARISONS OF PLATFORMS ON ALL IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 

ANHj 

POLITICAL TABLES FOR READY REFERENCE. 



BY GEX'L BENJAMIX I^A FEVRE, 

Member of the House of Representatives from Ohio. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

FIRESIOE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

No. 20 North Skventh Street. 
1884. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18S4, by the 

FIRESIDE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Bound by 

HENRY ALTKMUS, 

4tli and Cherry Streets, 

Philadeli.hia. 



CONTENTS. 



Biographies, etc. 

PAGE 

S. Grover Clrvrland 1 

Thomas A. Hendricks 50 

Prockedings ok National Democratic Convention at Chicago, July 8, 1884 . . 71 

ISSUKS OF PKliSIUENTlAL CaMI'AIGN OF 1884 80 



HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES. 



PAGE. 

Colonial Parties — Whig and Tory 3 

Particularists and Strong Government Whigs 5 

Federals and Anti Federals 7 

Republicans and Federals 9 

Downfall of the Federals 13 

Democrats and Federals 17 

Jefferson Democrats 19 

Hartford Convention 20 

Treaty of Ghent 20 

Congressional Caucus 21 

Protective Tariff 21 

Monroe Doctrine 23 

Missouri Compromise 24 

Tariff — American System • • 25 

Tenure of Office — Eligibility 27 

Nullification — Democrats and Federals 29 

United States Bank 31 

Jackson's Special Message on the United States Bank 33 

Conception of Slavery Question 35 

Democrats and Whigs 37 

The Hour Rule 39 

National Bank Bill — First 41 

" " " Second 43 

Oregon Treaty of 1846 47 

Treaty of Peace with Mexico 49 

Clay's Compromise Resolutions 51 

Abolition Party — Rise and Progress of 53 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill 55 

Ritual of the American Party 57 

Kansas Struggle 71 

Lincoln and Douglas Debate 73 

Charleston Convention — Democratic, 1860 81 

Douglas Convention, 1860, Baltimore 86 

Breckinridge Convention, 18G0, Baltimore 86 

Chicago Republican Convention, 1860 86 

American Convention, 1860 87 

Secession — Preparing for 87 

vii 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Secession — Vieginia Convention, 1861 91 

" Inter-State Commissioners 96 

" Southern Congress, Proceedings of 97 

" Confederate Constitution 97 

" Confederate States 98 

Buchanan's Views .99 

Crittenden Compromise 104 

Peace Convention ,. 1C6 

Actual Secession 109 

" " Transferring Arms to the South 109 

Fernando Wood's Secession Message 112 

Congress on the Eve of the Rebellion 113 

Lincoln's Views 115 

Judge Black's Views 115 

Alexander H. Stephens' Speech on Secession 116 

Lincoln's First Administration 120 

Confederate Military Legislation 128 

Guerrillas 129 

Twenty-Negro Exemption Law 130 

Douglas on the Rebellion 130 

Political Legislation Incident to the Wab 130 

Thirty-Seventh Congress 131 

c02(fpensated emancipation 135 

Lincoln's Appeal to the Border States 137 

Reply of the Border States 138 

Border State Slaves 139 

Emancipation '. 141 

" Preliminary Proclamation op 141 

" Proclamation of 143 

Loyal Governors, the Address of 144 

Fugitive Slave Law, Repeal of 145 

Financial Legislation 149 

Seward &s Secretary of State 149 

Internal Taxes 151 

Confederate Debt 152 

Confederate Taxes 153 

"West Virginia — Admission of 158 

Color in War Politics 159 

Thirteenth Amendment— Passage of 167 

Louisiana — Admission op Representatives . . 168 

Reconstruction 169 

Arkansas — Admission of 170 

Reconstruction Measures— Text of 171 

Fourteenth Amendmf.nt 174 

McClellan's Political Letters 175 

Lincoln's Second Administration 177 

Andrew Johnson and his Policy 178 

" " — Impeachment Trial 179 

Grant 191 

Enforcement Acts • 193 

Readmission of Rebellious States 193 

Legal Tender Decision 194 

Greenback Party 194 

Prohibitory Party 196 

8ak Domingo — Annexation of 196 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

FAOE. 

Alabama Claims 197 

Force Bill 197 

Civil Service — Ordeii of Puesidest Hayes 198 

Amnesty 199 

Liberal Republicans 199 

Reform in the Civil Service 200 

Credit Mocilier 200 

Salary Grab 214 

Returning Boards 217 

Grangers 218 

— Illinois Railroad Act of 1873 218 

Civil Rights Bill— Supplementary 221 

Morton Amendment 222 

Whisky Ring 222 

Belknap Impeached 223 

White League 223 

Wheeler Compromise — Text of • 226 

Election of Haye3 and Wheeler 228 

Electoral Count 229 

Title of President Hayes 233 

Cipher Despatches 234 

Thb Hayes Administration 239 

Negro Exodus 240 

Campaign of 1880 242 

Three Per Cent. Funding Bill 244 

History of the National Loans 245 

Garfield and Arthur — Inauguration of 253 

Republican Factions 253 

The Caucus 256 

Assassination of Garfield 260 

Arthur, President 261 

Boss Rule 261 

Eeadjusters 263 

MoRMONiSM — Suppression of 264 

'• Text of the Bill 265 

South American Question 269 

Star Route Scandal 277 

The Coming States 278 

Chinesb Question 281 

'• " — Speech of Senator Miller on 281 

" " — Reply of Senator Hoar 285 

Merchant Marine 296 

Current Politics 298 

Political Changes in 1882 304 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



Virginia. Resolutions, 1798 3 

Virginia Resolutions, 1798— Answers of the State Legislatures 6 

P,esolution3 of 1798 and 1799 10 

Washington's Farewell Address 1'* 

ALi. National Platforms I'BCJI 1800 to 1880 21-68 

Comparison of Platform Plaziks o» Great Political Questions 69-79 



VII' 



* 



PART I. 
BIOGRAPHIES OF 

8. GEOYEE CLEVELAND 



AND 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



STEPHEK GROYER OLEYELAND. 



New York presents a grand array of no- 
ble names, which have ahke shed a lustre 
on the Democratic party and the nation. 
Its great men have been conspicuous in 
the camps of the soldier, in the pulpit, at 
the bar, and in the legislative halls of 
the state and nation. The political his- 
tory of our country is filled with the names 
of men from this state who have left 
their imprints upon this age and genera- 
tion, and become known and famous 
throughout the civilized world. 

Martin Van Buren who succeeded 
Andrew Jackson as President, Horatio 
Seymour, Horace Greeley, General Mc- 
Clellan, and Samuel J. Tilden, nominees 
for that elevated position all hailed from 
that state, while General Hancock, an- 
other nominee, although not belonging 
to it, was and is an actual resident of New 
York. The country believes, and it will 
go through all time as a matter of history, 
that Mr. Tilden failed to become Presi- 
dent, not because he was defeated at the 
ballot box, but because he was sacrificed 
by the Electoral Commission at Washing- 
ton, and that four years of Republican 
misrule was forced upon the country by 
that unjust and illegal decision. 

The Democratic National Convention, 
which convened at Chicago, July 8, to 
make nominations, after carefully survey- 
ing the field and digesting the merits of 
the respective candidates, again selected 
a candidate from the Empire state in the 
person of Stephen G. Cleveland, the pre- 
sent Governor. When we consider the 
galaxy of grand names before the Con- 
vention for its consideration, and the in- 
fluences by which they were presented 
and supported, it cannot fail to impress us 
with the force and reputation of the man 
who could win amongst such ^compeers. 
Probably never before had a National 
Convention the opportunity of making a 



selection from such a number of distin- 
guished personages. 

Delaware presented its Bayard, a time- 
honored name in that state, and an ac- 
knowledged leader among men. Con- 
servative in his views, deliberate in his 
action, profound in thought, and brilliant 
in intellect, he is a statesman who orna- 
ments his high position of United States 
Senator. 

Thurman, of Ohio, whose giant intellect 
and broad-gauge views won him the po- 
sition of a leading senator — a man whose 
acute knowledge of jurisprudence ele- 
vated him to the head of the Bar, and 
whose will-power is coequal with his 
judgment, was one of the contestants. 
Indiana presented McDonald, stalwart 
in faith, careful and plodding in details, 
whose record in the Senate was without 
blot or blemish. Pennsylvania, through 
ex-Senator Wallace, named Mr. Randall, 
who in the councils of his native city, in 
the State Senate, and for nearly a quarter 
of a century in Congress, has been favor- 
ably known by the people. As an organ- 
izer, a parliamentarian and legislator he 
is the acknowledged leader of the House 
of Representatives. The present accom- 
plished Speaker of the House, Mr. Car- 
lisle, of Kentucky, one of the intellectual 
giants of Congress, a Chesterfield in man- 
ners, and a Napoleon in strategy — Mor- 
rison, of Illinois, with true western push, 
and advanced ideas of political economy, 
formed a brilliant pair on the nominating 
roster. Any one of these men would have 
been a worthy leader of the Democracy 
to victory, and, therefore, the selection of 
Stephen G. Cleveland from the number 
was an enviable honor, apart from that 
which attains to the Presidential office. 

It is not the purpose of this biographical 
notice to trace with minute exactness an 
ancestry, about which the American peo- 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



pie care but little, as under a government 
like ours the faded pages of ancestral 
records weigh but little against the living 
realities of the present. A Government 
of the people takes the people as they are, 
and for what they are worth, as compo- 
nent parts thereof, and not from any 
heritage from buried generations. It re- 
cognizes no royalty of birth, no caste be- 
cause of ancestry, but, actuated by the 
spirit of our laws, it rates him for his in- 
trinsic worth ; and no matter how humble 
his origin — 

" The man's a man for a' that." 

Before entering upon a biographical 
sketch of Mr. Cleveland, we will introduce 
him to our readers as he was presented to 
the Chicago Convention by Mr. Lock- 
wood. 

Cleveland's Name Presented. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of 
THE Convention : It is with no ordinary 
feeling of responsibility, that I appear be- 
fore this Convention as representative of 
the Democracy of the State of New York 
[applause] for the purpose of placing in 
nomination a gentleman from the State of 
NewYork as a candidate for the Presidency 
of the United States. This responsibility is 
made greater when I remember that the 
richest pages of American history have 
been made up from the records of Demo- 
cratic administration. [Applause.] This 
responsibility is made still greater when I 
remember that the only blot in the political 
history done at Washington, an outrage 
upon the rights of the American people, 
was in 1876, and that that outrage and 
that injury to justice is still unavenged 
[applause], and this responsibility is not 
lessened when I recall the fact that the 
gentleman whose name I shall present to 
you has been my political associate from 
my youth. Side by side have we marched 
to the tune of Democratic music ; side by 
side have we studied the principles of 
Jefferson and Jackson, and wc love the 
faith in which we believe : and during all 
this time he has occupied a position com- 
paratively as a private citizen, yet always 
true and always faithful to Democratic 
jtrinciplcs. No man has greater respect 
or admiration for the honored names 



which have been presented to this con- 
vention than myself; but, gentlemen, the 
world is moving, and moving rapidly. 
From the North to the South, new men, 
men who have acted but little in politics, 
are coming to the front [applause], and 
to-day there are hundreds and thousands 
of young men in this country, men who 
are to cast their first vote, who are inde- 
pendent in politics, and they are looking 
to this convention, praying silently that 
there shall be no mistake made here. 
They want to drive the Republican party 
from power. They want to cast their vote 
for a Democrat in whom they believe. 
[Applause.] These people know from 
the record of the gentleman whose name 
I shall present that Democracy with him 
means honest government, pure govern- 
inent, and protection to the rights of the 
people of every class and every condition. 
A little more than three years ago I had 
the honor, at the city of Buffalo, to present 
the name of this same gentleman for the 
office of Mayor of that city. It was pre- 
sented then for the same reason, for the 
same causes that we present now ; it was 
because the Government of that city had 
become corrupt, and had become debased, 
and political integrity sat not in high 
places. The people looked for a man who 
would represent the contrary ; and without 
any hesitation they named Grover Cleve- 
land as the man [at this point there was a 
wild burst of applause. Some of the New 
York delegation, practically the entire 
Wisconsin delegation and some few scat- 
tering delegates, stood up and made all 
the demonstrations possible in Cleveland's 
favor. As soon as the uproar subsided 
and comparative order was regained, Mr. 
Lockwood continued.] The result of that 
election and his holding that office was 
that in less than nine months the State of 
New York found herself in a position to 
want just such a candidate and for such a 
purpose, and when at the Convention in 
1882 his name was placed in nomination 
for the office of Governor of the State of 
New York, the same people, the same 
class of people, knew that that meant 
honest government, it meant pure govern- 
ment, it meant Democratic government, 
and it was ratified by the people. [Cheers.] 



STEPHEN GROVER CEi:\ IILAXD. 



And, pcntlcmen, now, after eighteen | 
months' service there, the Democracy of | 
the State of New York come to you and 
ask you to give to the country, to give the 
Independent and Democratic voters of the 
country, to give the young men of the 
country the new blood of the country, and 
present the name of Grover Cleveland as 
the standard-bearer for the next four 
years. I shall indulge in no eulogy of Mr. 
Cleveland. I shall not attempt any fur- 
ther description of his political career. It 
is known. His Democracy is known. His 
statesmanship is known throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. And all 
I ask of this convention is to let no pas- 
sion, no prejudice influence its duty which 
it owes to the people of this country. Be 
not deceived. Grover Cleveland can give 
the Democratic party the thirty- six elec- 
toral votes of the State of New York on 
election day. He can by his purity of 
character, by his purity of administration, 
by his fearless and undaunted courage to 
do right, bring to you more votes than can 
anybody else. Gentlemen of the Conven- 
tion, but one word more. Mr. Cleveland's 
candidacy before this Convention is offered 
upon the ground of his honor, his integ- 
rity, his wisdom, and his Democracy 
[cheers] ; upon that ground we ask it, be- 
lieving that, if ratified by this Convention, 
he can be elected, and take his seat at 
Washington as a Democratic President of 
the United States. 

General Bragg spoke as follows : 
Gentlemen of the Convention : It 
is with feelings of no ordinary pride that I 
fill the post that has been assigned to me 
to-day. Grown gray personally fighting 
the battles of the Democratic party, I stand 
to-day to voice the sentiment of young 
men of my State when I speak for Grover 
Cleveland, of New York. [Cheers.] His 
name is upon their lips. His name is in 
their hearts. He is the choice not only of 
that band of young men, but he is the 
choice of all those who desire for the first 
time as young men to cast their vote in 
November for the candidate nominated 
by this Convention. They love him, gen- 
tlemen, and respect him, not only for him- 
self, for his character, lor his integrity, and 



judgment and iron will, but they love him 
most for the enemies he has made. 

This broad nation witnessed the dis- 
graceful spectacle of a Senator of the 
United States trading his proud possession 
for gain. Mahone and Riddleberger 
would scarcely be allowed to stand upon 
this platform to teach you whom you 
ought to nominate. Go to the Senate of 
the State of New York since Governor 
Cleveland has been Governor, and there 
you find two worthy conferees playing in 
a small theatre Mahone and Riddleberger 
over again. And why ? Because the 
Governor of the State of New York had 
more nerve than the machine. They may 
speak of him, aye, the worst of the spe- 
cies may defile a splendid statue, but they 
only disgrace themselves. Wherever the 
thin disguise can be reached, you will find 
it covering nothing but personal griev- 
ance, disappointed ambition, as a cutting 
off of access to the flesh-pots to those who 
desire to fatten upon them. I do not as- 
sume here to speak for labor. The child 
of a man who always earned his daily 
bread by his daily labor ; brought up for 
more than a quarter of a century, from 
boyhood to manhood among laborers that 
have made the great Northwest what it is. 
I do not assume to speak for labor. Labor 
is not represented in political conventions 
by the soft hand of the political trickster, 
no matter where you find him. The men 
who follow conventions and talk about 
the rights of labor, are the Swiss contin- 
gent who place their tent wherever the 
prospect of profit is greatest — while hon- 
est, intelligent, horny-handed labor will 
be found following the old Democratic 
flag, thanking God that its self-styled 
leaders have gone where they belong. 
They come here to talk of labor ! Yes, 
their labor has been upon the crank of 
the machine (immense applause and 
laughter), and their study has been politi- 
cal chicanery in the midnight conclave. 

Governor Cleveland's Ancestry. 

Governor Cleveland's great grand-father 
was Aaron Cleveland. He was born on 
the ninth of February, 1744, one hundred 
and forty years ago, in the town of East 
Haddam, the principal of the numerous 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Haddams that lie along the Connecticut 
river a short distance from Middletown. 
During the greater portion of his life he 
carried on business in the town of Nor- 
wich, where he followed his calling as a 
hatter. The records of the place make 
frequent mention of him, not as a hat 
maker, but as an active participant in the 
public affairs of the town, as a versatile 
speaker, an able writer, and an active poli- 
tician. He was one of the early opponents 
of slavery, and he became notorious by 
introducing a bill in the Connecticut Leg- 
islature, in v/hich he represented the town 
of Norwich, for its abolition. The bill 
provoked a prolonged and exciting dis- 
cussion, in which Aaron Cleveland bore a 
conspicuous part, and was finally defeated, 
as he expected ; for he presented it without 
the most remote idea of success, but 
merely to put himself and the other mem- 
bers on the record. Apart from his busi- 
ness, and his political ventures, he found 
time to prosecute the study of divinity, and 
abandoning the hat business, and leaving 
the politics of state and town in other 
hands, he removed to Vermont, and be- 
came a somewhat noted Congregational 
minister. From thence he returned to his 
native State, locating at New Haven, 
where he died in 1815. Throughout his 
life he had openly opposed the institution 
of slavery, and was well known as the 
Anti-Slavery Agitator, ^iis son, Charles 
Cleveland, was born in Norwich in 1772, 
and at an early age removed to Massachu- 
setts and settled in Boston, There he be- 
came a noted city missionary, and was 
known throughout the State as " Father 
Cleveland." A daughter, the youngest of 
thirteen children, was married to the cele- 
brated Doctor Samuel H. Cox, and his 
son, the Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, is 
now Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of Western New York. The 
reader will notice that the third genera- 
tion has remodelled the name by the ad- 
dition of a final e. 

William, the second son of Aaron 
Cleveland, and the grandfather of the 
presidential nominee was a silversmith, 
and plied his vocation at Beacon Hill, 
adjoining Norwich. Like his father, he 
belonged to the Congregational Church, 



in which he was a deacon for a quarter of 
a century. In the latter part of his life he 
retired from business and removed to 
Buffalo, New York. He died at Black 
Rock in 1857. 

Richard Falling Cleveland, the second 
son of William Cleveland, and the father 
of Stephen Grover Cleveland, the nomi- 
nee, was born in Norwich, June 19, 1804. 
He is described as a pale, intellectual 
youth, who had a passion for reading and 
study, and he was entered at Yale College 
in 1820, and graduated with honors in 
1824. The graduating class consisted of 
sixty-seven members, but few of whom are 
now living. Within a few months after 
graduating, he located in Baltimore and 
pursued the calling of a teacher. He ap- 
pears to have inherited the desire to 
enter the ministry, and whilst teaching he 
pursued his studies in that direction. In 
1828, four years after he removed to Wil- 
mington, he was ordained a Presbyterian 
minister and at once took charge of a 
Church near the homestead in Windham, 
near Norwich, He left his affections be- 
hind him in Baltimore, and in the following 
year he returned to that city and married 
the daughter of Abner Neal of that place. 
He did not return to Windham but 
preached in sundry places in the South, 
and afterwards settled at Caldwell, New 
Jersey, From thence he removed to 
Fayetteville in 1841, and in 1847 he was 
appointed Secretary of the Home Mission- 
ary Society. Six years afterwards he 
was installed at Holland Patent, where 
he died, October i, 1853, in his fiftieth 
year. 

Mrs. Cleveland, mother of the Governor, 
died at the same place, July 19, 1882. 
They had nine children, four boys anu 
five girls, as follows : Anna, (Mrs. Dr. 
Hastings) missionary to Ceylon ; William 
N., an Alumnus of Hamilton, teacher in 
the New York City Blind Asylum, now a 
Presbyterian Minister at Forestport, N. Y,, 
1832; Mary, (Mrs, W. E. Hoyt), 1833; 
Richard Cecil, 1835; Stephen Grover, 
(Governor of New York and Presidential 
nominee), 1837 ; Margaret, (Mrs. N. B. 
Bacon), 1838; Lewis Frederick, 1841 ; 
Susan, (Mrs. S. Yeomans), 1843; Rose, 
(unmarried), 1846. 



STEPHEN G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



Ilia Blrth-PIacn. 

It was during; the stay of the family in 
New Jersey that Governor Cleveland was 
born, and the old, dingy, obscure town of 
Caldwell is the place of his birth. The 
little, unpretentious two-and-a-half story 
house, with a dirty white coating and 
clumsy shutters, still stands to mark the 
place where, in 1837, he first became an 
actor on the busy stage of life, and from 
whence and when he has matured and 
advanced until now he is the honored 
Ciovernor of the Empire State. Less than 
a thousand souls live in this quiet hamlet, 
which but for the accidents of politics 
would probably never have been heard 
of outside of the records of Oneida county. 
It was made famous in a day by the nom- 
ination of Governor Cleveland for the 
Presidency. True it is that neither the 
place nor its humble people ever knew 
much of him, either as boy or man, for 
his life there can be spanned by the circle 
of a few months. It has held the family 
hearthstone for many years and that now 
makes it a place of note. The father died 
here, when he had said his long prayers 
and given good old doctrinal sermons to 
his slender flock only three weeks. His 
mother made it her home until her death, 
soon after her son was elected Governor 
of New York. The only maiden sister he 
has, still keeps up the humble cottage, 
which will now figure in song, story and 
picture as the early and only real home 
of the Democratic Presidential nominee. 

Recollections. 

It is not easy to find out much about Mr. 
Cleveland's early life, although he spent 
most of his boyhood days within a dozen 
miles of this neat little city. Over at Clin- 
ton, a secluded village some ten miles 
across the flat country from here, he went 
to school some time before his parents 
moved up to "the Patent." But he is 
remembered there only as the son of a 
poor Presbyterian preacher, who wore 
shabby clothes and was always ready to 
fight, not only for himself, but for his 
younger companions, when he or they 
were nagged by the older or more fortu- 
nate boys. There are not many reminis- 
cences of his father to be had there or 

"re. He is remembered as a rigid dis- 



I ciple of the Blue Stocking faith, one of 
] those strong, severe characters, which 
I " would have perished at the stake for 
1 tenets he would not forsake.'" The mother 
! is also readily recalled as a positive force 
in this pious household. The blood of a 
good. Southern Maryland family runs in 
her veins, and it was a good strain with 
which to warm the frigid qualities of the 
cold New England stock which was top 
in the head of the household. Hence 
the ten strong children who were born of 
the union, were offspring equipped with the 
qualities of body and mind for a stiff 
battle with the world. Not brilliant, but 
able, substantial people, were all of them. 
Whether or not it was the Southern blood 
that changed the temper of the children 
I cannot say, but I believe that out of the 
five boys none of them turned to the 
ministry as their ancestors in the male 
line had done for generations before. 
One or two of the girls married preachers, 
but most of them chose to look for 
a better material chance in life than can 
be found in the product of mite societies 
and of donation gatherings. His re- 
collections of his native town must be 
very meagre and the associations very 
vague and shadowy, for he was but three 
years of age when he left there. His 
father was a Presbyterian preacher whose 
salary was small and whose family was 
large, and keei j feeling " the wants that 
pinch the poor," and desiring a larger field 
of labor, with an increased income, he 
removed, by way of the Hudson river and 
the Erie canal, to Fayetteville, which was 
then a thriving straggling country town 
about six miles from Pompey Hill, the 
birth-place of ex-Governor Seymour. In 
those days the means of transportation 
were slow and limited, and the appearance 
of this humble family as it slowly floated 
to a new home, would not have indicated 
to an observer the probability that one of 
the urchins composing the party would 
become the Mayor of an important city, 
and the Governor of the greatest State. 
The struggle for life is filled with muta- 
tions, but by means of its friction the sparks 
of latent genius fly upward and onward. 
" Greatness and fame from no positions rise, 
Act well thy part, there all the honor lies.'* 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



His JBarly Education. 

At Fayctteville, Grover Cleveland, as he 
was called, commenced his education in 
an old-fashioned country school, where he 
very probably fell into the ways of the vil- 
lage boys, and exhibited the usual com- 
pound of good and evil that distinguish 
the average school-boy. That he availed 
himself of the poor opportunities then 
offered in a common school is evidenced 
by the fact that before he had reached 
fourteen years of age he had mastered all 
the studies that the schoolmaster taught, 
and feeling that a longer continuance there 
was useless, he urgently entreated his 
father to send him to an academy not far 
from there. But the elder Cleveland 
thought that inasmuch as his son had 
mastered the curriculum of the school, he 
did not need an academic finishing which 
would consume time and money that 
might be more profitably invested. So 
the son's aspirations were nipped in the 
bud, and the academy project was aban- 
doned. 

Clerk lu a Country Store. 

The father's income was small, and he 
intended that the son should support him- 
self without delay. So he was placed in 
a country store to deal out the thousand 
and one articles contained in such an in- 
stitution, for which he was to receive one 
dollar per week for the first year, and if 
he proved active and honest his wages to 
be doubled for the following year. Here 
in this village center he dealt out molasses 
and mackerel, soap and sugar, and ex- 
patiated on the cotton prints to the vil- 
lage girls, proving himself a valuable as- 
sistant until the expiration of the second 
year. 

Origin. 

Governor Cleveland is of Yankee origin 
and hails originally from " the land of 
steady habits." His father graduated at 
Yale in 1824, taught in Baltimore after 
the custom of Jared Sparks and other col- 
lege graduates of an early day, married a 
daughter of Abncr Neal, of that city, after 
he had become a Presbyterian minister 
and was pastor of the church at Caldwell, 
N. J. March 18, 1837, the day when the 
child was born, which was named Stephen 
Grover Cleveland, and who as Grover 



Cleveland, the Democratic candidate for 
president , was to become far more widely 
known than any of his preaching and 
rhyme-writing ancestors. Stephen Grover, 
for whom the boy was named was a Pres- 
byterian minister, who preceded preacher 
Cleveland as the occupant of the Presby- 
terian pulpit at Caldwell. Perhaps the 
best known Cleveland, after Grover, is his 
cousin, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Episcopal 
bishop of Western New York. A grand 
uncle, Charles, city missionary of Boston, 
who was better known as "Father" Cleve- 
land, lived to be one hundred years old, 
lacking seventeen days. 

Grover, as he was always called for sake 
of euphony, was the fifth of nine brothers 
and sisters. His brothers Frederic and 
Cecil were lost at sea in the burning steam- 
ship Missouri, October 22, 1872, off Abaco, 
the chief of the Bahamas. Frederic was 
the lessee of the Royal Victoria Hotel, at 
Nassau, New Providence. 

The Rev. C. T. Barry, the pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church, lives in the old par- 
sonage, in good old fashioned style, and 
in unostentatious simplicity. The house sets 
back from the road about a hundred feet 
and two noble ash trees stand like senti- 
nels before it. The grounds which contain 
about two acres are well kept, and the 
whole place has an air of neatness and 
respectability. The house itself is a two- 
story and a-half, with a front porch and 
low windows. The front door opens into 
a spacious hall and the rooms on each 
side of it are cosy and comfortable. The 
ceilings are low. The doors are very wide 
and the whole place savors of antiquity. 

Tlie CUurcli Record. 

In the old church baptismal record we 
find the record of the birth and baptizing 
of the Democratic nominee," and Mr. 
Barry pointed to an entry which read as 
follows: "Stephen Grover Cleveland, 
baptized July i, 1837 ; born March iS, 

1837-" 

" During his six years' pastorate," said 

Mr. Barry, " Mr. Cleveland's father had a 

child baptized every year. When Grover 

Cleveland was elected Governor of New 

York 1 wrote and told him tluit 

I had these interesting facts, and he 

sent me a very graceful reply. Here ii 



STErilKN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



1. 



the room in which Governor Cleveland 
was born, and Mr. Barry pushed open 
ihe door and led the visitor into a room 
now used as a library. The room was 
about fifteen feet square, with two windows 
and a low ceiling. An excellent steel en- 
graving of James G. Blaine stood upon a 
table looking in the direction of the spot 
where his opponent was born. 

ClfvrlnucI'N Uoyliooil. 

The removal of the elder Cleveland to 
Clinton gave Grover the long-wished-for 
opportunity to attend a high school and he 
pursued his studies industriously and laid 
the foundation of his future success so far 
as school knowledge and discipline sup- 
ply the material, until the family moved 
up on the Black River to what was then 
known as the Holland Patent — a village 
of five or six hundred people — fifteen 
miles north ol Utica. The elder Cleve- 
land preached but three Sundays in this 
place, when he suddenly died. Grover 
first heard of his father's death while 
walking with his sister in the streets of 
Utica. But he went no farther than the 
academy, his father's death forcing him 
out into the world to do something for his 
family and himself. This event produced 
the usual break-up of the family, and we 
next hear of Grover Cleveland setting out 
for New York City to accept at a small 
salary the position of under teacher in an 
asylum for the blind, where at the time the 
since well-known Gus. Schell was executive 
officer. 

A Teacltcr of tlie Blind. 

In the city of New York stands an im- 
posing structure of Sing Sing granite, front- 
ing about two hundred feet, with buttresses 
and turrets approaching the Elizabethan 
style, in which has been expended more 
than two millions of dollars for the educa- 
tion of the blind. 

New York took the first steps on this 
continent to educate the blind, and this 
society was organized more than fifty years 
ago. The building has been standing pro- 
bably forty years, though the Mansard 
roof upon it has been added recently. 
When it was built it stood far outside of New 
York proper. The Ninth Avenue Elevated 
Railroad runs right before it and has a sta- 
tion at the corner on Thirty-fourth street. 



Ileiuliilsc4'iict-> of IIliii. 

A person well acquainted with the Insti- 
tution gives the following information as to 
Grover Cleveland's tutorship there. When 
asked at what time he taught in the 
Institution, he said : " About thirty years ; 
but there is not a single personal recollec- 
tion of him in the institution. It seems 
that he and a brother were both teachers 
here about one year each and at the same 
time." " Have you looked the archives 



up ? 



'Yes and there I find the names of 



both the Clevelands. But there have been 
so many teachers in the institution that no 
record is left of these, but I suspect from 
a Mr. Allen having been the secretary of 
this institution and that being the name of 
Grover Cleveland's uncle, that they got 
their places through the influence of this 
uncle. It was from the blind asylum that 
Grover went to Buffalo and settled there." 

Its History. 

The institution at which Cleveland 
taught in New York was begun by Dr. 
John Russ, who came from Massachusetts 
and began to practice medicine in New 
York. Dr. Howe, of Boston, sent him in 
a ship to take supplies to the Greeks, who 
were fighting the Turks, as at that day the 
American people were not afraid to extend 
their help not only to South America but 
to Europe in the arms of tyranny. After 
spending three years in Greece, where he 
established a hospital. Dr. Russ returned 
to New York and began to educate blind 
boys. He refused to leave this great field 
for a blind institution which was afterward 
organized in Boston, and he introduced 
the trades here of making baskets, mats 
and carpets. 

Dr. Russ had scarcely left the New 
York Blind Institution when young Cleve- 
land came in to teach. It seems that 
Boston and New York started their blind 
institutions the same year, 1832, while 
Pennsylvania began the following year. 

Noted School Teachers. 

Our Presidents present very peculiar 
contrasts in education and a very large 
percentage of our statesmen began at 
school teaching. Teaching school was in 
the first half of tliis century what writing 
for the newspapers is now — a method of 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



ing over the early years of one's life 
until a more substantial opportunity can 
be presented. William H. Seward and 
Lyman Trumbull went South to be tutors. 
John Adams studied law under cover of 
teaching school at Worcester, Mass. Jef- 
ferson had all the instincts of a school 
teacher, though he was led into public life. 
I found the last of the kin of James Madi- 
son, his nephew's daughters, teaching 
school in Virginia a few years ago. Aaron 
Burr was the son of the first schoolmaster 
of Princeton. John Quincy Adams taught 
at Harvard College. I think Andrew 
Jackson made a feeble effort at school 
teaching for a little while in Western 
North Carolina, though there is some doubt 
about this. Millard Fillmore, I believe, 
had a little spell of school teaching in 
Western New York. Fillmore's only son, 
by the way, is alive in Buffalo, without any 
posterity, and Mr. Bissel, law partner of 
Governor Cleveland, told me during the 
convention that the name of Fillmore 
would expire with him. When Grover 
Cleveland went to Buffalo Fillmore had 
just ceased to be Pjesident and had re- 
turned to the city, where he established 
the practice of law. 

Breaks A^vay from Tutorsltip. 

He stayed there two years, and it has 
been found possible to discover the same 
indelible record of hard work, faithfully 
performed and well remembered by those 
who were cognizant of it, and who are still 
alive. From tending country store to 
teaching the blind is a long way on the 
road of self-discipline. But to teach he 
did not believe was his mission, and con- 
sequently at the expiration of two years he 
abandoned it and literally started out to 
seek his fortune in the Far West— only re- 
versing the usual order, and instead of 
coming to the great city, he left it His 
first idea was to go to Cleveland. On his 
way, he stopped at Buffalo, N. Y., where 
young Cleveland paid his respects to his 
uncle Lewis F. Allen, a noted stock- 
breeder, who was favorably impressed 
with the young man, whom he saw for the 
first time, and he asked him for his advice 
and guidance. As he has since said, the 
name seemed a good omen. 



Wants to be a liawy^er. 

The uncle did not speak enthusiastically. 
" What is it you want to do my boy?" he 
asked, 

" Well sir, I want to study law." 

" Good gracious," remarked the old 
gentleman. "Do you indeed? What 
ever put that in your head? How much 
money have you got?'' 

To tell the truth he hadn't got any. 

" See here," said the uncle, after a long 
consultation. " I want somebody to get 
up my herd-book this year. You come 
and stay with me and help me and I'll 
give you $50 for the year's work and you 
can look around.'' 

The offer was a tempting one, for em- 
ployment was what he was in search of, 
but he replied : — " I have agreed to go to 
Cleveland with my companion and I can- 
not desert him now in the midst of the 
journey." It was finally agreed that 
Grover should interview his friend upon 
this subject, and if possible gain his con- 
sent. Mr. Cleveland, much to his grati- 
fication, found that his comrade was will- 
ing to release him from his agreement to 
go to Ohio, and Grover Cleveland became 
a resident of Buffalo. 

A Mixed Calling. 

Here it is that we find the American boy 
now annotating short horns out at Black 
Rock, quite two miles from Buffalo. But 
he kept his eye out for a chance to 
enter a law office while he was editing the 
stock book, and one day he walked boldly 
into the room of Messrs, Rogers, Bowen & 
Rogers, and told them what he wanted. 
There were a number of young men in 
the place already. But young Cleveland's 
persistency won, and he was finally per- 
mitted to come as an office boy and have 
the use of the law library. 

For this he received the nominal sum of 
$3 or $4 a week, out of which he had to 
pay his board and washing. The walk to 
and from his uncle's was along and at that 
time a rugged one. The first winter was a 
memorably severe one, and his shoes were 
broken, and he had no overcoat. But he 
never intermitted a day. It began to be 
noticed that he was the most punctual and 
regular of the lads in the office. Often at 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



L 



nipht he was cnnipcllcd to stand by the ' 
warm chimney in the loft where he slept 
and dry his feet after tramping the two 
miles throii;4h the snow. His senior em- 
ployer had taken a copy of Blackstone on 
the first day of the boy's office experience 
and, planting it before him with a hang 
that made the dust fly, said : <' That's 
where they all begin." There was a titter 
ran round the little circle of clerk.s, for it 
was a foreboding thing to begin with to the 
average bid. It appears, however, that he 
stuck to the Blackstone so well that he 
m.astered it and so absorbed was he in 
it one night that they locked him in and all 
went off. He spent that night with the 
book and never forgot it. 

His political preference at this time led 
him to join the Democratic party, to which 
he has ever since persistently adhered. 

The Discipline of Hardship. 

This uneventful period of Grover Cleve- 
land's life, so devoid of adventure and 
barren of romance, was the period at 
which all the forces of his later life were 
gestating. The privations and miseries of 
a penniless novitiate gave way slowly be- 
fore his determined assiduity and pluck. 
He tells in his own way with a beaming, 
reminiscent humor of the first honor that 
came to him when his uncle, in getting out 
the second volume of his " Breed Book," 
announced to him that he intended to ac- 
knowledge in it his valuable assistance. 
But these privations and miseries, it may 
readily be seen by the temperament of 
the man, were only so many stimuli. 
His was not the hypersensitive nature that 
winced and wore under physical discom- 
forts. 

" See here,'' said his uncle to him one 
bitter December night when the lad had 
walked out to Black Rock through the 
sleet and snow : " this is pretty cold weather 
for you to be traveling without an over- 
coat.'' 

" Oh," says the young man, " I'm going 
to buy one when I earn the money" 

" Why, look at your feet; they must be 
sopping, eh !" 

"Oh, that's nothing. I'm getting some 
copying to do now and I'll have a pair of 
boots by and by," 



In those days boys had to demonstruiv. 
what was in them before they received 
many favors. 

"You just go right over there to the 
tailor's and get the stoutest overcoat he's 
got. D'ye hear.'' 

Very likely Grover had begun to 
demonstrate what was in him, but whether 
to the mind of the uncle it was a capa- 
city for compiling herd books or the 
capacity to contain Blackstone cannot 
now be learned. 

His Old Uncle. 

The old uncle, L. F. Allen, who gave 
him good advice, but very little else, when 
he reached here some thirty years ago on 
his way to Cleveland, Ohio, still lives there 
and is now past four-score years. He 
persuaded his nephew to stop at this point 
and helped him to get a chance to study 
law by working mighty hard for it. He is 
an eccentric man, of strict business habits, 
and doesn't seem to take much interest in 
politics. He really knows less of the life 
of his relative than almost any man of re- 
pute you meet. 

A Financial Move. 

It must have been about this time, or 
just as he was to set out from home on his 
journey West, that he borrowed from the 
Hon. Ingham Townsend, of Floyd, Oneida 
County, a certain sum of money, to which 
the following letter, written many years 
afterward, (it was on Jan. 21, 1867,) 
refers : 

I am now in condition to pay my note 
which you hold, given for money borrowed 
some years ago. I suppose I might have paid 
it long before, but I have never thought 
you were in need of it, and I had other 
purposes for my money. I have forgotten 
the date of the note. If you will send me 
it I will mail you the principal and inter- 
est. The loan you made me was my start 
in life, and 1 shall always preserve the 
note as an interesting reminder of your 
kindness. Let me hear from you soon. 
With many kind wishes to Mrs. Townsend 
and your family, I am yours, very re- 
spectfully. 

Grover Clevel.wd. 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



His Banker. 

Mr. Townsend died in the town of 
Floyd in March, 18S3, so that he had 
lived lon>j enough to see the recipient of 
his bounty elected Governor of the State 
of New York. His age was then eighty- 
one, and he had in his time assisted many 
young men with money to make their first 
start in the world. When he gave the 
money to young Cleveland he told him 
he need never return it, but that, should 
he ever meet a young man in need as he 
himself has been, he might turn the money 
over to him should he have it to spare. 
Grover Cleveland had not been long in 
this law office at Buffalo when the firm en- 
gaged him at a fixed, liberal salary, and 
found ^that he was entirely capable of 
earning it. It was about the year 1858 
that the young student secured admission 
to the Bar. He had been four years with 
the Rogers firm, and after his admission 
he remained with them four years longer, 
thus securing a thorough training and 
equipment for his profession. 

■\Vliat tliey say at Syracuse. 

This quiet little village of twelve hun- 
dred inhabitants was once the home of 
Grover Cleveland, the nominee of the 
Democratic party for the Presidency. Dr. 
D. P. Hutchins, an old resident, who had 
an office in Deacon McViccar's store when 
Grover was a clerk there, when asked for 
some reminiscences of the Governor's 
boyhood, said that " Grove," as they used 
to call him, was always considered a good 
boy, courteous and dignified in his man- 
ners and was exceedingly popular. He 
held his position in the store about one 
year. He made an efficient clerk and was 
highly recommended by Mr. McViccar 
when he left the latter's employ. 

H. Howard Edwards, also a long resi- 
dent, and a playmate of the Governor's, 
when questioned concerning his recollec- 
tions of Cleveland's boyhood, said there 
was nothing during the time he lived here 
to indicate his future distinction. " Why," 
said Mr. Edwards, " we used to be to- 
gether constantly, go a-fishing together, 
sleep together, and I cannot recall any- 
thing that impressed me with his future 
greatness. He was very slim when he was 
a boy, short and had small features. He 



was full of fun, and, I tell you, we had 
lots of fun together." 

Captain H. S. Pratt, another old resident 
was found in bed, but said, " Grove was 
one of the finest boys I ever knew. Every- 
body respected him, even the ' old folks ' 
and you never heard of a practical joke 
on him ; he was chuck full of fun and I 
recollect he had a weakness for ringing 
the school bell when he got a chance. 
He and his brother ' Will ' used to have 
a long rope attached to the hammer of 
the bell and the way they used to make 
that bell ring after dark was a caution.'' 

There is a warm feeling towards the 
Cleveland family on the part of all who 
remember them. 

As a Iiawyer. 

Four years in the office of Rogers, 
Bowen & Rogers as a student equipped 
him with sufficient elementary knowledge 
and experience to become managing clerk 
at the end of that time. And so four years 
more pass. It is interesting to know 
exactly what kind of character he had 
now made for himself and how he was re- 
garded by his associates. It is not difficult 
to ascertain this with reasonable accuracy, 
seeing that most of those associates are 
alive and accessible and speak with 
noticeable candor and unanimity. 

Said one of them to the writer : " Grover 
won our admiration by his three traits of 
indomitable industry, unpretentious cour- 
age and unswerving honesty. I never 
saw a more thorough man at anything he 
undertook. Whatever the subject was, he 
wa . reticent until he had mastered all its 
bearings and made up his own mind — 
and then nothing could swerve him from 
his conviction. It was this quality of in- 
tellectual integrity more than anything 
else perhaps that made him afterwards 
listened to and respected when more bril- 
liant men who were opposed to him were 
applauded and forgotten. 

Adiiilsslou to tlie Bar. 

In 1859, ^\'licn he was in his twenty- 
second year, he had completed his legal 
studies, passed the necessary examina- 
tion, and was admitted to the bar. 

After being admitted to the bar he en- 
gaged in practice, and despite the many 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



1. 



obstacles that confront a young lawyer, 
and the almost certain vexatious delay in 
waiting for clients, he soon obtained con- 
siderable practice. He had no influential 
family name to entice clients to the office, 
no powerful relatives to give him substan- 
tial support, and every lawyer who reads 
this will appreciate the position of the 
young man of humble name, without 
means, and unknown to the general pub- 
lic, first entering upon his professional 
career. Old and established names and 
firms, whose reputations are well known 
to the public, are generally sought by those 
desiring legal advice and assistance to 
the exclusion of those just entering the 
profession. And so Grover Cleveland found 
it, as day after day he tendered his ser- 
vices to a people almost without recogni- 
tion. But he did not become discouraged, 
and succumb to what some would con- 
sider adverse fate, but stuck persistently to 
his calling, serving the few who came 
with devotion and ability until his reputa- 
tion as a lawyer widened, bringing with 
it an increase of patronage. Fortu- 
nately for him he was entrusted with some 
important cases, which he conducted so 
successfully that his fellow members of the 
bar recognized him as one destined to rise 
in the legal profession. At the end of 
three years he had acquired a fair practice 
and a good standing at the bar, and he 
was looked upon with marked favor by his 
fellow citizens. 

Tlie First Step Into Public Life. 

In 1S63 the question of who should be 
appointed Assistant District- Attorney for 
the county of Erie was warmly discussed 
by the young lawyers in Messrs. Rogers & 
Bowen's office. There were several that 
were both eligible and anxious, but it does 
not appear that young Cleveland ad- 
vanced his own claims. Indeed, it is a 
fact that after the matter had been pretty 
well canvassed, they all agreed that he 
was the person who ought to have it, and 
they urged him to accept it. This simple 
incident speaks volumes for the already 
developed character of the young man. 
He was appointed, and from that moment 
his public record began. During the three 
years that he was in the District-Attorney's 
office, the great bulk of its duties fell upon 



his shoulders, and then it w.i.-) that his 
enormous vital strength and tireless in- 
dustry made themselves felt. One may 
say now that it is well perhaps that the 
District -Attorney himself was rather dis- 
posed to let youth and vigor shoulder the 
great part of the responsibility. It was 
just the training that young Cleveland 
needed, and he went into it with all the 
zeal of youthful aspirations. 

Cleveland Drafted. 

It was during the performance of the 
duties of this office, and at a time when a 
large number of important cases with 
which he alone was thorouglily familiar 
were demanding his attention, that he was 
drafted. There was no question at all of 
what his duty was. He promptly supplied 
a substitute. So well and faithfully had 
he conducted the affairs of the county that 
at the end of three years he was nomi- 
nated by the Democrats for the District- 
Attorneyship. Here, again, it is an un- 
disputable fact that he did not solicit the 
nomination, hesitated to accept it, and did 
not turn his hand over to secure his elec- 
tion. It is said in Buffalo that on the day 
of election he was trying a case in court, 
while his friends were electioneering for 
him on the street, and the Judge on the 
Bench, who was presumably an admirer 
of his, peremptorily adjourned the case 
and told Cleveland to go and attend to his 
interests. 

Defeated. 

In the canvass that followed he was 
beaten by the Republican candidate, Ly- 
man K. Bass, one of his very near per- 
sonal friends with whom he afterwards 
formed a law partnership. This was in 
1865. In 1866, the year following his de- 
feat, Mr. Cleveland formed a partnership 
in the law with the late Mayor I. K. Van- 
derpocl, which lasted till 1869; but on 
the election of Mr. Vanderpoel as Police 
Justice soon afterward he became a mem- 
ber of the firm of Laning, Cleveland & 
Folsom, of which the head was the late 
Senator A. P. Laning. 

The latter association, however, ended 
at the expiration of two years, owingto Mr. 
Cleveland having been nominated and 
elected in 1869 to be Sheriff of Erie 
County. 



STEPHEN GROA'ER CLEVELAND. 



As SherifT. 

The friends of Governor Cleveland 
brought out his name in connection 
with the office of Sheriff of Erie county, 
and without any effort on his part he was 
nominated by the Democratic Conven- 
tion, and elected for three years. In that 
important position he fully sustained his 
character for integrity and ability, and 
whilst performing the duties of the office, 
he earned an additional meed of public 
respect for his courageous disregard of 
partisan interests and his conscientious 
regard for the public welfare. A corres- 
pondent of the New York World gives 
the following interesting items relating to 
his official actions as Sheriff: 

Two Execnttons. 

It was as Sheriff of Erie county that the 
Governor became known in a political or 
official way, and many interesting anec- 
d )tes are told by those who remember 
those days. During his term of office as 
Sheriff, the Governor swung two men into 
eternity. The first one was the notorious 
Jack Gaffney, a reckless young Irishman, 
who kept a saloon at the corner of Was'.- 
ington and Carroll streets, almost opposite 
the Courier office. Gaffney was seated in 
a low dive on Canal street — " Ted " Swee- 
ney's — playing cards with a kindred spirit 
named Patrick Fahey. The two quar- 
relled over the stakes, and Gaffney shot 
and killed Fahey in cool blood. He was 
sentenced by the General Term in De- 
cember to hang February 7 following. 
During these two months there was the 
greatest effort made on the part of the 
reporters to find out how the condemned 
man spent his time, but the Sheriff turned 
a deaf ear to them, and not a few times 
gave them to understand that they wanted 
to know too much. He kept them out of 
the jail entirely after a while, and they 
were in sore straits. The interest in the 
case was intensified at the last from the 
fact that Governor Hoffman resjMtcd the 
condemned man for a week, and that the 
most strenuous efforts were made to get a 
commutation of sentence for the doomed 
man. Meanwhile the vigilant Sheriff 
was more rigid in his discipline than ever, 
and he even went so far as to station an 



old Dutchman outside with strict orders to 
keep reporters off the premises. This 
outside guard was used to relieve the guard 
inside Gaffney's cell, so that he was well 
posted on what was going on inside. One 
of the reporters, who now, by the way, is a 
city editor of that city, conceived the idea 
of " working " the grim German sentinel 
outside. 

How It AVorked. 

He did not try to do it all at once, but 
by a skilful working of his points he be- 
came acquainted with him as the young 
man who attended the spiritual adviser. 
By degrees he became aware that the 
grim sentinel had a weakness for beer. It 
was easy work after that, for he contrived 
to meet him every night after he was re- 
lieved and together the two talked over 
the events of the day in the jail over their 
beverage. The German was full of infor- 
mation in just the proportion that he was 
full of beer, and the facts that filled many 
a breezy column of his paper were costing 
the enterprising news ga'herer dear. 
Sheriff Cleveland was wild. He ques- 
tioned every one about the jail, but could 
get no satisfaction. At last his eye fell 
upon the sentinel and he was spotted. It 
was the night before the execution the two 
were seen together. That settled it, for in 
the morning the sentinel was gone and in 
his place was another. Gaffney swung on the 
morning of the 14th of February, 1872. 
Many citizens of the city remember the 
execution and the quickness with which 
the Governor disappeared after he had cut 
the cord. 

Tlie Secoiid E^xecatlon. 

The second execution performed by the 
Governor while Sheriff was five months 
later. The murderer was one of the most 
despicable wretches that ever deserved a 
shameful death — Patrick Morrisscy. He 
lived with his poor old mother in the 
vicinity of the old " Packet " dock, in the 
rear of what was known as the Alhambra 
Theatre. He was a thoroughly heartless 
man and was given to frequent and con- 
tinued debauches, during wliich he sub- 
mitted his dependent mother to the most 
shameful cruelty. While on one of these 
sprees he sought out his mother's hovel 
and demanded from her the few pence she 



STEPHEN G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



L 



had earned by her own exertions to buy j then regarded as a good lawycT, with a 
bread. She refused him, when he struck good practice, but he became the candi- 



her to the floor. At the time she was cut- 
ting a loaf of bread for his supper. As she 
struggled to her feet she said to him, "You 
had better kill your mother and be done 
with it." As she uttered the words he 
grasped the knife from her hands and with 
the words, " I will kill you then," buried 
it in her breast. The horror of the matri- 
cide made people of the city shudder, and 
the jury by which he was tried lost no time 
in bringing in a verdict of murder in the 
first degree. Morrissey was sentenced to 
hang on the 6th day of September. Promi- 
nent among the witnesses on that famous 
trial was Albert Haight, now a Supreme 
Court Judge. The execution took place 
on the day named in the warrant, and the 
present Governor was the executioner." 

His Habits as SlierUT. 

Whilst holding this important office, 
Grover Cleveland's habits of life seem to 
have been as simple as the general con- 
duct of the man has been — unassuming. 



date and not only helped Williams, but by 
a hundred votes he defeated his opponent, 
to the surprise of both parties. 

IIU Finauclal Start. 

The fees of the Sheriff's office were 
large and the income from it gave him 
his first financial start. He then made 
money at the law and saved something. 
His reputation is not that of a money-get- 
ter and money-saver. Had he been ambi- 
tious in this direction he could and would 
have been a rich man. 

His Return to the Uar. 

At the expiration of his official term as 
Sherififin 1873, he became a member of 
the firm of Messrs. Bass, Cleveland & 
Bissell, with Lyman K. Bass and Wilson 
S. Bissell as associates. This was a strong 
and popular firm, and commanded a large 
and lucrative practice. At the close of 
Mr. Bass's Congressional career his failing 
health induced him to seek a residence in 
Colorado, resultincr in a dissolution of 



He dwelt in a quiet boarding house, and | ^i^^ copartnership and the formation of 



when its mistress got a well-to-do son-in 
law and quit business he used to take his 
Sunday morning breakfast at the Terra- 
pin Lunch, a plain restaurant, where pro- 
bably a terrapin was never seen. Old 
Major Randall, of the Lake Shore Rail- 
road, was his intimate friend and com- 
panion. He died soon after Cleveland 
was made Governor. It was his oft-ex- 
pressed ambition to live to see "Grove,'' 



another under the name of Cleveland & 
Bissell. In December, 1881, Mr. George 
J. Sicard was admitted as a partner in the 
firm, which was then styled Cleveland, 
Bissell & Sicard, and thus continues to the 
present time. 

Legal Distinction. 

It was while thus associated that Grover 
Cleveland achieved his distinction as a 



as he called him. President. He was lawyer second to few in the western part 



made Sheriff of this county by an acci- 
dent. In fact, he never had an office that 
he was not forced into. In 1869 David Wil- 
liams, superintendent of the Lake Shore 
Railroad, wanted to run for Congress. 
This district was close and he wouldn't 



of the State for legal acumen and in- 
tellectual honesty. His jury and bench 
trials were distinguished by clear views, 
direct, simple logic and a thorough mas- 
tery of all the intricacies of the cases, and 
his invariable avoidance of extrinsic issues 



make the effort with any of the aspirants and purely technical devices secured for 
for the Sheriffalty. It was the most im- him the respect of his own profession and 
portant office to be filled and there was a | the admiration of the public. These 
bitter contest for it. The leaders got to- 1 qualities, combined with the fidelity and 
gether and decided that Cleveland must i independence of his official action while 
run to help Williams. There wasn't much in office, brought him prominently before 



chance of an election, and to all appear- 
ances his defeat seemed a foregone con- 
clusion, but they insisted that he must 
make the sacrifice for the party. He was 



the public of Buffalo when that city, un- 
able to extricate itself from a municipal 
octopus, was casting about for a stanch 
reform leader. 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Mr. Cleveland has had four or five law 
partnerships with the strong men of this 
city, and all say he was a valuable busi- 
ness companion. His career as a lawyer 
is well defined in this region and his re- 
putation well established. It seems queer 
that the general agreement has not re- 
flected itself outside of Western New 
York. Mr. Milburn, a bright young man, 
now a partner in the law firm where the 
present Governor studied, writes as follows : 

" It amuses me to hear this talk about 
Mr. Cleveland's lack of ability. He is the 
strongest character I ever knew without a 
national reputation. He is a fine lawyer. 
He is incapable of wilful wrong and no- 
thing on earth could sweep him from his 
conviction of duty. That he is thoroughly 
honest cannot be questioned and without 
being what might be called a brilliant man 
he has always been regarded as an able 
and safe one in every relation of life." 

His Staiiding at Home. 

This terse summing up of the nominee's 
position at home is simply duplicated by 
the Judges and lawyers with whom he has 
mingled. Among the laymen he seems 
to stand equally high. Republicans and 
Democrats alike speak of him as a man 
of the strongest character and highest at- 
tainments. Mr. James N. Matthews who 
edits the Express, the leading Republican 
paper of the City by the Lake, speaks forth 
this sentiment as follows : 

" I know of no Democrat better equipped 
for the position for which he has been 
named than Grover Cleveland. He is an 
able, honest and incorruptible man. He 
is self-reliant and has excellent judgment. 
I shall do all I can honestly and honor- 
ably to defeat his election, for I am earn- 
estly for Mr. Blaine. But when people 
speak of him as an obscure man it is but 
fair to say that he has long stood in the 
front rank with the very leaders of thought 
and action in this part of New York.'' 
Am mayor. 

While in private life he gave his whole 
attention to the practice of his profession, 
and kept out of the political arena until 
1881. At that period circumstances were 
shaping themselves so as to draw Mr. 
Cleveland into a wider sphere of life than 



he had yet been an actor. There was a 
popular revolt against the administration 
of the municipal affairs of the city of Buf- 
falo, and in the disquieted condition of 
affairs the old party lines were somewhat 
broken. It had been badly ruled by a 
combination or ring of Republican mana- 
gers, and many of its voters rebelled 
against an extension of this fraud and 
mismanagement. Buffalo was not a great 
city, but in the matter of municipal cor- 
ruption and combinations it could have 
given points to others with many times 
its number of people. It was ring-ridden. 
Its revenues were stolen or wasted and no 
Mayor had been found for many years 
who had at once the ability and the bold- 
ness necessary to attack these abuses. 

They Found tlxeir Man. 

To find such an individual was no easy 
task. There were many who were pro- 
fuse in their promises, but such pledges 
had been so often broken, that the people 
intended that no one should be promoted 
to the place, who could not give good 
security by means of an unsullied reputa- 
tion, and a good record. They selected 
Grover Cleveland, and seeing their oppor- 
tunity, called him out from his retirement 
from politics to be their candidate for 
Mayor of the city. Buffalo is usually Re- 
publican by from 2,000 to 5,000 majority, 
and Mr. Cleveland's election on the 
Democratic ticket by a majority of 5,000 
was simply a tribute to his personal in- 
tegrity. 

As in the Sheriffs Office, here again the 
office sought the man, and the man they 
selected proved worthy of the confidence 
they reposed in him. 

Grover Cleveland's election on a Demo- 
cratic and reform ticket in November, 
188 1, suddenly lifted him from local into 
national prominence. The incidents of 
that election and subsequent administra- 
tion are familiar throughout the country. 
The election itself was an almost unparal- 
leled triumph, seeing that it was secured 
by the largest majority ever known, thus 
demonstrating the unbounded confidence 
which the people had in the special fitness 
of their candidate to carry out the reform 
and in his unassailable integrity. 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



K 



Ills Mother's Advice. 

I 

After Grover was elected Mayor of Ikif- ^ 
falothe mother wrote him rather disap- , 
proving his entering public life. After , 
saying what her ambitions were for him 
and expressing a natural tinge of gratifi- 
cation at his election, she concluded her ; 
epistle by saying : " But now that you i 
have taken upon yourself the burthens of 
public office do right, act honestly, impar- j 
tiallyand fearlessly." The injunction was 
obeyed and his courage has won him a 
phenomenal success. 

It would appear from a close study of this 
man's conduct and general traits of char- 
acter from boyhood up, right here, where 
his early days were spent, and in Buffalo, 
where his latter life has been an open book 
to its people, that his hard struggle for a 
place in the world has ever given him su- 
preme self-reliance. He was about seven- 
teen when he left Holland Patent and 
went to New York to help teach the blind. 
He had early established the reputa- 
tion of being a nervy, manly sort of a 
young fellow, somewhat diffident, but not 
afraid to face any emergency which might 
confront him. He seems to have assumed 
more than any other member of the family 
the care of his mother and sisters. 

The Candidate of Reform. 

It is strictly true that Mayor Cleveland 
was swept into office on one of those tidal 
waves of popular protest against ring rule 
that are as restless as they are sudden. 
But it was after all a local contest, and 
one has yet to account for the national 
importance which the Buffalo election as- 
sumed and the widespread interest that 
was felt in the new champion. There is 
only one way in which to explain this. 
Mr. Cleveland had not yet attracted atten- 
tion outside of his metropolitan field. But 
there was one issue that in a sense was the 
issue of the hour everywhere, and that 
was whether it was any longer possible to 
secure by a popular election that kind of 
integrity and sagacity that would adminis- 
ter the people's affairs with the honesty 
and discretion that was necessary to good 
government. The Buffalo canvass for 
the Mayoralty defined that issue in the 
sharpest manner. The nomination of 



Grover Cleveland was avowedly and 
defiantly the gage of battle thrown down 
by reform. There were only two points 
to be determined — did the people want re- 
form ? that is did they wish their business 
conducted honestly, and would the man 
they had selected for the experiment so 
conduct it ? So vitally important were 
these two questions that vaster and in- 
tenser themes were for the moment forgot- 
ten by the country, and it turned aside 
momentarily to watch this contest in 
Buffalo. The people answered one ques- 
tion and Grover Cleveland answered the 
other. The reply in one case was with 
votes, in the other with acts. 

An Honest Slayor. 

Whatever else may have been searched 
for, it is pretty well settled that they had 
found an honest man, and, what is of 
more consequence, the honest man was 
brave enough to carry his private convic- 
tions into his public duties with no regard 
to partisanship on the one hand or the 
influence and threats of political scoun- 
drels on the other. There was no uncer- 
tain sound in his inaugural message. It 
rang clear and simple. 

"We hold,'' said he, "the money of the 
people in our hands, to be used for their 
purposes and to further their interests as 
members of the municipality, and it is 
quite apparent that, when any part of the 
funds which the taxpayers have thus in- 
trusted us are diverted to other purposes, 
or when, by design or neglect, we allow a 
greater sum to be applied to any munici- 
pal purpose that is necessary, we have, to 
that extent, violated our duty. There 
surely is no difference in his duties and 
obligations, whether a person is intrusted 
with the money of one man or many. 
And yet it sometimes appears as though 
the office-holder assumes that a different 
rule of fidelity prevails between him and 
the taxpayers than that which should 
regulate his conduct when, as an indivi- 
dual, he holds the money of his neigh- 
bor." 

The First Move. 

He passed the first few weeks of his 
term of office in attentively studying the 
details of every department of the city 



16 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



administration. His previous experiences 
as Assistant District Attorney and as 
Sheriff taught him what to look for and 
where to look for it. He found the ordi- 
nary municipal abuses, sanctioned by long 
habit and immunity, flourishing as usual. 
One morning he surprised the city by 
issuing an order that all the officials should 
keep strict business hours, like the em- 
ployes of private firms. Before the office- 
holders had recovered from this shock, 
he began a series of vetoes which equally 
astonished the Common Council. This 
Board had a Republican majority, and 
attempted to override the vetoes; but 
Mayor Cleveland's terse, logical, business- 
like messages were published, and public 
opinion was too strong for the opposition 
Councilmen. They attempted to entrap 
him by passing a resolution apportioning 
for the celebration of Decoration Day a 
sum of money reserved by the charter 
for other purposes, believing that Mayor 
Cleveland would not dare to interfere 
with Decoration Day, or that he would 
become unpopular if he did. Down came 
the veto as promptly as ever, and in his 
message the Mayor so thoroughly exposed 
the trick, that his popularity, instead of 
diminishing, rapidly increased. 

His Popularity. 

His administration of the office fully jus- 
tified the partiality of the friends who in- 
sisted upon nominating him, and vindi- 
cated the good judgment of the people 
who so powerfully insisted upon electing 
him. It is not too much to say that in the 
first half of the first year he almost revolu- 
tionized Buffalo's municipal government. 
With no more power than his predecessors 
had, he inaugurated reforms before only 
hoped for, and corrected abuses which had 
become almost venerable. Accounts against 
the city were thoroughly audited, since he 
pointed out what is required of an officer 
whose duty is to audit. The wholesome 
rule of competition was adopted for im- 
portant work that used to be given out in 
the form of a political patronage. So far as 
one man can see, he saw to it that the city 
got the full value for its money. He knew 
his power and was not afraid to use it. He 
conquered the most corrupt combinations 



ever formed in the council and rebuked 
the conspirators in terms that brought the 
blush of shame to the most brazen of Al- 
dermen. His veto messages have become 
municipal classics. 

Opposed to All Jobs. 

His veto of the street-cleaning job is re- 
garded as the real beginning of his public 
career. 

An Kxample of His AVorlc. 

When Mr. Cleveland entered upon the 
office of Mayor the Common Council had 
determined to build an intercepting sewer 
and had advertised for proposals. The 
lowest bid for the work was $1,568,000. 
Mr. Cleveland thought the sewer could be 
built cheaper if a committee of citizens had 
charge of its construction. Through his 
efforts, though opposed in the Council, a 
law was passed allowing a commission to 
be appointed. This commission, com- 
posed of representative citizens, conferred 
with the most eminent sewer engineers of 
the country, and on their advice have 
adopted a plan that will meet all require- 
ments at an estimated cost of $764,370. 
The plan has been accepted by the Council 
and the sewer will be constructed accord- 
ingly. The saving to the , city on this 
item alone is $803,630. 

On June 19 the Council voted to award the 
street-cleaning contract for five years, to 
George Talbot at his bid of $422, 500. There 
were several lower bids, by thoroughly re- 
sponsible men. Mayor Cleveland vetoed the 
award, severely condemning the attempted 
waste of the people's money. The con- 
tract was subsequently awarded to the 
lowest bidder — Capt. Thomas Maytham — 
at $313,500. The saving to the city by 
this veto was $109,000. The amount 
saved on these two items during the first 
six months of Mayor Cleveland's adminis- 
tration was nearly $1,000,000. In many 
other cases Mayor Cleveland had inter- 
posed the veto power to prevent misuse of 
public funds. He has refused to permit 
expenditure for livery for the Street Com- 
missioner and other city officials, and has 
brought about order and economy in all 
departments of the city government. 
Many thousands of dollars have been 
saved in this way. 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEV]:lAM». 



17 



" This," said the veto, " is a time 
for plain speech, and my objection to 
your action shall be plainly stated. I 
regard it as the culmination of a most 
barefaced, impudent and shameless scheme 
to betray the interests of the people and 
to worse than squander the public money. 
We are fast gaininj,' positions in the grades 
of public stewardship. There is no middle 
ground. Those who are not for the peo- 
ple, either in or out of your honorable 
body, are against them and should be 
treated accordingly." 

It would take a good many columns to 
reproduce here all those simple and 
straightforward messages of his which, 
coming from Buffalo and dealing only 
with local matters, have nevertheless been 
reproduced all over the country by the 
press and made the political text and the 
new hope of the party of reform. 

His Name Grew 'wltli the People. 

These acts brought him into promi- 
nence and started him towards his present 
place. It was on account of his fearless 
fight in spite of large odds against public 
plunderers that he was pushed and elected 
Governor by these people. It is because 
they know him to be perfectly honest and 
incorruptible that to-day all men, regard- 
less of differing political affiliations, are 
rejoicing over his successes. Though his 
law office and his bachelor quarters over 
there are silent, both are saluted as the 
abode of a man who has done well on a 
small beginning. If the record of his life 
is soon told, his own people point to it 
with pride and give bond to the country 
that he will do even better in the future. 
This is the tenor of all the speeches and 
the talk of the people. 

Grover Cleveland, elevated to this posi- 
tion by a majority of 5,000, entered cheer- 
fully and earnestly upon his work. He i 
had not sought the position. He had 
not been an active political worker in 
the accepted sense of that word. He 
knew nothing about the manipulation of 
caucuses and conventions. He was con- 
nected with no halls or other organizations 
for extorting public plunder from the offi- 
cers chosen by the popular voice, an^ his 
political experience had been confined to 
a single term in the comparatively unim- 



portant office of Sheriff of the county 
eleven years before. 

The SixTct of HU Snccesa. 

But he succeeded where other men had 
faltered or failed. And what was the secret 
of this success ? It was simply due to the 
fact that the day he became Mayor of Buf- 
falo in name he became also Mayor in fact. 
He did not enter upon its duties to regibter 
the edicts of a party caucus or to obey the 
orders of party bosses. He looked upon 
the office of Mayor as the business agency 
of the people of his city. He attacked 
corrupt combinations in a manner which 
soon convinced the trading members of a 
City Council that he understood each item 
of a bill and that he had determined to re- 
ject all corrupt or unnecessary expendi- 
ture and administer the city business as 
faithfully as if it were his own. He used 
the veto power with intelligent persistence. 
Schemes conferring special privileges or 
making unwise, extravagant or sentimen- 
tal appropriations or for unnecessarily in- 
creasing offices were relentlessly slaugh- 
tered. The people of Buffalo, accustomed 
to the waste and profligacy incident to 
municipal government, discovered that 
they had at last found a man who looked 
upon office as something more than a 
mere play-spell or an opportunity to re- 
ward his friends, and they noised his fame 
abroad. 

His Retirement from tl>.e Office. 

He went out of the office with more 
friends and stronger friends than he had 
when he went in, and he had also made 
some enemies, but they were of that kind 
which are more to a man's honor than to 
his discredit. In the fifteen years that he 
had been practicing law he had come to 
have a mind thoroughly disciplined and 
thoroughly well-adapted to the exigencies 
that might arise in the administration of 
the affairs of a large city. He was his 
own city counsellor. What he said he 
had a reason for in his own mind, thus 
giving it an individuality, concreteness 
and strength, whether in the shape of veto, 
message, or simple opinion, that may not 
always be found in those who hold like 
positions. Here < Gov. Cleveland first 
showed the real metal there was in him. 



18 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Here he met the first trials of an adminis- 
trative office, and first came in contact 
with the temptations that arise ft-om party 
leanings and party appeals. He never 
flinched, never faltered once — never said 
an ambiguous word or performed an 
ambiguous act, but kept straight along in 
the path of strict and conscientious duty. 
When his administration had closed, the 
people of Buftalo said, "Well done, thou 
good and faithful servant." Next came 
the people of the whole State of New York 
and said, " Come up higher." There had 
been no display about his holding the 
office of Mayor of Buffalo. There had 
been no electioneenng juggling about his 
candidacy for it, and after he received it, 
no one could point to a single act of self- 
glorification or self-advancement. He was 
the plain, honest, faithful, industrious man 
that he had been for fifteen years before 
in Buffalo — a good and true man put in a 
place of trust and found genuine. 

Through all his term of office he watched 
the interests of the people with ceaseless 
vigilance, promptly approving what he 
thought was right, and disapproving what 
he believed to be wrong ; and it is a fact 
worthy of record, that while Mayor of 
Buffalo, not an enactment was passed over 
his veto. 

A "Voice from tile Press. 

The New York Su7i, speaking of him 
editorially, said : 

" Grover Cleveland, now Mayor of Buf- 
falo and the Democratic candidate for 
Governor of New York, is a man worthy 
of the highest public confidence. No one 
can study the record of his career since he 
has held office in Buffalo without being 
convinced that he posesses those highest 
qualities of a public man, sound principles 
of administrative duty, luminous intelli- 
gence and courage to do what is right no 
matter who may be pleased or displeased 
thereby." 

(Here follow extracts from Mayor 
Cleveland's inaugural.) 

" We wish," said the Sun, " that the ut- 
terance we have now quoted might be 
read and pondered by every citizen of the 
State. No matter what political faith a 
man may have been educated in, no mat- 
ter by what party name he may now pre- 



fer to be called, no one can consider such 
principles and sentiments as these de- 
clared by Mr. Cleveland without feeling 
that such a public officer is worthy of the 
confidence and support of the whole peo- 
ple, and that the interests of the Empire 
State will be entirely safe in his hands." 

As Governor. 

The year 1882, brought with it the Gu- 
bernatorial Campaign in New York. The 
Republican Party in order to give prestige 
to its ticket placed Mr. Folger, President 
Arthur's Secretary of the Treasury, in 
nomination, Mr. Folger was personally 
a good and strong man.but as he had been 
selected by the machine ring of his party, 
and in case of his election would have to 
obey its behests and carry out its man- 
dates, his nomination did not give uni- 
versal satisfaction within the party. The 
cry of reform that had cleared the Augean 
stables at Buffalo, rang out through the 
State, and very naturally the Democratic 
party thought that he who had worked 
such healthful changes in a city, was a 
proper and safe man to put at the head 
of the great Commonwealth. His sup- 
porters made such a showing and so suc- 
cessfully convinced the Democrats of the 
State of their earnestness and the worth 
of their man that Mr. Cleveland was nom- 
inated for Governor over well-known and 
active competitors. Hisjeputation, merely 
local as it had been, was still found quite 
large enough to spread out over a State. 

A Remarkable Campaign. 

The campaign was remarkable even for 
New York, with its astonishing and kaleid- 
oscopic changes in politics. Many of the 
leading Republicans of the State ranged 
themselves on the side of Cleveland's 
candidacy. The independent element of 
all parties came to his support ; factions 
in his own party disappeared, and the re- 
sulting majority of one hundred and 
ninety-two thousand, the largest evergiven 
a candidate for Governor in any State in 
the Union carried Mr. Cleveland into the 
Governorship. Thus the plain, plodding 
citizen of Buffalo, whose capacity was 
neither generally known nor suspected out- 
side the limits of his community, became 
one of the leading men of the country in 



STEPFIEN GROVKK CLKVKLAND. 



19 



less than a year after he had emerged 
from his hiding place. 

How tlie Nunilnatioii wnn Ilt-crlvcd. 

On the morning after the nomination of 
Grover Cleveland the Buffalo Express, 
the leading Republican newspaper in the 
interior of the State, announced that it would 
support him instead of the Republican can- 
didate. Within a week many other leading 
Republican organs and politicians took the 
same bold ground. Republicans-so divided 
upon almost every other subject, as Dis- 
trict Attorney Woodford and George Wil- 
liam Curtis — agreed in repudiating the Fol- 
ger and forgery ticket. Thousands of Re- 
publicans, led by the Young Men's Club 
of Brooklyn, voted for Grover Cleveland, 
and thousands more refrained from voting 
for any Governor. He swept the State 
like a tidal wave, carrying all before him. 

It was not his party alone that had 
placed him in the Executive Chair, but 
the people of the Commonwealth had 
joined hands with the Democracy to pu- 
rify the government. So the reform May- 
or of Buffalo became the reform Governor 
of New York. He was taken because of 
his record. He had been judged by his 
works. He promised nothing except to 
do his whole duty in the work of reform. 

He Is Inaugurated Governor. 

Mr. Cleveland went to Albany just be- 
fore the beginning of 1883 to assume the 
office of Governor in the most quiet and 
unostentatious manner. On the day of 
his inauguration he walked to the Capitol 
and avoided all appearance of parade. 
His address evinced a deep sense of the 
responsibility which had come upon him, 
and a distrust of his ability to meet it 
fully, coupled with an evident determina- 
tion to do his best. He was obliged at 
once to address the Legislature and to 
face the requirements of its action. One 
of his first acts was to appoint the Rail- 
road Commissioners provided for by the 
law passed the year before. The admi- 
rable character of his selections showed 
his judgment of men and their fitness 
for special duties. The same characteris- 
tic was displayed as well as a conscientious 
disregard of mere partisans considerations 
in the important appointments which came 



later in the session. In naming Mr. Sliana- 
han as Superintendent of I'ublic Works, 
Mr. Perry as Commissioner to the new 
Capitol, and Mr. Andrews as Superinten- 
dent to the Capitol Buildings he disregard- 
ed political influence and looked to fit- 
ness alone. In advancing Assistant Su- 
perintendent McCall to the head of the 
Insurance Department he exemplified the 
principle of civil service reform to which 
he was fully committed. In his letter of 
acceptance he had said : 

An Kxpogttlon of FactH. 

" Subordinates in public place should 
be selected and retained for their efficiency 
and not because they may be used to ac- 
complish partisan ends. The people have 
a right to demand here, as in cases of pri- 
vate employment, that their money be 
paid to those who will render the best ser- 
vice in return, and that the appointment 
to and tenure of such places should de- 
pend upon ability and merit. If the clerks 
and assistants in public departments were 
paid the same compensation and required 
to do the same amount of work as those 
employed in prudently conducted private 
establishments, the anxiety to hold these 
public places would be much diminished 
and the cause of civil service reform ma- 
terially aided. The expenditure of money 
to influence the action of the people at the 
polls or to secure legislation is calculated 
to excite the gravest concern. W^hen this 
pernicious agency is successfully employed 
a representative form of government be- 
comes a sham, and laws passed under its 
baleful influence cease to protect, but are 
made the means by which the rights of the 
people are sacrificed and the public Trea- 
sury despoiled. It is useless and foolish 
to shut our eyes to the fact that this evil 
exists among us, and the party which leads 
in an honest effort to return to better and 
purer methods will receive the confidence 
of our citizens and secure their support. 
It is willful blindness not to see that the 
people care but little for party obligations 
: when they are invoked to countenance and 
i sustain fraudulent and corrupt practices. 
And it is well for our country and for the 
[ purification of politics that the people, at 
I times fully roused to danger, remind their 
' leaders that party methods should be 



20 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



something more than a means used to an- 
swer the purposes of those who profit by 
political occupation." 

A Sj'uopsis of His Policy. 

He not only acted in conformity with 
these sentiments in making appointments 
but promptly approved the civil service 
reform bills which public sentiment and 
the persistency of an earnest minority 
compelled the Legislature to pass, follow- 
ing it at once with a most admirable ap- 
pointment of Commissioners. He has 
aided and sustained the commission at 
all points in a most unreserved and hon- 
est manner. In dealing with the acts of 
the Legislature generally, Governor Cleve- 
land early developed his peculiarity of 
studying carefully every measure laid be- 
fore him, not only with a view to judging 
of its effect and bearing upon public in- 
terests, but to ascertain that it was con- 
sistent with the existing laws and free in 
its form from such defects as would pro- 
duce trouble in its operation. He adopted 
a practice quite unusual of sending back 
measures whose purpose he approved but 
which were defective in form, to have them 
corrected. In his vetoes, which were 
quite nuriierous, he displayed the utmost 
candor and a complete disregard of the 
question whether certain persons or in- 
terests would not be aggrieved by the 
failure of measures which he believed were 
not demanded by the wider interests of 
the public. It was during this session of 
1883 that Mr. Cleveland made his con- 
scientious and courageous veto of the Five 
Cent Fare bill in the face of a very strong 
public sentiment, but in accordance with 
what he was convinced was his duty as an 
interpreter of the obligations of the State. 
At the close of the session he came for 
the first time in direct collision with the 
power of Tammany. He had made a 
number of appointments chiefly affecting 
New York City, among them Commis- 
sioners of Emigration, Quarantine Com- 
missioners, and Harbor Masters. These 
were not pleasing to Tammany, and were 
attacked especially by Senator Grady. 
The Governor sent a communication to 
the Senate urging the importance of dis- 
posing of these appointments before the 
session closed, and reflecting indirectly on 



the motives of the opposition. This drew 
from Grady a bitter tirade against the 
Governor, and the Legislature adjourned 
without a confirmation of the appoint- 
ments. As the political canvass of last 
year came on Gov. Cleveland wrote a 
personal letter to John Kelly conveying to 
the Tammany "boss" his wish that Grady 
should not be sent again to the Senate, 
recognizing the unquestionable fact that 
Kelly was the dispenser of nominations in 
Tammany Hall, and placing his objection 
not only on the ground of his own comfort 
but of the public interest. These incidents 
sufficiently indicate the occasion of Tam- 
many's hostility to the Governor and of 
Grady's special opposition to him. 

The following is a copy of his letter to 
Mr. Kelly : 

Executive Chamber, 

Albany, Oct. 20, 1883. 
Hon. John Kelly : — 

My Dear Sir — It is not without hesi- 
tation that I write this. I have determined 
to do so, however, because I see no rea- 
son why I should not be entirely frank 
with you. I am anxious that Mr. Grady 
should not be returned to the Senate. I 
do not wish to conceal the fact that my 
personal comfort and satisfaction are in- 
volved in this matter. But I know that 
good legislation, based upon a pure de- 
sire to promote the interests of the people, 
and the improvement of legislative me- 
thods are also deeply involved. I forbear 
to write in detail of the other considera- 
tions having relation to the welfare of the 
party and the approval to be secured by a 
change for the better in the character of 
its representatives. These things will oc- 
cur to you without suggestion from me. 
Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

This letter will explain Mr. Grady's 
antagonism to Governor Cleveland since 
that period. 

His Uiiswer-i'liig Policy. 

All through his career as Governor of 
the principal State of the Union there is 
observable at every turn the same simple, 
cardinal principles that preserved and hon- 
ored his youth and that gave him a firm 
foothold among his fellow citizens while 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



21 



yet but a humble attorney. Bill after bill 
sent him by the Legislature was vetoed, 
but each veto had with it a reason, and 
every reason was so convincing that not 
one rejected bill passed over his protest. 
He made a conscientious examination of 
every bill — an examination accompanied 
by a sharp legal insight — and as he had 
been his own city counsellor while Mayor 
of liulTalo, so he is his own Attorney- 
General while Governor of the State. In 
all his work he has gone straight ahead 
regardless of the bearing his conduct 
might have on his own political fortunes, 
apparently bound only to the discharge of 
a duty he owes to the whole people. He 
vetoed the Five-Cent-Fare Bill, about 
which there has been such an outcry, 
when he must have known that his act 
would be used against him in any future 
political undertaking. He did it for con- 
stitutional reasons. He stated them 
plainly, and thus saved the State the 
expense of going to the courts with the 
prospect of being defeated in the end. 
Nobody has ever attacked him on the 
ground that the position he took was 
unsound, nor that he failed to do a sworn 
duty. He vetoed a general street railroad 
bill because it was not drawn with suffi- 
cient care, but when it had been corrected 
he signed it. He vetoed a bill removing 
some of the restrictions against investing 
in certain lines of dangerous securities on 
the part of savings banks because he be- 
lieved the deposits of innocent people 
might be endangered. He disapproved 
of three of the New York City Reform bills 
and gave satisfactory reasons therefor. 
The remainder of these bills he signed, 
but did not sign some of them till they 
had been returned and properly drawn. 
In these reform bills which he signed 
there are provisions that will save to New 
York City not less than $150,000 per an- 
num. Thus his friends point to actual 
results when they call him the reform 
Governor. Whether in signing bills or in 
rejecting them, he has shown a diligence, 
a patience and competent inquiry which 
have elicited the warmest esteem of the 
fair-minded people of the State. They 
look upon him as a strong, determined 
man in whom there is full security. 



The Flve-Ceut Car Fare mil. 

His veto of the Five-Cent bill has been 
widely complained of, but no one has 
intimated that he was not governed by a 
strict sense of justice to all the interests 
involved. 

The following letter from President 
! White, of Cornell University, is one of 
several that speak of that veto with com- 
mendation : 

Ithaca, N. Y., April 20, 1883. 

Returning to Ithaca after lyi absence of 
ten days I find your kind letter and in- 
closure. I will say to you frankly that I 
am coming to have a very great respect 
and admiration for our new Governor. 
His course on the Elevated Railroad bill 
first commended him to me. Personally, 
I should have been glad to have seen 
that company receive a slap. But the 
method of administering it seemed to me 
very insidious and even dangerous, and 
glad was I to see that the Governor rose 
above all the noise and clap-trap which 
was raised about the question, went to 
the fundamental point of the matter and 
vetoed the bill. I think his course at 
that time gained the respect of every 
thinking man in the State. As to his veto 
of the Buffalo Fire Department bill, that, 
I think, begins to lift him into national 
prominence, and when you add such a 
significant sign as his reported dealing 
with the Palmyra statesmen, he really 
begins to "loom up." It is refreshing to 
find that a spark of the old Jeffersonian 
statesmanship is really alive among us. 
Party allegiance in this State and else- 
where among thinking men is, I think, 
growing decidedly loose. Great numbers 
of men arc quietly on the lookout for 
men who can grapple, not with the old 
abolition question or the civil war question, 
but with the question of a real reform in 
our civil service — the question of the 
present and future. No man and no 
party can be built up or kept up on clap- 
trap, but on real determination and power 
to move in this new line parties and men 
can alone be brought to supremacy. 

Thus far every party which has arrived 
at power and kept it for any length of time 
has represented some real principle, 
something which commended itself if not 



22 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



to a majority at least to an aggressive 
body of voters, even though that body be 
small. The present time is no exception 
to this rule. 

Congratulating you on the record of the 
Governor thus far, and, in common with 
vast numbers of our fellow-citizens, long- 
ing that he may be the man whom we are 
all looking for, I remain, very truly yours, 

And. D. White. 
Henry A. Richmond, Esq., Buffalo, N. Y. 

P. S. — I ought to have included in the 
Governor's titles to respect his recent 
appointment to the Capitol Commission, 
which, from all accounts is exceedingly 
honorable to him, not only as regards the 
man he did appoint, but the man he did 
not appoint, and, also, since writing the 
above, his appointment to the Insurance 
Department. A. D. W. 

As Governor he has carried out the sim- 
ple business policy he had inaugurated and 
adhered to as Mayor. His first message 
was rather halting. It was evident that he 
scarcely felt sure of his ground. The in- 
terests of the State of New York were 
large and extensive, and as he had never 
been called upon to make a special study 
of them the easy and nonchalant dogma- 
tism so common to Gubernatorial messages 
was lacking. 

His Executive Ability. 

But when it came to action he made no 
serious misstep. He watched the course 
of the Legislature closely and pruned its 
work mercilessly. He exercised the veto 
power with wise discretion and was espe- 
cially intelligent and watchful in all legisla- 
tion relating to municipal affairs. Before 
the session was half over he had secured 
the ill-will of the New York city managers 
in his own party, but had won in return 
the support of the independent and reform 
element, regardless of political opinion. 
Every detail of government has been 
closely studied and watched. His nomi- 
nations have been quite uniformly credita- 
ble, because he has rejected the services 
of insignificant politicians. He has dealt 
openly and above board. 

In the matter of pardons his policy of 
publishing a detailed statement of hisi-ea- 
sons made the impression that he was ex- 
ercising this power in an unusual degree. 



But on comparison with the records of 
previous Governors for the same periods it 
was found that he had released fewer 
convicts than any of his recent predeces- 
sors. 

Muucipal Reform. 

In his prompt approval of the bills for 
reforming and reorganizing the city service 
in New York he has shown his compre- 
hension of the needs of municipal govern- 
ment and made himself effectively the 
leader of the movement. The moral effect 
of his prompt action on the one bill taking 
from the despotic and trading Board of 
Aldermen the confirming power and throw- 
ing the responsibility entirely upon the 
Mayor enabled the reform element in the 
Legislature to continue their work with 
the assurance that every necessary and 
reasonable aid would be given them by the 
Executive. 

During the late session of the Legislature 
the Governor's attitude throughout was 
one of sympathy and support for theeffort 
to reform the methods of municipal ad- 
ministration in this city, and to extend the 
operation of the State civil service laws. 
It was known from the start that he was 
in sympathy with the work in which Sen- 
ators Gibbs and Robb and Assemblymen 
Roosevelt and others took a leading part, 
though the opposition to it was chiefly in 
his own party. He made valuable sugges- 
tions, met every one with frankness, and 
gave his approval without hesitation to all 
the reform bills that were placed before 
him in reasonably perfect shape or in 
time to have defects remedied. He con- 
tinued the practice of studying every meas- 
ure carefully and disapproving, without 
thinking of personal or political effect, 
those which in his judgment ought not to 
become laws. He scrutinized appropria- 
tions with special care, and his excision of 
items from the supply bill showed his dis- 
criminating economy and his relentless 
keeness in scenting out jobs. 

His ludustry. 

Mr. Cleveland's character as Governor 
has been one of unremitting hard work 
and faithful devotion to public duty. He 
has shirked nothing, proved unecjual to 
no requirement, and never lost sight of 
the rule of action which he laid down as 



STEPHEN G ROVER C1.EVEJ>AND. 



23 



Mayor of Buffalo in a communication to 
the Common Council " It seems to me," 
he said, "that a successful and faithful 
ministration of the Government of a city 
may be accomplished by constantly bear- 
ing in mind that we are the trustees and 
agents of our fellow-citizens, holding their 
funds in sacred trust to be expended for 
their benefit, that we should at all times 
be prepared to render an honest account 
to them touching the manner of its expen- 
diture, and that the affairs of the city 
should be conducted as far as possible up- 
on the same principles as a good business 
man manages his private concerns." 

'Wliat His Admlulstratton SIiotts. 

The administration of Grover Cleveland 
as Governor has been highly satisfactory 
and fully in accordance with his views 
expressed in his letter accepting the nom- 
ination. All the appointments to office 
which he has made bear the stamp of that 
high, conscientious spirit which has always 
actuated him. His industry is beyond all 
question. Never has there been a man 
less approachable by politicians in quest of 
fat offices. His moral courage is great, 
as witness his veto of the Five Cent Fare 
bill, which he treated regardless of the 
shower of abuse which he knew to be 
coming. Many of his other vetoes have 
been smgularly objectionable to New York 
ward politicians. Many of the bills he 
has signed have had a like effect. For 
instance, those curtailing the emoluments 
of the County Clerk, of the Register and 
of the Sheriff. If he is elected President 
he may be expected to follow in the path 
of political rectitude which has always dis- 
tinguished him, and he will be opposed by 
none but the schemers and tricksters 
of his party. 

Wtiy It was lie didn't " Go for a Soldier." 

There is nothing discreditable about 
Gov. Cleveland's war record. At the 
opening of the war it was a question 
whether he should go to the army or not. 
He was entirely ready and willing to do so, 
but his father had died some time before 
and left a widowed mother, poor and with 
a large family, several of whom were 
daughters. Provision had to be made for 
their support, and yet the family felt obliged 



to contribute in some way to the cause of 
the Union. A sort of family council was 
held. Grover had just been admitted to 
the bar at Buffalo and was beginning to 
have some practice. Two younger broth- 
ers volunteered to go to the army and leave 
Grover at home to support their mother 
and sisters. This was agreed to all 
around, and the two brothers went to the 
front and served with honor till the war 
closed. When peace was^ declared they 
returned home, but were soon afterward 
lost at sea. Grover Cleveland was the first 
man drafted in Buffalo. He promptly 
supplied a substitute, who made a faithful 
soldier. Gov. Cleveland has always been 
a friend of the soldiers, and was what was 
called a War Democrat. While Mayor of 
Buffalo there was an attempt to make cap- 
ital out of the fact that he had vetoed a 
bill appropriating public money for a sol- 
diers' monument in the city. When the 
facts came out it proved to be true that he 
i did it on the ground that the City Council 
had no right to appropriate public funds 
for a purpose of that kind, but he suggested 
that the result might be reached by a pub- 
lic subscription. The hint was adopted, a 
subscription paper was taken around and 
the first and largest subscriber was Mayor 
Cleveland. Since he has been Governor 
of New York he has approved a bill pro- 
viding that the heads of the various State 
departments shall, when making appoint- 
ments, give preference to honorably dis- 
charged soldiers and sailors of the United 
States. Some irritation was created last 
winter because of his vetoing a bill in re- 
ference to Grand Army badges. In the 
bill was a provision making the wearing of 
such a badge by any person not entitled 
to do so by reason of membership of some 
post a crime, punishable by imprisonment. 
The Governor thought the penalty unne- 
cessarily severe. It was also logically ob- 
served that the child of a veteran might be 
imprisoned for wearing his father's badge. 

The Governor's Veto of tlie Five Cent 
Fare Bill. 

One of the charges against the adminis- 
tration of Governor Cleveland is his veto 
of the above bill, and the facts in the case 
have been so perverted in order to excite the 
prejudices of the poor working men against 



24 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



him, as a friend and protector of grasping 
monopolies as against labor, that a plain 
statement of the case is here presented. 
When those outside of the corporations in- 
terested, shall have read this, and become 
possessed of the true merits of the case, 
there can be little doubt that he will be 
sustained by every unprejudiced and 
honorable voter. 

The act is commonly known as the 
" Five Cent Fare bill,'' and forbade the 
collection or charge of more than five 
cents on any railroad in New York City 
for conveying a person any distance be- 
tween the Battery and Harlem. At the 
time of its presentation the Governor was 
so impressed with its importance and the 
public interest which it excited that he ex- 
ercised the greatest care and most diligent 
inquiry into the measure before rendering 
his decision. 

His Reason. 

" I am convinced," he said, "that in all 
cases the share which falls upon the Ex- 
ecutive regarding the legislation of the 
State should be in no manner evaded, but 
fairly met by the expression of his care- 
fully guarded and unbiassed judgment. 
In his conclusion he may err, but if he has 
fairly and honestly acted, he has performed 
his duty and given to the people of the 
State his best endeavor." 

The Governor goes on to explain in 
justification of his veto that the Elevated 
Roads of the city are now under the sole 
operation of the Manhattan Elevated Rail- 
1 oad as lessee of the New York Elevated 
Railroad and the Metropolitan. He cites 
the provisions laid down in the act of 
.'\pril 20, 1866, authorizing the construction 
of the West Side road, which specified 
that no more than five cents per mile 
might be charged for fare of one person. 
That road has since gone into the hands 
of the New York Elevated Railroad Com- 
pany, and a law was passed on June 17. 
1875, transferring the rights of the road to 
the new company, and further providing 
that it be "hereby confirmed in the pos- 
session and enjoyments of said rights, 
powers, privileges and franchises as fully 
and at large as they were so granted in 
and by the acts to the West Sic^e and 
Yonkers Patent Railway Company. The 



Court of Appeals, referring to the law, 
said : 

" The effect of this act was to secure to 
the Elevated Railroad Company all the 
rights, privileges and franchises of the 
West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway 
Company under the purchase by and 
transfer to it." 

By another section of this act the New 
York Elevated Railroad was empowered 
to receive from each passenger a sum not 
exceeding 10 cents a mile for five miles or 
less. 

TUe Rapid Transit Act. 

In 1875 another act was passed, com- 
monly known as the Rapid Transit Act, 
providing for the appointment of a Board 
of Commissioners, whose office embraced 
authority to fix and determine the time 
within which the new elevated roads should 
be completed, and to formulate a scale of 
maximum rates to be charged as fare on 
such roads, and regulate the hours during 
which special trains should be run at re- 
duced rates of fare. In accordance with 
the act the Mayor of this city appointed a 
Board of Commissioners, who expended a 
great deal of time and labor in the con- 
sideration of the proposed roads. They 
even fixed and determined specifically the 
route of the new New York Elevated Rail- 
road, and prescribed with the utmost par- 
ticularity the manner and form of its con- 
struction and operation. A deliberate 
and specific agreement was made with the 
company that it should charge as fares 
upon its cars, at such hours as were not 
embraced within the time specified for the 
running of " commission" trains, at a rate 
" for all distances under five miles not to 
exceed 10 cents, and not to 'exceed two 
cents for each mile or fraction of a mile 
over five miles, until the fare should 
amount to not exceeding 1 5 cents for a 
through passenger from and between the 
Battery and intersection of Third avenue 
and One Hundred and Twenty-ninth 
street, and from and between the Battery 
and High Bridge not to exceed 17 cents 
for a through passenger, and that for the 
entire distance from and between the Bat- 
tery and Fifty-ninth street the fare shall 
not exceed 10 cents per passenger." 

A further agreement^ was made that 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



25 



commission trains should I)c run during 
certain hours of the morning and evening, 
upon which — for the benefit of working- 
men and the laboring classes — the fare 
should not exceed five cents for convey- 
ance between the Battery and Fifty-ninth 
street, nor should exceed seven cents for 
a through passenger from the Battery to 
Harlem during those hours. The railroad 
company further agreed that when the net 
income of the proposed road, after all ex- 
penditures, taxes and charges are paid, 
should amount to a sum sufficient to pay 
exceeding lo per cent, per annum on the 
capital stock of the company, that in such 
case and within six months thereafter, and 
so long as said net earnings amount to a 
sum sufficient to pay more than lo per 
cent., the said company would run com- 
mission trains on its road at all hours dur- 
ing which it should be operated, at the 
rates of fare mentioned. 

These agreements were at the time of 
their formulation highly satisfactory to the 
Commissioners, who accordingly trans- 
mitted them to the Mayor, accompanied 
by a highly congratulatory report, upon 
the receipt of which the Mayor submitted 
the papers to the Board of Aldermen, who 
approved the act. This was in the fall of 
1875. The New York Elevated Railroad 
Company thereupon constructed its road 
from the Battery to Harlem, a distance of 
ten miles. 

The Xew Bill Ignored the Old Contract. 

The new bill, however, which was pre- 
sented to the Governor for signature last 
year, provided that, notwithstanding all 
the laws which had been passed and 
rigidly complied with on the part of the 
railroad company, a ^new scale of rates 
should be forced upon it, insisting that 
passengers should be carried the whole 
length of the road for five cents, a sum 
about half that which was specified in the 
agreement. In his consideration of the 
bill Governor Cleveland was compelled, 
out of a single spirit of honesty, to say : 

" I am of the opinion that in the legis- 
lation and proceedings which I have de- 
tailed, and in the fact that pursuant thereto 
the road of the company was constructed \ 
and finished, there exists a contract in j 
favor of this company which is protected 



by that clause of the Constitution of the 
United States which prohibitij the passage 
of a law by any State impairing the obli- 
gation of contracts." 

He went on to say that section 33 of the 
General Railroads act provided that the 
Legislature may, when any railroad shall 
be opened for use, from time to time alter 
or reduce the rates of freight, fare or other 
profits upon said road, but the sum shall 
not without the consent of the company 
be so reduced as to bring down the profits 
on the invested capital to less than 10 per 
cent, per annum. In his communication 
to the Legislature vetoing the proposed bill 
modifying the rates of fare the Governor 
said that even if the State had the power 
to reduce the rates of fare on the elevated 
roads, it promised in its agreement not to 
do so except under certain circumstances 
and after a certain specified examination. 

Constitutional Objections. 

"I am not satisfied," he said, "that 
these circumstances exist. It is conceded 
that no such examination has been made. 
The constitutional objections which I have 
suggested to the bill under consideration 
are not, I think, removed by the claim 
that the proposed legislation is in the 
nature of an alteration of the charters of 
these companies, and that this is permitted 
by the State Constitution and by the pro- 
visions of some of the laws to which I 
have referred. I suppose that while the 
charters of corporations may be altered or 
repealed, it must be done in subordination 
to the Constitution of the United States, 
the supreme law of the land. This leads 
to the conclusion that the alteration of a 
charter cannot be made the pretext for the 
passage of a law which impairs the obliga- 
tion of a contract. If I am mistaken in 
supposing that there are legal objections 
to this bill, there is another consideration 
which furnishes to my mind a sufficient 
reason why I should not give it my 
approval. 

A Breach of Faith. 

" It seems to me that to arbitrarily reduce 
these fares at this time under existing cir- 
cumstances involves a breach of faith on 
the part of the State and a betrayal of 
confidence which the State has invited. 
The fact was notorious that for manv years 



26 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



rapid transit was the great need of the 
inhabitants of the city] of New York, and 
was of direct importance to the citizens of 
the State. Projects which promised to 
answer the people's wants in this' direction 
failed and were abandoned. The Legis- 
lature, appreciating the situation, willingly 
passed statute after statute calculated to 
aid and encourage a solution of the prob- 
lem. Capital was timid and hesitated to 
enter a new field full of risks and dangers. 
By the promise of liberal fares, as will be 
seen in all the acts passed on the subject, 
and through other concessions gladly 
made, capitalists were induced to invest 
their money in the enterprise, and rapid 
transit but lately became an accomplished 
fact. But much of the risk, expense and 
burden attending the maintenance of these 
roads is yet unknown and threatening. 
" In the meantime, the people of the city 
of New York are receiving the full benefit of 
their construction, a great enhancement of 
the -value of the taxable property of the 
city has resulted, and in addition to taxes, 
more than $120,000, being 5 per cent, in 
increase, pursuant to the law of 1868, has 
been paid by the companies into the city 
treasury, on the faith that the rate of fare 
agreed upon was secured to them. I am 
not aware that the corporations have, by 
any default, forfeited any of their rights; 
and if they have, the remedy is at hand 
under existing laws." 

"It is manifestly important that invested 
capital should be protected, and that its 
necessity and usefulness in the develop- 
ment of enterprises valuable to the people 
should be recognized by conservative con- 
duct on the part of the State government. 
We have especially in our keeping," con- 
tinued Mr. Cleveland, "the honor and 
good faith of a great Stale, and we should 
see to it that no suspicion attaches, through 
any act of ours, to the fair fame of the 
commonwealth." 

Ho-vv tlie Nfw York World ynxta it. 

The New York World in speaking of 
this veto gives the following illustration of 
how the bill, had it become a law, would 
have affected car drivers. 

"The pay of a driver on a Harlem 
Railroad line is, say, $2 per day. The 
round trip from the bridge to the City Hall 



and back takes 3 hours and 20* minutes. 
Five round a trips day occupy 16 hours and 
46 minutes, or, say, 17 hours. 

These five round trips average 40 cents 
per trip. If the Governor had signed that 
unsatisfactory and unjust bill — unjust to 
the employee and not to the employer — 
the company would have divided up the 
pay into trips, and have paid 40 cents per 
round trip. Three and a half round trips 
would consume the 12 hours to which a 
driver's work would have been limited, 
and for this service he would have received 
only $1.40. 

To make his full $2 he would have had 
to work over-hours and must still have 
made his five trips per day occupying 16 
hours and 40 minutes. 

More than that. In the winter, during 
the delay consequent to a severe snow- 
storm, when the round trip instead of tak- 
ing 3 hours and 20 minutes, frequently 
occupies 5 hours, the drivers would have 
received no more than the 40 cents, and 
would have earned in 12 hours, for two 
and a half trips, only $1, Or if in ordi- 
nary times, through a large fire or any 
other cause, a driver who worked the old 
17 hours in order to get as much as he 
now gets, should miss a trip, the amount 
for that trip would have been deducted 
from his pay. 

The drivers and conductors ought to 
hold a mass-meeting to thank Gov. 
Cleveland for vetoing a bill so absurd 
and so adverse to their interests. Dema- 
gogues may bluster and promise, but no 
legislative enactment has ever yet been 
invented that will secure a man fifteen 
hours' pay for eight hours' labor." 

Personal Appearance. 

He is a tall, stoutly built gentleman, ^ 
v/eighing over two hundred and fifty 
pounds, aged forty-seven years and a 
bachelor. He is vigorous, robust, of a 
nervous temperament, light complexion, 
thin brown hair, rapidly tending to bald- 
ness, and is a prepossessing-looking 
bachelor. He has good executive ability. 
He shuns society, and chiefly delights in 
association with his own sex. He has 
dark, penetrating eyes and heavy eye- 
brows. His movements are deliberate 



STEPHEN G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



27 



and di^^nificd, but devoid of the heaviness 
which sometimes accompanies men of his 
type. His manner ^s so curt and brusque, 
his ' yea' ' yea,' and his ' nay ' ' nay,' that 
he often offends those who speak with 
him for the first time ; but the longer he is 
known the more warmly he is esteemed, 
respected and admired. He does not 
wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to , 
peck at, but under his stern demeanor he 
conceals a kindly, generous and charita- 
ble nature. One of his oldest and most 
intimate friends characteristically defined 
him as "an up and up man.'' Everybody 
who has ever had any dealings with him 
is aware that he means precisely what he 
says and says e.\actly what he means. In 
appearance, no less than in character, he 
is one of the old Continental school of po- 
liticians, and seems to have come down to 
us from a former generation to teach us 
what strong, brave, honest, resolute men 
our forefathers were who founded this Re- 
public. Mr. Cleveland is a member of 
the large social clubs of Buffalo. In Sep- 
tember, 1882, he was elected vice presi- 
dent of the State Bar Association from the 
Eighth Judicial district. 

His face, no less than his figure and ac- 
tions, indicates strenuous vital force and 
that admirable co-ordination of faculties 
which is best expressed in the phrase, " a 
cool head.'' Those traits which are in 
part the result of early and constant self- 
training have given him the air of con- 
scious and quiet power which belongs only 
to the triumphant antagonist in the world's 
fight. His figure betokens herculean 
strength — massiveness is the best word for 
it — and there is in the smoothly shaven 
face, the same token of equal solidity of 
character, with the suggestion of physical 
vigor in the soft brown mustache that 
strongly contrasts with the scantiness of 
hair on his head. There is a decided ten- 
dency to corpulency — as is usually the 
case in vital temperaments — and a double 
chin is beginning to hang down over the 
simple white necktie. There is nothing 
phlegmatic in the man's manner. His 
face lights up with a sympathetic smile 
and without becoming animated or bril- 
liant he is at once interesting, unaffected 
and intensely real. 



A VUltor's Description. 

A visitor at the Txecutive .Mansion thus 
describes an interview with the Governor: 

" The moment he found tliat I did not 
want to ask him about the future and was 
quite content to listen to the past, he 
talked freely and fiimiliarly. There was 
nothing in hishumblc origin and struggling 
career that he was ashamed of. I fancied 
he was rather proud of his early struggles. 
And it was not impossible in an hour's 
conversation to make some kind of mea- 
surement of the man's mind and charac- 
ter. I said to myself, this is the executive 
not the reflective man. I don't suppose 
he is ever perplexed with questions of 
ethics. Such men have a steady poise of 
judgment that saves a world of words. 
The right pathway is never obscured or 
hidden. With them the doctrinaire has a 
hard time of it, for instead of chasing a 
principle through all the mazes of possi- 
bilities for the sake of the hunt, they hold 
the dogs of dialectics in leash and, with 
unerringly clear sight and constant good 
nature, whip them all back to the true 
scent. I was always struck with a single 
sentence in the second volume of Carlyle's 
' French Revolution," which, after those 
two volumes of bloody chaos, announce 
the arrival of Napoleon. The purport of 
that sentence, as I now recall it, is that 
' a man having now come upon the scene 
events began to straighten themselves 
out.' And I suppose that whatever events 
become chaotic and life gets into confusion 
that it is absolutely necessary to have a 
man at the helm. And history shows that 
it is the executive man, equipped with 
convictions and endowed with courage 
who assumes the chieftainship in moments 
of public doubt. Distracted on everything 
else, the people are willing to rest their 
issues on indubitable strength of charac- 
ter, capable of both representing and 
leading. He may not bring any new 
truth with him, or a more brilliant method, 
but the trust is that he will with clear eye, 
pure heart and strong hand keep the col- 
umns in close order along the approved 
path of safety and advance.'' 

A True American Citizen. 

Grover Cleveland, both in his record 
and in his person, impresses one as pecu- 



28 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



liarly the outcome and result of what is 
best and most enduring in American life. 
As we have already seen, he started like 
the tj^jical American boy to hew his own 
way. The almost insuperable difficulties 
of his youth, the hardships of poverty, 
pangs of hunger, the frosts of winter never 
deterred him. They were in fact, as they 
always are to the true metal, only the 
blows that compacted and shaped the 
man. We hear a great deal nowadays 
about men being all American. Obvi- 
ously there are some American things 
which a man had better be without. It is 
not pleasant to contemplate a man whose 
character reflects the heterogeneous and 
discordant elements of our complex life. 
Nor is it safe to trust with heavy respon- 
sibilities that man whose chief element of 
Americanism is impatience of restraint, 
disrespect for the past and an unswerving 
desire to be smart rather than right. The 
best elements of our American life have 
always come up from the hardy, vigorous 
stratum that was nearest to the soil and in 
some way dependent on it. The abiding 
glory of the country has been in its defiant 
boys with God-fearing ancestors ; boys 
who had organized in them by a race of 
humble but devout pioneers the patience 
and industry to achieve and the reverence 
to respect. It is to men of this fibre that 
the republic has always gone in its emer- 
gencies — turning in extremity from its 
politicians, its doctrinaries and its workers 
of statecraft, back to the elemental, vital, 
honest forces that underlie all its achieve- 
ments and that are oftenest found in the 
sturdy, modest, indomitable workers who 
have not sought the political race. 

At Ills Home. 

A writer who visited Buffalo for the pur- 
pose of learning facts concerning the 
Governor, says : 

I had an opportunity to converse with 
several persons who had known their 
Mayor long and well. I found a sterling 
regard for the man everywhere, and it was 
a regard uninfluenced by political bias. 
Among those best able to form indepen- 
dent opinions, this regard was obviously 
founded on character. Among the people 
themselves there was a well-defined con- 



viction that he was a man to depend upon. 
As one rough fellow said to me in the 
hotel saloon : " Well, I don't know about 
his learnin' or how he stands on a lot of 
questions that we don't understand, and 
don't want to, but he's a safe man, and 
he's pretty sure to understand them better 
than we do, and he'll do the right thing.'' 

Solidity of Character. 

I suppose that this kind of faith in char- 
acter is one of the most inestimable disco- 
veries that a man can make, and I was 
interested to find that the element of pop- 
ularity did not grow out of the subject 
good-fellowship, or mere manners. I 
failed to hear any one say that Grover 
Cleveland had any magnetism, or that he 
fascinated a crowd, or that he drew people 
after him with a personal glamour. On 
the contrary, I formed a very distinct no- 
tion that there was a class of men that he 
repelled, and that disliked him as easily, 
as naturally and as sincerely as a thief 
hates a magistrate or a smuggler hates a 
dead calm. Indeed it was impossible to 
discover either in the man's record or in 
the reputation that had grown up about 
him anything dramatic. The resultant 
heroism of his life is that common heroism 
of the "common " work-a-day world which 
does its duty, not for effect, but for a prin- 
ciple and a purpose, aud which, if it does 
not so easily catch the eye and the ear, is 
after all the enduring force that the people 
come to look for and rely upon when there 
is great work to be done. I looked into 
his law offices on Main street — this later 
laboratory where were evolved the legal 
functions that came into the public service 
of his own community. They were curi- 
ously solid and unpretentious, and up- 
stairs were the bachelor rooms where for 
years Grover Cleveland had slept and 
worked. I examined them minutely, for 
one often obtains a glimpse of character 
by such entourage. And they were in- 
stantly indicative of the simple tastes, me- 
thodical habits and studious life of the 
occupant. Two or three pictures, evi- 
dently selected not for decoration, but be- 
cause the owner prized the subject and 
admired the treatment, hung on the walls. 
But there was elsewhere not a superfluous 
article in the room. Elegance had been 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



29 



forgotten in the successful attempt to se- 
cure comfort and convenience and seclu- 
sion. 

Clcvelaud um CItlzeuMUlp. 

Vieios expressed ichen Mayor of liuff'tlo on the Re~ 
lease of (he Irish SusptcU. 

When it became known in this country 
that Mr. Lowell had abandoned the 
Americans imprisoned in Ireland without 
formal accusation, trial or conviction, the 
public indignation found expression in 
mass meetings to protest against his course, 
and about the time that the controversy- 
culminated such a meeting was called in 
Buftalo. It was held April 9th, 1882, in 
St. James' Hall, and the Governor, who 
had been then three months Mayor of 
Buffalo, presided. On taking the chair 
he delivered the following address, which 
is certainly as frank and outspoken an 
utterance in regard to the duties of the 
American Government to its citizens 
abroad as anyone need ask for : 

His Foreign Policy. 

"Fellow citizens: This is the formal 
mode of address on occasions of this kind, 
but I think we seldom realize fully its 
meaning or how valuable a thing it is to be 
a citizen. From the earliest civilization to 
be a citizen has been to be a free man, 
endowed with certain privileges and ad- 
vantages and entitled to the full protection 
of the State. The defence and protection 
of the personal rights of its citizens has al- 
ways been the paramount and most im- 
portant duty of a free, enlightened govern- 
ment. And perhaps no government has 
this sacred trust more in its keeping than 
this — the best and freest of them all — for 
here the people who are to be protected 
are the source of those powers which they 
delegate upon the express compact that 
the citizen shall be protected. For this 
purpose we choose those who for the time 
being shall manage the machinery which 
we have set up for our defence and safety. 

Tbe Trne Doctrine ot Protection. 

" And this protection adheres to us in 
all lands and places as an incident of 
citizenship. Let but the weight of a sacri- 
legious hand be put upon this sacred 
thing and a great, strong government 
springs to its feet to avenge the wrong. 
Thus it is that the native-born American 



citizen enjoys his birthrights. But when, 
in the westward march of empire, this 
nation was founded and took root, we 
beckoned to the Old World and invited 
hither its immigration and provided a 
mode by which those who sought a home 
among us might become our fellow- 
citizens. They came by thousands and 
hundreds of thousands; they came and 

'Hewed the dark old woods away, 
And gave the virgin fieldii to-day ; ' 

they came with strong sinews and brawny 
arms to aid in the growth and progress of 
a new country ; they came and upon our 
altars laid their fealty and submission ; 
they came to our temples of justice and 
under the solemnity of an oath renounced 
all allegiance to every other State, poten- 
tate and sovereignty and surrendered to 
us all the duty pertaining to such allegiance. 
We have accepted their fealty and invited 
them to surrender the protection of their 
native land. 

"And what should be given them in 
return ? Manifestly, good faith and every 
dictate of honor demands that we give 
them the same liberty and protection here 
and elsewhere which we vouchsafe to our 
native-born citizens. And that this has 
been accorded to them is the crowning 
glory of American institutions. It needed 
not the statute which is now the law of 
the land, declaring that 'all naturalized 
citizens while in foreign lands are entitled 
to and shall receive from this government 
the same protection of person and property 
which is accorded to native-born citizens,' 
to voice the policy of our nation. 

The Rights of Onr Citizens. 

" In all lands where the semblance of 
liberty is preserved, the right of a person 
arrested to a speedy accusation and trial 
is, or ought to be, a fundamental law 
as it is a rule of civilization. At any rate, 
we hold it to be so, and this is one of the 
rights which we undertake to guarantee 
to any native-born or naturalized citizen 
of ours, whether he be imprisoned by order 
of the Czar of Russia or under the pretext 
of a law administered for the benefit of 
the landed aristocracy of England. We 
do not claim to make laws for other coun- 
tries, but we do insist that whatsoever those 
laws may be, they shall, in the interests of 



30 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



human freedom and the rights of mankind 
so far as they involve the liberty of our 
citizens, be speedly administered. We 
have a right to say, and do say, that mere 
suspicion without examination on trial is 
not sufficient to justify the long imprison- 
ment of a citizen of America. Other 
nations may permit their citizens to be 
thus imprisoned. Ours will not. And 
this in effect has been solemnly declared 
by statute. 

" We have met here to-night to consider 
this subject and inquire into the cause and 
the reasons and the justice of the imprison- 
ment of certain of our fellow citizens now 
held in British prisons without the semb- 
lance of a trial or legal examination. Our 
law declares that the government shall 
act in such cases. But the people are the 
creators of the government. The un- 
daunted apostle of the Christian religion, 
imprisoned and persecuted, appealing 
centuries ago to the Roman law and the 
rights of Roman citizenship, boldly de- 
manded ; ' Is it lawful for you to scourge 
a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?' 
So, too, might we ask, appealing to the 
law of our land and the laws of civili- 
zation : ' Is it lawful that these, our fel- 
lows, be imprisoned, who are American 
citizens and uncondemned?' I deem it 
an honor to be called upon to preside at 
such a meeting and I thank you for it. 
What is your further pleasure ? " 

Grover Cleveland's Romauce. 

Grover Cleveland came of a somewhat 
singular and peculiar family. All his an- 
cestors were strong people, but turning to 
the church for a living they were always 
poor. The city is full of reminiscences of 
his fight for a place in the city of his adop- 
tion, but the story of his boyhood days 
have to be gathered from another locality. 
But very few persons know why he never 
married ; perhaps none do. The mishap 
that left him to tread the wine-press of life 
alone was a painful one ; but it left the 
sting before he came to Buffalo. Ever 
since his residence in Buffalo he has lived 
with his law books and his profession. 
Although he is reputed to be a good, genial 
companion, fond of life and the world, he 
has shunned society and lived for his 
mother and sisters, who needed his help. 



Probably more preachers were reared out 
of his family than any other in the country. 
They all taught the doctrines of the Pres- 
byterian Church for a small price and died 
poor. Mr. Cleveland's father left some 
ten children, which were about his only 
available assets when he died. Hence it 
went out that he was too poor to marry 
until so well grounded in his bachelor 
ways that he could not be tempted jfrom 
them by the comeliest girl in the land. 
There are no traditions that he ever 
courted a lass. Yet it is true that he did 
and that the picture of that one still re- 
mains by his side. It is true that he was 
and, as the world goes, still he is poor. 
As is already stated in this narrative it 
was not until a few years ago that he felt 
able to pay back the money be borrowed 
to bring him West in 1855. He only got 
his legal education by a pretty tough tight 
with adversity and it took him four years 
of drudgery in the office of Rogers & 
Bowen before he was admitted to practice. 

Governor Cleveland's Fortune. 

It has been generally supposed by a 
majority of people in Buffalo that Grover 
Cleveland was a wealthy man. He has 
always lived in style, boarding at the Tifift 
House when here, and the centre of a 
group of bachelor friends, all of whom are 
possessed of independent fortunes. Since 
his election as Governor, but especially 
since he has been mentioned as a candi- 
date of the Democratic party for President, 
this rumor has assumed more than its for- 
mer proportions. It has for a few days been 
harped upon by prominent anti-monopo- 
lists and labor leaders that the Governor 
was possessed of a fortune of more than 
^100,000, upon a greater part of which he 
paid no taxes. 

To gain some information upon this 
vexed subject an inquirer after the truth 
visited the Assessor's office and made a 
thorough investigation. It was found that 
the books there make the Governor's 
fortune far smaller than do his enemies. 
The sum total against him is a tax upon 
$5,000 worth of personal property. No 
mention of any real or landed estate is 
made and it is safe to say he owns none 
inside the corporate limits of the city. It 
cannot be truthfully said that Governor 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



31 



Cleveland is possessed of a hurtful 
amount of property. 

A liOve Story. 

When Governor Cleveland was just 
able to support himself he became enam- 
ored of a young woman who was a rela- 
tive of the late Judge Verplanck. The 
girl was not disposed to look favorably on 
his suit and this made him love her the 
more. She delighted in tantalizing him by 
permitting other young men to escort her 
home from the old Eagle Street Theatre, 
which was then the only place of amuse- 
ment of any account in the city. The 
girl was comparatively wealthy and looked 
down on Grover, who was a poor lawyer. 
After awhile she got to thinking fondly of 
him, and it is said that they were engaged 
to be married when she was taken ill with 
a fever and died. Cleveland did not re- 
cover from the shock for several 
months, and though he has a bachelor's 
liking for pretty ladies his friends say that 
he will never marry. One lady became so 
infatuated with him that she proposed to 
him. He rejected her advances and it is 
said that she became crazy and is now 
confined in an asylum. 

A friend of the Governor told a reporter 
a romantic story of how a lady living near 
Poughkeepsie engaged in correspondence 
with the Governor since he was elected 
Mayor, and that a tender feeling had 
sprung up between them. They have met 
but four times, once when Cleveland was 
Sheriff, a few years later at Saratoga, after 
Cleveland v/as elected Mayor and once 
since he has been Governor. This friend 
said that it was quite likely that the lady 
would be married by Cleveland if elected 
President, and that she would grace the 
White House parlors at his reception. 
The lady is described as being a charming 
brunette, about thirty-five years old, with 
pleasing manners and considerable prop- 
erty. This incident is given for what it is 
worth as one of the rumors of the day. 

Persoual Peculiarities. 

All the traits of assiduous industry, un- 
ostentatious dignity, thoroughness and 
simplicity, noted in Grover Cleveland's 
early career are observable in his present 
life at Albany, On the day before his in- 



auguration as Governor he came down 
from Buffalo quietly with his law partner, 
Mr. BisscU, went to the Executive Mansion 
and spent the night. On the morrow the 
city was excited with the approaching 
ceremonies. The streets were crowded, 
but there was to be no military parade, no 
procession. The Governor-elect walked 
from the Executive Mansion in company 
with his friend to the Capitol, which is a 
mile distant, joining the throngs that were 
going that way. He entered the building 
unrecognized, but quite at his ease, 
sauntered up the Executive Chamber and 
was there met by Gov. Cornell. The mo- 
ment the inaugural ceremony was over he 
passed into the spacious Executive Cham- 
ber which is set apart for his use, ordered 
that the doors should be opened to admit 
anybody, and went immediately to work. 

Pristine Democracy. 

Never was any important public event 
so completely stripped of its fuss and fea- 
thers. Never was a more radical change 
effected in the official routine of the Exe- 
cutive Department. Hitherto there were 
all sorts of delays and impediments in the 
path to the Governor. Cards had to be 
sent in, ushers conducted citizens into 
anterooms and left them to cool their heels 
on the State's tessellated floor. But the 
moment Grover Cleveland took possession 
he issued on order to admit anybody at 
once who wished to see him. And up to 
the present time he has been quite able 
himself to prevent this return to republican 
simplicity from being abused. His habits 
are indicative of his dislike of ostentation 
and official parade and of his methodical 
and industrious training. He walks from 
the Executive Mansion every morning at 
9 o'clock to the Capitol and goes straight 
to work. At 1.30 he walks back to his 
lunch, which takes an hour. He then re- 
turns on foot to work again and remains 
until 6, when he goes to dinner. He is 
back at 8 and generally stays until 1 1 or 
12. He keeps no horses or extra servants 
and has not been known to ride since he 
has been in Albany except for an occa- 
sional pleasure jaunt. The amount of 
work thus accomplished — as his private 
secretary, Mr. Daniel S. Lamont, testifies 
— is something enormous. 



J2 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



He is not a rich man, in spite of his fru- 
gal bachelor habits. He does much free 
legal work for poor clients and has a way 
of assisting them which, though most 
creditable to his conscience, does not put 
money in his purse. He is also a liberal 
benefactor of all the charities of Buffalo, 
a city peculiarly active in this work. 

His Streii^^ as a Candidate. 

Mr. Cleveland's strength as a candidate 
is due to his strong conservatism, his un- 
sullied character, his sympathy with 
straightfor\vard, business methods in poli- 
tics, his exceptional standing with the inde- 
pendent reform element the country over 
and his ability to inspire people with the 
belief that he may be trusted to do noth- 
ing for purely partisan purposes. Few 
men unite in themselves so many consid- 
erations of fitness and expediency. If 
elected he may be trusted to expose jobs 
turn out and keep out thieves and give the 
country a manly, conservative administra- 
tion of his own. 

As a liatvyer and a Man. 

Mr. Cleveland's rank at the bar is a high 
one. He is careful and methodical as a 
business man, which, united to his faculty of 
going to the bottom of all questions, gives 
him the principal elements essential 
to success in his profession. He presents 
his case well and closely, whether the 
argument is made before a court or a jury, 
but does not indulge in any exhibition of 
pyrotechnics. His vocabulary is ample 
but not overwhelming or exhaustive, as is 
so often the case with professional legal 
talkers. He is a hard worker, and a large, 
reliable and commanding practice is his 
reward. 

In the presentation of Grover Cleve- 
land's record to the readers of this biogra- 
phy, it has been the object to reflect him 
as he is apart from any bias or one-sided 
statements, and hence the following ex- 
tract is published. 

It will be remembered that George Wil- 
liam Curtis is a leader in the Republican 
Party, and was a delegate from New York 
in the Chicago Convention that nominated 
James G. Blaine. The following appears 
as his leading editorial in Harptrs' Weekly: 



"What Mr. Curtis Says. 
" The nomination of Governor Cleveland 
defines sharply the actual issue of the 
presidential election of this year. He is a 
man whose absolute official integrity has 
never been questioned, who has no labor- 
ious and doubtful explanations to under- 
take, and who is universally known as 
the Governor of New York elected by an 
unprecedented majority which was not 
partisan, and represented both the votes 
and the consent of an enormous body of 
Republicans, and who as the Chief Exe- 
cutive of the State has steadily withstood 
the blandishments and the threats of the 
worst elements of his party, and has justly 
earned the reputation of a courageous, 
independent and efficient friend and pro- 
moter of administrative reform. His name 
has become that of the especial represent- 
ative among our public men of the integ- 
rity, purity and economy of administration 
which are the objects of the most intelli- 
gent and patriotic citizens. The bitter and 
furious hostility of Tammany Hall and of 
General Butler to Governor Cleveland is 
his passport to the confidence of good 
men, and the general conviction that 
Tammany will do all that it can to defeat 
him, will be an additional incentive to the 
voters who cannot support Mr. Blaine, 
and who are unwilling not to vote at all, 
to secure the election of a candidate whom 
the political rings and the party traders 
instinctively hate and unitedly oppose." 

Pulbllc Interests Before Party. 

So firm and " clean " and independent 
in his high office has Gov. Cleveland 
shown himself to be, that he is denounced 
as not being a Democrat by his Demo- 
cratic opponents. This denunciation 
springs from the fact that he has not hesi- 
tated to prefer the public welfare to the 
mere interest of his party. Last autumn, 
when the Democratic District- Attorney of 
Queen County was charged with miscon- 
duct, the Governor heard the accusation 
and the defense, and decided that it was 
his duty to remove the officer. He was 
asked by his party friends *to defer the 
removal until after the election, as other- 
wise the party would lose the district by 
the opposition of the Attorney's friends. 
The Governor understood his duty and 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



33 



removci.1 the officer some days before 
the election, and the party did lose the 
district. This kind of courage and devo- 
tion to public duty in the teeth of the 
most virulent opposition of traders of his 
own puny is unusal in any public man, 
and it shows precisely the executive 
quality which is demanded at a time when 
every form of speculation and fraud 
presses upon the public treasury under the 
specious plea of party advantage. 

The argument that in an election it is 
not a man but a party that is supported, 
and that the Democratic party is less to be 
trusted than the Republican, is futile at a 
time when the Republican party has nom- 
inated a candidate whom a great body of 
the most conscientious Republicans can- 
not support, and the Democratic party has 
nominated a candidate whom a great 
body of the most venal Democrats prac- 
tical bolt. Distrust of the Democratic 
party springs from the conduct of the very 
Democrats who madly oppose Governor 
Cleveland because they know that they 
cannot use him. The mere party argu- 
ment is vain also, because no honorable 
man will be whipped in to vote for a can- 
didate whom he believes to be personally 
disqualified for the Presidency on the 
ground that a party ought to be sustained. 
The nomination of Gov. Cleveland is due 
not so much to the preference of his party 
as to the general demand of the country 
for a candidacy which stands for precisely 
the qualities and services which are asso- 
ciated with his name." 

AV'liat tlie Evening Telegraph Says. 

We also give a portion of an editorial 
which appeared in the Evening Telegraph 
of Philadelphia, a staunch Republican 
paper, and a supporter of the Republican 
nominees : 

The Democrats have nominated a very 
strong ticket — probably the strongest ticket 
that it was possible for them to nominate ; 
and if it is to be beaten, it will be neces- 
sary for the Repubhcans to give some 
positive assurances that the party as a 
party, and despite the efforts of time-ser- 
vers and tricksters to use it for improper 
personal and grossly unpatriotic ends, in- 
tends that the very best of its past shall 
indicate with unmistakable clearness its 
3 



future. It is sheer folly to underrate the 
merit of the deliverances of the Demo- 
cratic Convention yesterday, or to attempt 
to misinterpret their plain meaning or the 
plain peril which they represent. For the 
first time since the Democratic Party went 
out of power in 1861, it comes before the 
country with its baser elements forced into 
the background, if not into subjection, 
with men of clean, strong and patriotic 
records as their candidates, and with a 
challenge to thinking and patriotic men to 
regard what is good in it instead of ob- 
truding upon them the unsavory features 
of its history and the most evil of its de- 
sires. It may be said, and with entire 
truth, that Cleveland is an expediency 
nomination ; but there are expediencies 
and expediencies. It was expediency that 
dictated the nomination of General Han- 
cock four years ago. It was hoped that 
Hancock's splendid record as a soldier 
would win votes that might not be win- 
able by a demonstration in the line of true 
statesmanship. It is no disparagement to 
General Hancock to say that his nomi- 
nation was a trick, and that those who 
were most actively instrumental in pro- 
curing it hoped to turn it to an evil account 
should it be ratified at the polls. The 
nomination of Grover Cleveland was made 
on quite other grounds. This man was 
selected because it is believed he has a 
public and private record that is unim- 
peachable, and particularly because, since 
he has been Governor of the great State 
of New York, he has shown himself to be 
a careful and zealous guardian of the true 
interests of the public, even at the cost of 
the friendship of men in his own party 
who have the power to wield a mul'.itude 
of votes. 

luclflents— licadlug tlie Blind. 

The following incident of recent occur- 
rence is related of the Governor : 

The crier in one of the courts of Albany 
is a blind man, who lives in the same part 
of the city as the Governor. He is some- 
what aged and has become so familiar 
with the road from hi^ home over to the 
court-house that he generally goes alone. 
But one morning, some months ago, he 
missed his way, and the Governor coming 
along took him by the arm and brought 



34 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



him along with him as fiir as the Capitol 
building. As they were about to separate, 
the old gentleman asked the name of his 
considerate guide. 

" My name is Cleveland," said the Gov- 
ernor. 

"Are you in business in the city?" 

" Yes, I have an office up here in the 
Capitol.'' 

" Oh, you are not the Governor ? ' 

"Yes. lam the Governor." 

The poor old fellow was almost beside 
himself, and went on his way with a story 
to tell as long as he lived. 

"Vriilcli might be tlie Governor T" 

The Governor is full of the milk of 
human kindness and his heart is big 
enough to take in all mankind. Though 
a bachelor, he has a most benignant face 
and can talk to you like a father. The 
pictures of him do not give his face as it 
is generally seen. He sometimes looks 
serious, but never cross or even austere. 
As soon as you see him you feel that you 
need not have any trepidation in speaking 
to him. When he sits down there is not 
much room left between the arms of a 
pretty wide chair, and he looks wonderfully 
comfortable and homelike. The other 
day when there were three or four gentle- 
men callers sitting or walking about in the 
Executive office, a bunch of country women 
dropped in on their sight-seeing tour. 
After gazing about in some perplexity, as 
if they were looking for something they 
could not find to their entire satisfaction, 
the eldest and the supposable head of the 
party, ventured up to the Governor as the 
most approachable man she saw, and ven- 
tured to ask: — "Which might be the 
Governor?" "Right here," said he, as 
he thumped himself on the bosom and 
went on with the business in hand. " Oh !'' 
the lady ejaculated, and retired amid her 
blushes to the expectant group in the 
corner, and then they all looked over and 
said " oh !" in chorus. 

Never Disturbed. 

When the Governor gets well settled in 
his chair, takes a good long breath, and 
adjusts his glasses on the lower part of his 
nose, he looks as wise, as mellow, and as 
sunshiny as Benjamin Franklin. He 



looks as though it would take a very con- 
siderable shock to knock him off his bal- 
ance. When asked the other day if he read 
the papers that abused him. 

"Sometimes," said he, with a smile that 
broke out all over his face. 

" Do you ever get disturbed over any 
thing they say ?" 

" Not much. Every man has a right to 
enjoy his own mind. I remember an old 
fellow who was a neighbor of my father, 
and we would sometimes try to get him to 
come over to our church. He was a 
strong Baptist, and he would always say : 
' No ; you folks are Presbyterians, and if 
I go over to your church I couldn't enjoy 
my mind.' Of course that was the end 
of the argument." 

Regarding NevFspaper Slanders. 

In reply as to the slanders published 
about him, the Governor recently said : — 
" Well, I have been more surprised at the 
way I have been misrepresented as to 
the laboring men than anything else. I 
don't see how the idea ever got out in the 
first place that I have been opposed to 
the interests of laboring men. I cannot 
remember one single act in my life that 
could be reasonably construed into any 
thing inimical to their best interests. It 
has been just the other way with me. I 
have always taken particular pains, when- 
ever it was in my power, to see their in- 
terests well guarded. But I have no fear 
as to the outcome. I have observed that 
laboring men have minds of their own as 
well as political principles, and when there 
has been a full investigation of my official 
life the facts will be made known, and I 
am not uneasy as to the result. They talk 
about the workingmen as if they were a 
lot of sheep to be corralled or scattered 
by this man or that. Most workingmen are 
natural Democrats. Democracy means 
the rule of the people, and the Democratic 
party has always been the natural friend 
of the workingmen. I do not think any 
great number of those who are in my 
party will fail to vote for me, first, because 
they are naturally disposed to go with their 
party, and second, because they will learn 
long before election day that my attitude 
towards them has been misrepresented." 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



35 



Opinions on Public Q,iieatlons. 

Because (Governor Cleveland took no 
active part in politics until recently, it 
must not be inferred that he became in- 
vested with important offices without any 
knowledge or experience of public men 
and measures. Ever since he attained 
his majority he had been an ardent sup- 
porter of the Democratic party, and kept 
himself fully posted on all state and na- 
tional matters. He was little accustomed 
to making speeches and writing letters on 
public questions, but when he began it was 
with some purpose. Appreciation of the 
business side of office and politics has 
been a marked feature of his utterances. 
In his inaugural address as Mayor of Buf- 
falo, he said — 

Tine People's Money. 

We hold the money of the people in our 
hands to be used for their purposes and to 
further their interests as members of the 
municipality, and it is quite apparent that 
when any part of the funds which the tax- 
payers have entrusted to us are diverted to 
other purposes or when by design or neglect 
we allow a greater sum to be applied to 
any municipal purpose than is necessary, 
we have, to that extent, violated our duty. 
There surely is no difference in his duties 
and obligations whether a person is en- 
trusted with the money of one man or of 
many, and yet it sometimes appears as 
though the office-holder assumes that a 
different rule of fidelity prevails between 
him and the tax-payer than that which 
should regulate his conduct when, as an 
individual, he holds the money of his 
neighbors. It seems to me that a success- 
ful and faithful ministration of the govern- 
ment of our city may be accomplished by 
constantly bearing in mind that we are the 
trustees and agents of our fellow-citizens, 
holding their funds in sacred trust to be 
expended for their benefit, that we should 
at all times be prepared to render an 
honest account to them touching the 
manner of its expenditure, and that the 
affairs of the city should be conducted, as 
far as possible, upon the same principles 
as a good business man manages his 
private concerns. 

HU Civil Ser^'lce Views. 
In his letter, accepting the nomination 
for Governor of New York, he gave his 



views on Civil Service, and on an efficient 
and honest administration of public 
officers, showing most conclusively that he 
had given the subject careful thought, and 
had formed a decided opinion in its favor: 
Subordinates in public places should be 
selected and retained for their efficiency, 
and not because they may be used to ac- 
complish partisan ends. The people have 
a right to demand here, as in cases of 
private employment, that their money be 
paid to those who will render the best 
service in rQturn, and that the appointment 
to and tenure of such places should depend 
upon ability and merit. If the clerks and 
assistants in public departments were paid 
the same compensation, and required to 
do the same amount of work as those em- 
ployed in prudently conducted private 
establishments the anxiety to hold these 
public places would be much diminished, 
and the cause of civil service reform 
materially aided. 
His Oi>i>osltlou to Corrnptlou at tlie Polls. 

The expenditure of money to influence 
the action of the people at the polls, or to 
secure legislation is calculated to excite 
the gravest concern. When this per- 
nicious agency is successfully employed a 
representative form of government be- 
comes a sham, and laws passed under its 
baleful influence cease to protect, but are 
made the means by which the rights of the 
people are sacrificed and the public 
treasury despoiled. It is useless and 
foolish to shut our eyes to the fact that 
this evil exists among us, and the party 
which leads in an honest effort to return 
to better and purer methods will receive 
the confidence of our citizens and secure 
their support. It is wilful blindness not to 
see that the people care but little for party 
obligations, when they are invoked to 
countenance and sustain fraudulent and 
corrupt practices. And it is well for our 
country and for the purification of politics 
that the people, at times fully roused to 
danger, remind their leaders that party 
methods should be something more than a 
means used to answer the purposes ct 
those who profit by political occupation. 

Col. Frank H. Burr, one of the best 
descriptive writers of the day, gives the 
following relating to Governor Cleveland : 



36 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Shnuulng Society. 

This style of living was not kept up 
after he became well-to-do to be saving, 
for he has the reputation of being a rather 
open-handed man and not given to hoard- 
ing money. It is apparent, from the talk 
of all his friends, that he loves congenial 
companionship and is a most pleasant 
conversationalist, thoroughly capable of 
entertaining a company of any character. 
I found it current talk in Buffalo that he 
had always been much courted in society, 
but that he could rarely be induced to 
enter the charmed circle. There is a good 
deal of interesting chat about the plans 
that have been set to capture this bachelor 
and their universal failure. One story 
runs that only recently some friends had 
two charming ladies visiting them from 
the Eastern States, and that the lady of 
the house gave an evening party especially 
for the purpose of bringing the Governor 
within the influence of these attractive 
girls. He shunned the temptation, as he 
has done many of the kind, and did not 
attend. He said to a lady who chaffed 
him about his bachelor life, that if she 
could find a girl whom she would certify 
was just right he would enter into bonds 
to marry her if she would have him. This 
good-natured raillery has given rise to the 
rumor that he is thinking of making a 
change in his domestic relations. 

It is singular to find a man who has led 
a bachelor life sa well thought of by all 
classes as Mr. Cleveland is in Buffalo. 
He has the confidence and respect of 
everybody except a few ward politicians 
whom he has disappointed. His political 
methods, as you find them developed at 
his home, are not calculated to commend 
him to the average politician. His self- 
reliance, candid faith in his own judgment 
and unflinching honesty have earned him 
the reputation among this class of being 
ungrateful to those who have helped to 
make him a power. 

A Pen Portrait. 

After gathering the home impressions of 
the man and the features of his early life 
in this locality, I spent a half day at 
Albany with the man who has so recently 
filled the public eye plumb full. He is a 
good deal such a man as you would expect 



to find from his experiences, training, birth 
and general habits of life. He is a large 
and powerfully built, well proportioned 
and rather good-looking man. The pic- 
ture printed as a frontispiece gives a 
very fair idea of his general appearance, 
although his expression of countenance is 
entirely free from the stern, bull-dog look 
that the wood-cuts give him. He has a 
pleasant cast of countenance and is rather 
a winning talker. He has not the quality 
of magnetism about him, but impresses 
you with his candor and openness. He is 
an attractive man, without being too fa- 
miliar, and is the most democratic official 
I ever saw. 

No' Ceremony. 

The humblest man or woman is admitted 
to his presence as readily as the highest. 
He impressed me as a person having the 
judicial quality of mind developed to a 
very high degree — one of those strong- 
headed men with a good opinion of his 
own understanding of anything he consid- 
ered. There is not the least characteristic 
of a politician about him. This is of 
course the natural result of a life that has 
been busy and entirely devoted of late 
years to the enjoyment of the fruits of 
professional labor and to dealing with men 
upon the basis of perfect fairness. He is 
a singular man and has led a peculiar life. 
If the majority of his years have been 
tending up hill, his latter days certainly 
have not, and he seems to be shaping 
himself to take solid comfort among the 
rewards of his toil. 

His luauguratiou as Governor. 

Governor Cleveland was inaugurated 
at the Capitol in Albany Jan. i, 1883, in 
the presence of a vast concourse of his fel- 
low citizens. After being escorted to the 
platform by Governor Cornell, the incom- 
ing executive was presented by his prede- 
cessor to the people in the following neat 
address : 

P^ELLOW Citizens : — The people of the 
State are its sovereign Rulers. Those 
whom they elect to perform official trusts, 
to make laws or execute them, are but the 
exponents of their views, the custodians 
of their interests, and the instruments of 
their supreme will. He is wise, therefore, 
who in any representative capacity, re- 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



37 



cognizes and obeys the influence or ex- ' 
prcssion of that will in these ceremonial 
forms to do as presented the fitting illus- 
tration of the maxim, that the just powers 
of government are derived from the con- 
sent of the governed. All successful 
places emanate from enlightened public 
sentiment, and whatever motive attends 
the choice of official servants, that will 
only succeed, which has for its real and 
ultimate object the maintenance and pro- 
motion of good and honest government. 

By the operation of the Constitution, 
the limit of an executive term has again 
been reached, and we stand to-day in the 
presence of rightful authority, expressed in 
lawful manner to witness the transfer of 
the high office of Chief Magistrate of the 
State to one who has been chosen to exe- 
cute the responsible and trying duties that 
belong to it. Three years ago, the place 
now passed to my constitutional successor, 
was accepted with a due sense of the 
responsibility involved. 

My pledge was then given to faithfully 
and impartially discharge the obliga- 
tions assumed. There was no reservation 
of purpose, to redeem that pledge with 
vigilance and fidelity, and it has been my 
constant aim, to meet every requirement 
of just and economical administration to 
the service of the state. 

Neither private interest nor personal 
favor has been permitted to stand in the 
way of public duty. In taking leave now, 
of the scenes and labors that have occu- 
pied the last three years, it affords me 
profound satisfaction, to congratulate the 
people of this majestic commonwealth on 
the high degree of prosperity and peace 
that prevail within these borders. 

Our public debt is nearly extinguished, 
the rate of taxation has been materially 
reduced, and new sources of public re- 
venue have been developed. The public 
works have been conducted with the ut- 
most economy, consistent with safety and 
efficiency, encroachments on private rights 
have been stayed, and important steps 
have been taken to secure just account- 
abilities in the management of corpo- 
rations. 

In other essential respects, also, the 
public welfiire has been fostered and fru- 



gality in public expenditures secured. 
These and like results have been accom- 
plished and sustained by the aid of ad- 
vanced public sentiment. And they will 
be derelict who, in the direction of affairs, 
fail to respect the demands of enlightened 
public opinion. To you, Governor Cleve- 
land, God-speed in every endeavor to se- 
cure to this people the richest blessings of 
beneficent government. It is your good 
fortune to come to these important duties 
by an expression of the public will almost 
unprecedented in the history of the State. 
The emphasis thus given to your election 
is clearly indicative of public expectation 
in the discharge of your official functions. 
May the Infinite Ruler endow you with 
wisdom and strength equal to the great 
responsibilities which now devolve upon 
you. The faithful discharge of conscious 
duty will be ample satisfaction and reward, 
and whatever circumstances or events 
occur, the public, whose servant you are, 
will not be unmindful or turn away. 
Oovemor Cleveland's Inaii^iral A<1(1re8s. 

Placing his right hand in the breast of 
his close-fitting black coat, and directly 
facing Mr. Cornell, Governor Cleveland 
spoke as follows : 

Governor Cornell : I am profoundly 
grateful for your pleasant words and kind 
wishes for my success. You speak in full 
view of the labors that are past and duty 
well performed, and no doubt you gener- 
ously suppose that what you have safely 
encountered and overcome, another may 
not fear to meet. But I cannot be un- 
mindful of the difficulties that beset the 
path upon which I enter, and I shall be 
quite content, if when the end is reached, 
I may like you, look back upon an official 
career, honorable to myself, and useful to 
the people of the States. 

I cannot forbear at this time to also 
express my appreciation of the hearty 
kindness and consideration with which 
you have at other times sought to make 
easier my perfotmance of official duties. 

Then turning to the deeply interested 
audience, Mr. Cleveland continued. 

Fellow Citizens : You have assembled 
to-day to witness the retirement of an 
officer tried and trusted, from the highest 
place in the state, and the assumption of 



38 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



these duties by one yet to be tried. This 
ceremony, simple and unostentatious as 
becomes the spirit of your institution, is 
yet of vast importance to you and to the 
people of this great commonwealth. 

The interests now transferred to new 
hands are yours, and the duties newly 
assumed should be performed for your 
benefit and for your good, hence, you 
have the right to demand and enforce, by 
the means placed in your hands, which 
you well know how to use. And if the 
public servant should always know that 
he is jealously watched by the people, he 
surely w-ould be none the less faithful to 
his trusts. 

This vigilance on the part of the citizen, 
and an active interest and participation in 
practical concerns, are the safeguards of 
its rights. But sluggish interference with 
practical privileges, invite the machina- 
tions of those who wait to betray the 
people's interests. Thus when the conduct 
of public affairs receives your attention, 
do not omit to perform your duties as 
citizens, but protect your own best inter- 
ests. While this is true, and while those 
whom you put in place should be held to 
strict account, their opportunities for use- 
fulness should not be impaired, nor their 
efforts for good thwarted by unfounded 
and querulous complaint and cavil. 

Let us together, but in our different 
places, take part in the regulation and 
demonstration of the Government of our 
state, and thus become, not only the 
keepers of our own interests, but contrib- 
utors to the progress and prosperity which 
will await us. 

I enter upon the discharge of the duties 
of the office to which my fellow citizens 
have called me, with a profound sense of 
gratitude to the kind Providence which I 
believe will aid an honest design, and the 
forbearance of the just people, which I 
trust will recognize a patriotic endeavor. 

EXTRACTS FROM GOVERNOR CL.EVE- 

L.A1VD»S MESSAGE JAIV. 7, 1H83. 

Appurtlonineutx. 

The last Legislature neglected its plain 
duty in failing to re-apportion the State 
into Congressional districts according to 
the United States census of 1880 and 
pursuant of the allottment of Congress to 



our quota of members of the House of 
Representatives. It is to be hoped that 
this work will be speedily undertaken. 
To make an apportionment of the popu- 
lation of a state into 34 districts, having 
due regard to geographical situation, and 
contiguity of territory, requires but little 
time, and no great amount of ingenuity, 
if attempted with fair and honest intention. 
It is submitted, that the appointment of 
subordinates in the several state Depart- 
ments, and their tenure of office or employ- 
ment should be based upon fitness and 
efficiency, and that this principle should 
be embedded in Legislative enactment to 
the end that the State may conform to the 
reasonable public demand on that subject. 

Mniilclpal Goveruuient. 

The formation and administration of 
the Government of cities are subjects of 
public interest and of great impor- 
tance to many of the inhabitants of the 
state. The formation of such Govern- 
ments is proper matter for most careful 
legislation. They should be so organized 
as to be simple in their details and to cast 
upon the people affected thereby, the full 
responsibility of their administration. The 
different Departments should be in such 
accord as in their operafions to lead 
toward the same results. 

Divided councils, and divided respon- 
sibilities of the people, on the part of mu- 
nicipal officers, it is believed, gives rise to 
much that is objectionable in the govern- 
ment of cities. If to remedy this evil, the 
chief executive should be made answer- 
able to the people for the proper conduct 
of the city's affairs, it is quite clear, that 
his power in selecting those who manage 
the different departments should be greatly 
enlarged. The protection of the people 
in their primaries will, it is hoped, be se- 
cured by the early passage of the law for 
that purpose, which will rid the present 
system from the evils which surround it, 
tending to defraud the people of rights 
closely connected with their privileges as 

citizens. 

Special Iivglslatlon. 

It is confidently expected that those 
who represent the people in the present 
Legislature address themselves to the 
enactment of such laws as arc for the 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



39 



benefit of all the citizens of the State, to 
the exclusion of special Ic^jislation and 
interference with affairs which should be 
managed by the localities to which they 
pertain. It is not only the right of the people 
to administer their local government, but 
it should be made their duty to do so. 
Any departure from this doctrine is an 
abandonment of the principles upon which 
our institutions are founded, and a con- 
cession to the infirmity and partial failure 
of the theory of a representative form of 
government. If the aid of the Legislature 
is invoked to further projects which should 
be subject to local control and manage- 
ment, suspicion should at once be aroused, 
and interference should be promptly and 
sternly refused. 

If local rule is in any instance bad, 
weak or inefficient, those who suffer from 
mal-administration have the remedy within 
their own control. If through their neglect 
or inattention it falls into unworthy hands, 
or if bad methods and practices gain a 
place in its administration, it is neither 
harsh nor unjust to remit those who are 
responsible for those conditions to their 
self-invited fate, until their interest, if no 
better motive, prompts them to an earnest 
and active discharge of the duties of good 
citizenship. 



His Appeal to Lieglslatoi'S. 

Let us enter upon the discharge of our 
duties, fully appreciating our relations to 
the people, and determined to serve them 
faithfully and well. This involves a 
jealous watch of the public funds, and a 
refusal to sanction their appropriation, 
except for public needs. To this end, all 
unnecessary offices should be abolished, 
and all employment of doubtful benefit 
discontinued. If to this we add the enact- 
ment of such wise and well-considered 
laws -as will meet the varied wants of our 
fellow-citizens and increase their pros- 
perity, we shall merit and receive the ap- 
proval of those whese representatives they 
are, and with the conscientiousness of 
duty well performed, shall leave our im- 
pression for good on the Legislation of the 
State. 



Hla AVlde Popularity. 

The admiration and sup|)ortof Governor 
Cleveland reaches far beyond the limits of 
his party, and the indciations are that his 
success in the present campaign will be as 
triumphant as when he was chosen Gover- 
nor of New York. 

The Independent Republican Conven- 
tion which met at New York on July 72d, 
in its address to the people of the country 
recognizes the importance of the issue, and 
the value ot the Democratic nominee. 

The following is an extract from said ad- 
dress : 

Their Exposition of tUe Case. 

As there is no destructive issue upon 
public policy presented for the considera- 
tion of the country, the character of the 
candidates becomes of the highest impor- 
tance with all citizens who do not hold 
that party victory should be secured at 
any cost. While the Republican nomina- 
tion presents a candidate whom we cannot 
support, the Democratic party presents 
one whose name is the synonym of politi- 
cal courage and honesty and of adminis- 
trative reform. He has discharged every 
official trust with sole regard to the public 
welfare and with just disregard of mere 
partisan and personal advantage, which 
with the appearance and confidence of 
both parties have raised him from the 
chief executive administration of a great 
city to that of a great State. His unre- 
served, intelligent and sincere support of 
reform in the civil service has firmly es- 
tablished that reform in the State and 
cities of Nev/ York ; and his personal con- 
victions, proved by his official acts more 
decisive than any possible platform de- 
claration, are the guarantee that in its 
spirit and in its letter the reform would be 
enforced in the national administration 
His high sense of duty, his absolute and 
unchallenged official integrity, his inflexi- 
ble courage in resisting party pressure and 
public outcry, his great experience in the 
details of administration and his command- 
ing executive ability and independence 
are precisely the qualities which the polit- 
ical situation demands in the chief execu- 
tive officer of the Government to resist 
corporate monopoly on the one hand and 



40 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



demagogue commission on the other, and 
at home and abroad, without menace or 
fear, to protect every right of American 
citizens and to respect every right of 
friendly states by making political moral- 
ity and private honesty the basis of con- 
stitutional administration. 

He is a Democrat who is, happily, free 
from all association with the fierce party 
differences of the slavery contest, and 
whose financial views are in harmony 
with those of the best men in both parties ; 
and coming into public prominence at a 
time when official purity, courage and 
character are of chief importance, he pre- 
sents the qualities and the promise which 
independent voters desire and when a 
great body of Republicans, believing those 
qualities to be absolutely indispensable in 
the administration of the Government at 
this time, do not find in the candidate of 
their own party. 

Such independent voters do not propose 
to ally themselves inextricably with any 
party. Such Republicans do not propose 
to abandon the Republican party, nor to 
merge themselves in any other party, but 
they do propose to aid in defeating a Re- 
publican nomination which, not for rea- 
sons of expediency only, but for high 
moral and patriotic considerations with a 
due regard for the Republican name and 
for the American character, was unfit to 
be made. They desire not to evade the 
proper responsibility of American citizens 
by declining to vote, and they desire also 
to make their votes as effective as possible 
for honest and pure and wise administra- 
tion. 

How can such voters who at this election 
cannot conscientiously support the Re- 
publican candidate, promote the objects 
which they desire to accomplish more 
surely than by supporting the candidate 
who represents the qualities, the spirit and 
the purpose which they all agree in 
believing to be of controlling importance 
in the election ? No citizen can rightfully 
avoid the issue or refuse to cast his vote. 
The ballot is a trust. Every voter is a 
trustee for good government, bound to 
answer to his private conscience for his 
public acts. This Conference, therefore, 
assuming that Republicans and Inde- 



pendent voters who for any reason cannot 
sustain the Republican nomination desire 
to take the course which, under the 
necessary conditions and constitutional 
methods of a Presidential election, will 
most readily and surely secure the result 
at which they aim, respectfully recom- 
mends to all such citizens to support the 
electors who will vote for Grover Cleve- 
land in order most effectually to enforce 
their conviction that nothing could more 
deeply stain the American name and 
prove more disastrous to the public 
welfare than the deliberate indifference of 
the people of the United States to increas- 
ing public corruption and to the want of 
official integrity in the highest trusts of the 
Government. 

Wliat They Say Ahroatl. 

To those who may imagine that because 
Governor Cleveland's public life has been 
entirely confined to his native State, he 
is unknown to the people generally out- 
side of that Commonwealth, we publish 
the following extracts showing that his 
good name and reputation not only are 
as broad as his native land, but extend to 
other nations, where he is regarded as 
one possessing wonderful executive abili- 
ties, and is, in the true sense of the word, 
a Reformer. 

{From the Pall Mall Gazette.] 

Unless all observers are mistaken and 
all the signs misleading. Governor Cleve- 
land, who was nominated as the Demo- 
cratic candidate by the party convention 
at Chicago, will be elected President of 
the American Republic in November. 
The Republicans have split their party by 
selecting Mr. Blaine, and the attempt to 
curry favor with the Irish by printing as 
Republican campaign documents every 
expression of English opinion adverse to 
the great American Jingo, has been so 
barefaced as to provoke a reaction. The 
Americans do not want to have a Presi- 
dent sent to Washington by the men who 
send dynamite to London. It may be 
noted, however, for the confusion of those 
who are constantly assuring us that an 
industrial democracy is free from all cra- 
ving for territorial extension, that the 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



41 



policy of contraction is encr<,'ctically repu- 
diated by both the great American parties. 
Mr. Blaine is the Beaconstield of the 
States; and as for Governor Cleveland, 
this is what the platform of his party has 
to say about the foreign policy of the 
Democrats : 

" As the result of this policy we recall 
the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Cali- 
fornia, and of the adjacent Mexican terri- 
tory by purchase alone. Contrast these 
grand acquisitions of Democratic states- 
manship with the purchase of Alaska, the 
sole fruit of a Republican administration 
of nearly a quarter of a century." 

And yet, in face of this eager competi- 
tion of American parties on the eye of a 
Presidential election as to which has an- 
nexed the most territory, there are those 
who imagine that the English democracy 
when once it is fully enfranchised will 
be enthusiastic for the contraction of 
England ! 

Aiiotber Trllmte. 

The London Globe, one of the lead- 
ing British papers, whose criticisms of 
American matters are always read with 
interest on this side of the ocean, in com- 
menting on the nomination of Governor 
Cleveland says : 

" The Democrats may be congratulated 
on having made a wise choice, and there 
seems every probability at present of their 
carrying the Presidency. From an out- 
side point of view. Governor Cleveland is 
somewhat to be preferred to Mr. Blaine. 
The latter has Irish and filibustering lean- 
ings, and is a much stronger Protectionist 
than his rival. It is also possible that 
Governor Cleveland will, if elected, really 
set his hand in earnest to civil service re- 
form — a crusade not to be expected of Mr. 
Blaine. The latter, indeed, now stands 
as the champion of vested interests in cor- 
ruption, while Governor Cleveland has 
been forced by circumstances to place de- 
pendence on the purity ticket.'' 

The reader will note that his reputation 
as a reformer has reached beyond his own 
country, and those who have carefully 



watched his public career in distant lands 
are convinced that in whatever position he 
may be placed, he will be an avowed 
enemy to public plunder and corruption 
both within and outside of his party. 

Still Anotlier Tribute. 

\From the Ijrmtlm Sl'imhird]. 

The Chicago Democratic Convention 
have ended their task by nominating Gov- 
ernor Cleveland as their candidate for ihe 
Presidency. A more satisfactory result 
could hardly have been desired. Mr. 
Cleveland is little known out of his own 
State, but he bears the character of being 
a man of ability, and his "record"' is un- 
stained. The fight will, in reality, be one 
between "clean" and "unclean" — that is 
to say, old-fashioned politics. The last 
eight years of Republican rule have not 
been popular. Indian frauds, sutler 
frauds, mail frauds, whiskey frauds, have 
been prominent, the whole being crowned 
with a Presidential election fraud, which 
was the worst of all. The struggle, how- 
ever, as it was in 1828, lies between men, 
rather than between parties, and if the 
country prefers Mr. Blaine, with his un- 
pleasant record and evil possibilities, to 
Mr. Cleveland, with his unblemished 
reputation, it will be because they fear 
that a party which for twenty-four years 
has been out of office will be too greedy 
for "the spoils" to practice within the 
White House the virtues they profess. 

The above paragraph shows very 
clearly that England has little or no in- 
terest in the platforms or principles of the 
different political parties, and that she does 
not expect to be benefited as a nation by 
the success of a particular party. So far 
as industries are at stake, our British 
cousins simply attend to their own inter- 
ests and do not expect other nations to 
assist them. Hence the idea that either 
free trade or protection in this country is 
of momentous importance to them is 
simply " a wind of words." The Standard 
compares the men as men fitted for the 
position. 



THOMAS AISTDEEWS HE^DEIOKS. 



By constitutional provision, upon the 
death or disqualification of the President, 
the Vice-President assumes the office, 
vested with all the powers as though he 
had been directly chosen for that position. 
Four times in the history of the nation has 
this officer become the Chief Executive, 
and four times have the people been 
taught the necessity of nominating a man 
for the second place competent to fill the 
first. Could the future have been known 
with its results, it is doubtful if either of 
the men selected as candidates for the 
Vice-Presidency would have received the 
nomination. 

The Democratic Party, by its action in 
the National Convention at Chicago, ap- 
pears to have been impressed with the 
importance of the second place on the 
ticket, and governed its actions accord- 
ingly, in the selection of one eminently 
fitted by devotion to party and country, 
by broad statesmanship, ripe experience 
as a legislator, and thoroughly conversant 
with the affairs of state. A life-long ex- 
perience with governmental affairs, a tho- 
rough knowledge of our government, its 
needs and its aspirations, a legislative ca- 
reer reaching over thirty years, a portion 
of which is the most eventful in our his- 
tory, and an extended acquaintance with 
public men, make him eminently fitted 
for the highest honors that can be be- 
stowed by our countrymen. 

He is Well Kuown. 

Thomas A. Hendricks is well known to 
all men and to all parties, as his partici- 
pation in public affairs and his opinions 
on all important questions of public policy 
form a part of our historic records. In 
private as well as in public life he has 
been a man of strong convictions, never 
entertaining an idea that he could not 
defend, and never accepting a proposition 
42 



that could not be demonstrated. Always 
true to his party allegiance, at the same 
time his broad and progressive ideas made 
him a national statesman. In the halls 
of legislation he served his constituents 
with unwavering devotion, and watched 
their interests with unceasing vigilance. 
Yet at the same time on all questions of 
national import he was for his country as 
a whole. Representing a government of 
the people, he stood closely by the people 
in defence of their legal rights and for 
such measures as enlarged their freedom, 
elevated their manhood, and promoted 
their general welfare. As a Senator, he 
made for himself a national reputation 
which will endure for all time. 

He was ever active and aggressive, and 
his career was characterized by frankness 
and boldness. He was active in opposi- 
tion to the measures overturning the old 
State Governments, the imposition of test 
oaths, the Civil Rights bill, theFreedman's 
Bureau bill and kindred legislation. He 
shaped his pohtical conduct upon the 
theory that the prosperity of the white 
people of the South, even though they 
had been rebels, was a matter of more 
importance than the prosperity of the 
negroes. If either race was to go to 
the wall he thought it should be the 
black race; but he held that the natural 
supremacy of the white race was a guar- 
antee for all. His arguments on the great 
questions of the day have been adopted 
as the authoritative statement of Demo- 
cratic opinion in the summaries of Con- 
gressional debate. For many years he 
has been the leader of his party in his 
state, and his fellow citizens have shown 
their appreciation of his valuable services 
by giving him repeated positions of trust 
and honor. There is probably no man in 
Indiana who has a stronger personal fol- 
lowing than Mr. Hendricks, or whose 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



45 



opinions exert a greater influence. Eight 
years ago his fellow citizens placed him on 
the ticket with Samuel J. Tilden, and Uiose 
who best know the inward workings of 
that campaign, and its termination before 
the Electoral Commission, feel assured 
that the ticket elected by the people was 
sacrificed by that arbitration. It is not 
our purpose to discuss that matter in this 
brief notice, but the law of retributive 
justice would seem to have demanded his 
presentation again for the position to 
which he, and millions of his people, be- 
lieve he was rightfully elected. 

Thomas A. Hendricks is more than an 
ordinary statesman. His ability to grasp 
the issues of the hour and to predict their 
effects upon the future, is attested by the 
Congressional records giving his services 
in the House and in the Senate. Never 
in the history of our country did political 
excitement run more high than when he 
took his place in the upper House of Con- 
gress. With a disrupted nation and a 
bloody war, which had existed for two 
years, with the North and South arrayed 
against each other, with millions of men 
in the field — with a demoniac howl 
against the Democracy throughout the free 
states because they strove to be national 
instead of sectional, — with the bayonets 
of the Federal army as a support of the 
Republican party, and with the soldiers 
as a detective police, to throw into prisons 
without warrant or indictment any who 
might refuse to sanction the policy of the 
dominant party — in such a time, and un- 
der such circumstances, the Democracy of 
Indiana chose Mr. Hendricks to represent 
their State in the Senate. But then as now, 
there, as in his own state, he stood true to 
his convictions, and acted as the Senator 
of a nation, instead of the champion of a 
faction. 

His Nomination as Vice-President. 

After Mr. Cleveland had been chosen 
for the first place on the National ticket, 
the question as to who was the best man 
for tlie second place became the topic of 
the moment. That the delegations had 
deliberated as to a Vice-President, prior to 
the selection of Mr. Cleveland, there can 
be no doubt from the fact '•hat no delay 



was had in completing the ticket. There 
were many in that convention who were 
for " the old ticket " of 1876, and had Mr. 
Tilden consented to be a candidate, there 
is little doubt that it would have been no- 
minated. But when that could not be 
had, there seemed to be a general feeling 
that the honored name of Hendricks which 
graced the old ticket, should again he 
placed upon the Democratic banner. The 
recess that was taken only tended to soli- 
dify this sentiment and when the convention 
again met, it was a foregone conclusion that 
Thomas A. Hendricks would be the no- 
mince. 

Ex-Senator Wallace of Pennsylvania 
said that he nominated as a candidate for 
Vice-President a man conversant with 
public affairs throughout his whole life, an 
honored statesman, a pure and upright 
citizen, a victim of the grossest fraud ever 
perpetrated on the American people — 
Thomas A. Hendricks. 

Governor Waller seconded the nomina- 
tion of Hendricks, and said that the De- 
mocratic party would, in defiance of fraud 
and in accordance with law, place him in 
the chair of Vice-President. 

The presentation of Mr. Hendricks' 
name was greeted with enthusiastic cheers, 
the Convention repeating, in a lesser de- 
gree, the scene which took place at the 
morning session in honor of the same 
gentleman. 

The announcement that Mr. Hendricks 
might not accept;the second place, only 
increased the enthusiasm, and one by one, 
all the names of the other candidates were 
withdrawn, leaving him the sole nominee. 
Mr. Waller continued his eulogy, and said 
that neither Connecticut's Governor nor 
Connecticut had a desire to force on In- 
diana a candidate against her will, but 
this was not an Indiana convention 
[laughter and applause], but one of the 
Democracy of the country, and the 
Democrats had the right to take any man 
that they saw fit for their ticket. If there 
was any Democrat who said he wonld not, 
under the circumstances here presented, 
take the nomination, he would of course 
withdraw his name, but Mr. Hendricks 
deserved it for the wrong that had been 
done in 1876. [Applause.] The party 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



would have selected the same statesman 
from the East that it had eight years ago 
but for his lack of health. Mr. Hendricks 
was, thank God, in good health, and his 
selection was demanded by the party 
now. 

Somebody asked that the rule be en- 
forced requiring the call of States to pro- 
ceed, and ex-Senator Wallace, declaring 
that Mr. Hendricks had once been elected 
Vice-President, and it was the party's de- 
mand now that he occupy his rightful seat 
again, moved that the rule be suspended 
and that the nomination be made by ac- 
clamation. 

He was an Alabamian who now mildly 
suggested that a roll-call be taken on the 
honorable names that had been presented. 
The convention, however, was set on hav- 
ing Hendricks, and no attention was paid 
to him. Judge John T. Harris, of Vir- 
ginia, seconded Mr. Wallace's motion. 
The withdrawal of all names save that of 
Hendricks now began, amid the applause 
of the audience. Searles withdrew the 
name of Rosecrans, and Colorado that of 
McDonald. Ex-Governor Hubbard of 
Texas, seconded Hendricks's nomination 
in a vigorous speech from the platform, 
in which he declared that the old ticket 
had been the desire of the Texas delega- 
tion when elected, and it still had a long- 
ing for it. " Gov. Hendricks will surely 
carry Indiana," said he, and again there 
was a shout. " He deserves it ; give it to 
him, for God's sake,'' Black's name was 
withdrawn, and Smith M. Weed begged 
the convention not to give the nomination 
to Mr. Hendricks with a hurrah, but let 
the roll be called. Wallace withdrew his 
motion and substituted one that the nomi- 
nations be closed, which was adopted with 
a hurrah, and State after State recorded 
in his favor, giving him the entire vote of 
the convention. 

Before proceeding to his biography in 
detail we propose to give the reader an in- 
telligent idea of the man as the represen- 
tative of the party which has just nomi- 
nated him, by quoting from his public 
record. 

Hl8 Record. 

Mr.'Hendricks's broad and sound finan- 
cial views, the correctness of which has 



been fully demonstrated by the facts, 
show that he was in advance of all others 
in his belief that our bonds could be placed 
at a lower rate of interest than was then 
paid. That the reader may fully under- 
stand his position on the financial ques- 
tion, and his faith in government securi- 
ties more than one year before the war 
had closed, we make the following ex- 
tract from the Congressional records : 

March 3, 1864, when a bill " To provide 
ways and means to support the govern- 
ment" was before the Senate, Mr. Hen- 
dricks said : " It has been expected in the 
country that a five per cent, loan would be 
provided for ; and I was surprised when 
the report came from the Committee on 
Finance providing for a six per cent. loan. 
The six per cent, bonds are worth in the 
market above par, which indicates very 
clearly that the Government could nego- 
tiate a loan at less than that rate of inter- 
est. It seems to me that the Government 
should negotiate its loans at the very low- 
est rate of interest possible. As compared 
with the debts of other Governments our 
debt is being contracted at a very high 
rate of interest, and it thus imposes a very 
great burden on the people. If we can 
secure a loan at five per cent, instead of 
six we ought to do it. It seems to me, if 
the public credit is maintained as it has 
been for the last few months, that a loan 
can be secured at five per cent. With the 
present depreciation of the currency five 
per cent, payable in coin, as this bill pro- 
vides, would be equal to nearly eight per 
cent, in currency. 

My proposition is to issue these bonds 
at a rate of interest not to exceed five per 
cent. If the chairman of the Committee 
on Finance will say that he is satisfied 
such a loan cannot be negotiated, of course 
that would influence my judgment very 
much on this proposition ; but until he says 
so, I am satisfied that such a loan can be 
negotiated ; and if so it ought to be done. 
We ought not to continue to increase our 
debt at the enormous rate of interest we 
now pay unless it be absolutely necessary. 
If we can secure a five per cent. loan in- 
stead of six per cent, or a higher rate, we 
should do it. I should like to know from the 
chairman of ne Committee on Finance 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



45 



whetlicr, in his jiidi^'ineiit, on an examina- 
tion of almost all the cities money can be 
readily had on an interest of six per cent 
l)er annum payable in paper. As I said 
before, at the time the answer was made 
to the Senator by Mr. Hunter, that was not 
the case ; but loans were negotiated at 
from seven to nine or ten per cent. 

Now, sir, the dilTercnce between paper 
and gold is quite thirty-three per cent. ; one 
dollar in gold being worth $1.59 in the 
paper currency of the country, and the 
ordinary commercial rate of interest 
being six per cent, payable in paper. 
Under these circumstances, I want to 
know why it is that the Secretary of 
the Treasury cannot negotiate this loan 
payable in gold at less than six per cent. 
If the banks of the country can use their 
capital at six per cent, and no greater rate 
of interest payable in paper, which is 
worth so much less tlian gold, why is it 
that the Secretary of the Treasury must 
pay in gold what is equal to more than 
nine per cent, in paper ? 

If the Secretary of the Treasury were to 
say to the Senate that he could not nego- 
tiate a loan for less than nine per cent., 
when the ordinary interest of the country 
is but six per cent., payable in depreciated 
currency, I would say the opinion of the 
Secretary of the Treasury was not entitled to 
the respect of the Senate. That would be 
my response to that proposition. But I 
want to ask the chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Finance if the Secretary of the 
Treasury were to say to us that in view of 
the present state of the rate of interest in 
the country he could not probably nego- 
tiate for less than nine per cent., whether 
he would insert in this bill " nine" instead 
of " six per cent.," contrary to his own 
convictions. 

Mr. President, I have not designed to 
discuss this question as a party man, nor 
do I intend to be led off into a party dis- 
cussion. We are now considering a ques- 
tion that goes to the pockets of the tax- 
payers of the country. If we can negotiate 
a loan at five per cent., instead of six 
per cent., it is our duty to do it. Our debt 
is being contracted at a higher rate of 
interest than perhaps the debt of any 
country in the world. I do not intend 



that it shall be considered a sufficient an- 
swer to me that any former Adminis- 
tration was compelled to negotiate a 
loan at a very high rate of interest. In 
reply to the Senator from Michigan, I do 
not recollect the circumstance to which he 
refers. I will not dispute it ; but my reply 
is, that 1 have no knowledge of the cir- 
cumstance to which he refers. 

The chairman of the Committee on 
Finance has called attention again to the 
fact that this is but a limitation ; it fixes 
the maximum of interest ; and the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury may possibly nego- 
tiate it at a less rate. I will ask the Sena- 
tor if he knows of any case in which a 
loan has been negotiated at a less rate of 
interest than the maximum fixed in the 
bill allowing the loan ? 

Mr. Fessendek. No ; I do not. 

Mr. Hendricks. The senator says 
he does not. Of course he does not. I 
knew that would be his reply. As soon as 
it is fixed in the bill, it becomes the opinion 
of the cauntry, and the rule in the Depart- 
ment, too, that that shall be the rate ; and 
when we say that it shall not exceed six 
per cent, it is the same as saying that the 
loan shall be negotiated at six per cent. 
That becomes both the maximum and the 
minimum. 

There has been a desire to obtain the 
Government securities within the last few 
months. We have an illustration of it here 
in this bill. A six per cent, loan was 
sought after with such avidity that 
$11,000,000 were subscribed^ for beyond 
the amount allowed by law, and this bill 
provides for that excess. There was an 
earnest desire to secure the loan, and that 
Government security is now worth in the 
market three or four per cent, above par. 

With this prominent, striking fact be- 
fore us, it seems to me remarkable that the 
chairman of the Committee on Finance 
should say to us we cannot negotiate a 
loan at less than six per cent. This loan 
is now worth at six per cent., payable in 
coin, nine per cent, in currency. Money 
is loaned in the banks and in all com- 
mercial transactions at six per cent., but 
the Government pays what is equivalent 
to nine per cent. I say we ought not to do 
it. If we make a loan at five per cent., 



46 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



payable in coin, it is equal to seven or 
eight per cent, in the ordinary currency of 
the country. 

I have made this proposition in good 
faith, not as a party man. I disclaim party 
considerations and influence upon a ques- 
tion like this. Our debt is going up to an 
enormous amount, and we should consider 
well at every step where we add one hun- 
dred or two hundred or three hundred 
million dollars to our already enormous 
debt, whether we can secure the loan at a 
less rate than that heretofore provided 
for. 

I believe if we put a six per cent, loan 
in this bill, the Secretary of the Treasury 
cannot negotiate it at less than six per cent., 
because that then becomes the rate in the 
public opinion, and the men who have 
money to loan will say to the Secretary, 
" We will let you have it at the amount of 
interest which the bill allows, but we will 
not let you have it at less." If the bill 
were to say five per cent., I believe the 
Secretary could secure it at that rate. 

I should not have indulged in another 
word in this debate, for I have expressed 
my views on the amendment which I have 
offered in good faith, were it not for 
the last suggestion of the Senator from 
Maine. He has said to the Senate that the 
last loan was taken and public confidence 
grew up in respect to it notwithstanding 
the efforts of the men in the country with 
whom I act politically to beat down public 
confidence in regard to that loan. Sir, I 
have not said anything in this debate to 
call for any such suggestion from the 
Senator ; and with great respect to him 
personally, I think that part of his argu- 
ment is not worthy the position he holds 
in the Senate, I know of no effort on my 
own part and of no effort on the part of 
the public men with whom I act as a party 
man to destroy the confidence of the peo- 
ple in the Government securities. Public 
confidence in those securities depends 
very much on our military operations, and 
the confidence in that loan was insipred 
more by the successes of our army upon 
the Mississippi and the Cumberland than 
by any political speeches, and the Senator 
ought to know it. After the victories of 
July last, the confidence of the public in 



the Government securities went up, very 
naturally. And now as the Senator claims 
that the rebellion is upon its last legs, 
why is it that he says the confidence in 
the public securities is not greater to-day 
than it was even at that hour? As the 
hour approaches, in the opinion of the 
Senator, at which the rebellion will 
cease to have power to resist the authority 
of the Government, the confidence in the 
Government securities is to go down, at 
least not to increase. Sir, the success of 
our armies has given this confidence, and 
no efforts of political parties in the country. 
I am very sorry that upon a question 
that affects only the tax-payers of the 
country, the Senator should have deemed 
it necessary to go into any political dis- 
cussion. I do not intend to be led into it 
even by the chairman of the Committee 
on Finance. 

His Early History. 

Thomas Andrews Hendricks, was born 
on a little farm in the vicinity of Zanes- 
ville, Muskingum County, Ohio, on the 
9th of September, 181 9, so that he is now 
approaching his sixty-sixth year, His 
father, the late Major John Hendricks, was 
a native of Pennsylvania, and was 
amongst the first settlers of Ligonier Val- 
ley, in the county of Westmoreland. He 
was an enterprising, thrifty man, and a 
fine specimen of those early squatters who 
filled the primeval forests and tilled the 
virgin soil. His father was noted for his 
social graces and hospitality, and was con- 
spicuous in the Presbyterian Church ; and 
these circumstances left an impress on the 
young man's character. He took an ac- 
tive part in public affairs, held several 
positions in the county, and was elected to 
the State Legislature. His wife, the 
mother of the nominee, was Jane Thom- 
son, of Scotch descent, her grandfather, 
John Thomson, having emigrated to this 
country before the Revolutionary war, in 
which he bore an honorable and conspicu- 
ous part. In 1820, six months after the 
birth of his son Thomas, he sold his pro- 
perty in Westmoreland county, and re- 
moved to Madison on the Ohio river, in 
the State of Indiana, where his brother, 
William Hendricks, also resided, the sec- 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



oncl Governor of Indiana, the first Repre- 
sentative to Congress from that State, and 
afterwards the predecessor of his nephew, 
Thomas, in the Senate of the United 
States. Shortly after the father, John, re- 
moved to Indiana he was appointed by the 
government at Washington, Surveyor of 
Public Lands, a positon which he filled to 
the satisfaction of the administration. In 
the year 1822, when Thomas was only three 
years of age, his father concluded to go 
further west, and accordingly removed 
into the interior of the State and pur- 
chased a home in Shelby County .near Shcl- 
byville, the present site of the County seat, 
which was then, and still is, one of the 
most delightful and productive spots in the 
State of Indiana. Here John Hendricks 
built him a substantial brick house, which 
is still standing, in which his family was 
reared, amid the best influences that could 
be enjoyed in those pioneer days. Indi- 
anapolis had just been laid out and estab- 
lished as the future capital of the State, 
and Mr. Hendricks' house was one of the 
principal centres of education and Chris- 
tian refinement in the central part of Indi- 
ana. He was the father and founder of 
the Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, 
of the good Scotch type, and in that faith 
the boy Thomas was reared and nurtured. 

His Early Days. 

Young Hendricks attended the '•nllage 
school where he exhausted the local edu- 
cational opportunities, and as soon as he 
reached the required age he entered the 
college at South Hanover, near Madison, 
one of the pioneer educational institutions 
of the West, from which he graduated in 
1841, at the age of twenty-two years. 
During his collegiate term he was noted 
amongst his preceptors and students for 
the ease with which he prepared himself 
in his several studies, which was due to 
his analytical mind and retentive memory. 
He always had time to join in games for 
recreation, as well as to read many books 
in no way appertaining to his college stu- 
dies. He excelled in mathematics and 
logic, and gave promise of high literary 
talent. 

Tbe Stndent and Itsn/ryer, 

Prior to leaving college he decided to 



make the law his profession and he at 
once commenced the study of law with 
Judge Major, one of the most prominent 
members of the Bar of Central Indiana, 
then and still residing at Shelbyville. 
Here for about a year he diligently pur- 
sued his legal studies, giving promise that 
he had selected a profession for which he 
was peculiarly fitted, and in 1842, he went 
to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at the 
request of his uncle. Judge Thomson, of 
that place, where he completed his studies 
under his direction and was admitted to 
practice. Shortly after graduating in the 
law he left the home of his uncle, returned 
to Indiana, and hung out his shingle as a 
lawyer in Shelbyville. But clients came 
slowly and at long intervals, and the 
bright and pleasant dreams of the vision- 
ary student faded away before the stern 
realties of actual business. His success 
was not rapid, and at one time the young 
lawyer depairing of success, almost re- 
solved to strike out in another field of 
labor. His friends dissuaded him from so 
doing, so he continued at his calling, and 
his close attention to the interests of those 
who patronized him, his correct habits 
and his pleasant and engaging address, 
all conspired to give him popularity, so 
that gradually his practice increased and 
his reputation spread, until in the end he 
had a lucrative practice and a high posi- 
tion in his profession. 

By hard work at his profession and 
habits of strict economy, he accumulated 
a moderate fortune. About the same time 
he commenced to practice law, he entered 
the political field and being a good debater 
and an oratorical speaker, he soon became 
a prominent factor in the politics of his 
state. It is quite probable that his political 
speeches and his commingling with the 
public men of the day, added very largely 
to the number of his clients and augmented 
the receipts from his profession. 

In Mr. Hendricks' profession — the law — 
all acknowledge him to be great. This is 
the vocation to which nature particularly 
adapted him, and it is his favorite one. 
He has, since first entering public life, 
returned to the practice of his profession 
with facility and zeal immediately upon 
the termination or intermission of official 



48 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



engagements. He thoroughly mastered 
its elementary principles and the minutiae 
of its practice. With this foundation and 
with a natural legal mind he is never at a 
loss, and is always strong in any cause 
without special book preparation. Before 
court or jury he is equally at home. In a 
trial he is never off his guard nor discon- 
certed by any unlooked for turn in the 
fortune of a case. He encounters any 
such crisis with as much promptness, for- 
titude and address as if it had been antici- 
pated and prepared for. 

He enters Public Life. 

Mr. Hendricks continued in the practice 
of the law until 1848, during which period 
he obtained a high reputation as a lawyer, 
and his practice not only was large in his 
own district, but it had extended through- 
out the state. Probably no one in the 
profession in Indiana of his age held a 
more promising place at the bar than 
young Hendricks, and his forensic efforts 
were models of eloquence and legal 
knowledge. He has always been reckoned 
one of the most powerful men before a 
jury in his state, and he has carried away 
many a case from the cold and logical 
instructions of the court to a spell-bound 
jury. 

An Incident. 

On one occasion an excited individual 
called at his office to procure his legal 
services. Mr. Hendricks was sitting in a 
lazy chair reading a volume of State Re- 
ports when he entered, and inviting the 
visitor to a chair, asked him the nature of 
his business. 

" I want you to assist me in resisting the 
payment of a note, and I have been re- 
commended to you as the best lawyer of 
the place." 

" Well," said Mr. Hendricks, " state the 
circumstances and facts just as they are.'' 

The visitor then explained to him, that 
he purchased some stock six months since, 
and gave his note for the amount, which 
would fall due in a few weeks. As he lost 
money by the transaction he did not pro- 
pose to pay the note if he could avoid it, 
and he wished the attorney to legally 
transfer his property to another party, so 
that it could not be seized for the debt. 



" You received the goods according to 
agreement," said Mr. Hendricks. 

" Yes, sir." 

" And gave your note in good faith ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" And you wish me to aid you in de- 
frauding an honest creditor?" 

" I wish to save my money, as many 
others do," replied the would-be client, 
"and I will divide the amount of the note 
with you for your services." 

"And what will be my share?" asked 
the lawyer. 

"Why the note is for $600, and your 
share will be one half that sum.'' 

" See here, young man," said Mr 
Hendricks rising from his chair and ad- 
vancing towards his visitor, " I will give 
you my opinion and advice without any 
fee. My opinion is that you are a rogue 
and a scoundrel, who richly deserves to 
be placed behind the bars of a prison ; 
and my advice is that unless you pay that 
note when it becomes due, and thus meet 
your honest obligations like a man, the 
court will place you where you properly 
belong. There may be persons who 
would aid you in your rascally scheme, 
and enable you to cheat your fellow-man, 
but you have called at the wrong office. 
Good night, sir — take my advice and you 
will never regret it.'' 

During the presidential campaign in 
1844, when Mr. Hendricks was but 24 
years of age, he took a conspicuous part, 
and worked efficiently for the success of 
the ticket. He took the stump for Polk 
and Dallas, and made a number of 
speeches throughout the State. Being an 
effective speaker, and a ready writer, his 
services were in great demand, and the 
announcement of his presence at a politi- 
cal meeting was sure to draw a large con- 
course of people. His speeches in those 
days were models of their kind, and gave 
him a notoriety that hastened his advent 
into public life. He had a decided liking 
for politics, and even at that early day he 
was one of the best posted men in the 
State in local and national issues. His 
activity in this field brought him in con- 
tact, and gave him an acquaintance with 
the leading men of the State. He then 
formed friendships which have proven 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



49 



most valuable, and which have lasted to 
the present time, and many of his most 
enthusiastic admirers and ardent sup- 
porters arc those who met him nearly 
forty years ago. 

Ill tlte State Lef^lslatiire. 

From 1843 to i860, Mr. Hendricks re- 
sided at the City of Shelbyville, where 
as lawyer and politician he was one of the 
leading citizens. His Democratic convic- 
tions were of the most decided character. 
Its anti-centralization policy, its conserv- 
atism so like that which characterized the 
tried governments of the old world, and its 
close affiliation with the direct interests of 
the populace made it his ideal of the party 
for a government of the people. Indeed 
his great personal popularity in his district 
was in a great measure due to the fact 
that he always stood close by the masses 
and their rights, and was quick to resent 
any effort to curtail their powers. He had 
read all the party lore, he had been a 
close student in our political history, and 
had followed the party of his choice 
throughout all its doings. His admiration 
of Jefferson led him to study his writings 
and his character, and hence he has 
always been a genuine Jeffersonian Demo- 
crat. He is no advocate of " isms," no 
follower of visionary theories, but sticks 
closely to the old party landmarks. 
Hence his safe conservatism and strict 
adherence to the vital issues of his party. 

A Natnral l>eader« 

His fellow-citizens, beholding these 
traits even in his early years, naturally 
turned towards him as a natural leader, 
and counsellor, and in 1848 they with 
great unanimity nominated him for the 
State legislature before he was 28 years of 
age. Three years prior to this, September 
25, 1845, he was married, near Cincmnati, to 
Miss Eliza C. Morgan, by whom he had a 
son, born in 1848, but who lived only three 
years. This was his only child, and his 
death left a lasting impression on the be- 
reaved father. The position in the legis- 
lature was not sought by him, and he ac- 
cepted it with reluctance, for he had a 
lucrative legal practice, which must neces- 
sarily suffer in his absence at the State 
Capital. But withal there was a fascination 
4 



I in politics that captivated him, and sacri- 
ficing his financial prospects for political 
promotion, lie, for two years represented 
his people in the lower house, with the 
same zeal that he attended to his legal 
business. But the position proved unsat- 
isfactory to him. He felt himself beyond 
the position, and resolved to return to his 
office and books at the close of his term. 
Whilst in the House he was always at his 
post, and was watchful of every class of 
legislation, and he became noted as op- 
posed to all sorts of extravagance and 
useless expenditure of the public money. 
True to his party, to his State, and to him- 
self, he was one of the leading members 
whose opinion had much weight in mould- 
ing legislation. From his first entry as a 
public officer he has favored an honest 
and economical administration of public 
affairs, and thus is a fitting personage to 
place on the national ticket with Governor 
Cleveland. 

A AIeinl>er of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion. 

But the people did not intend that he 
should retire to private life, when he de- 
clined are-election to the State legislature 
in 1850. In the meantime an act had been 
passed to organize a Constitutional Con- 
vention, and his name was at once brought 
out in connection with that body. The 
Indianapolis Senatorial district elected him 
a member of the convention, a position to 
which his legal knowledge and safe judg- 
ment made him a valuable member. Mr. 
Hendricks was then but thirty years old, 
and was perhaps the youngest member of 
that august body. Here with Schuyler 
Colfax, William S. Holman, and the 
leading lawyers and statesmen of Indiana, 
he took a prominent and leading part in 
the proceedings, and much of the instru- 
ment that emanated from that convention 
bears the impress of his handiwork. It 
was this convention that framed the pre- 
sent constitution of the State. 
An examination of the records of that body 
attests the valuable aid Mr. Hendricks 
gave his fellow-members, and the close 
attention he bestowed on every detail of 
its labors. One conspicuous feature ex- 
hibited there, as elsewhere, is his opposi- 
tion as a general rule to special legislation. 



50 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



There were influences bearing on this 
body, as upon all similar convocations 
favoring special classes and interests, all 
tending to the centralization of power into 
the hands of the few and creating monopo- 
lies to give capital an undue influence over 
labor. They found no friend for such in 
Mr. Hendricks, who opposed every effort 
in that direction, and the entire absence of 
such special legislation in the new consti- 
tution is as much due to him as to any 
other member. Some of hi? arguments 
on that occasion are models in eloquence, 
in purity of style, in close and cogent 
reasoning, and in devotion to his State. 
Mr. Colfax said that no man in that body 
gave more valuable service than he, and 
Mr. Holman, who is not verbose in lauda- 
tion, spoke of him as an invaluable mem- 
ber. 

selected to Congress. 

The prominence of Mr. Hendricks in 
the Constitutional Convention gave him 
additional notoriety and popularity. It 
was his first opportunity to demonstrate 
his worth and ability and the people saw 
in him one of the rising men of the com- 
monwealth. The State legislature gave no 
scope for his broad ideas — it was too nar- 
row and confined for one with such 
broad statesmanship and legal acumen. 
But this convention brought him into his 
proper sphere and enabled his constituents 
to note the power of him whom they had 
selected. His friends presented him as a 
candidate for Congress from that district, 
which then extended over a vast scope of 
country, owing to the sparse population. 
It was the Central Congressional District 
of that State, reaching from Tipton on the 
north, to Brown County on the south, and 
from Marion on the east, to Hendricks on 
the West. The nominating convention 
selected him, and in August 1851, he was 
elected over his competitor, Colonel Rush, 
of Hancock County, by a majority of 
nearly 4000 votes, 

111 Congress. 

On the first Monday in December, 1852, 
he took his seat in that great national 
body, and commenced a career in states- 
manship which has given him a reputation 
as extended as the bounds of the na- 
tion. A new member of the House of 



Representatives, no matter what his genius 
or ability, or standing in state and local 
politics finds himself in the vocative when 
he takes his seat in the lower House at 
Washington. It was a new school in which 
there is much to study and to learn, ere 
he can become an active and useful parti- 
cipant, and he who flops up to seek noto- 
riety in his incipiency is as a rule, so 
completely ignored and squelched, that as 
a result he regrets his impetuosity, and in 
the future ''makes haste slowly." So Mr. 
Hendricks quietly performed his several 
duties during that winter, without rushing 
into debate, studying his new position 
and gradually preparing himself for 
future efforts. In the Committee room he 
was a steady and careful worker, and on 
the floor an active member. He never 
rose to address the house without a spe- 
cific object, and when he did, he reached 
his point by the most direct route. His 
powers of condensation, so noticeable at 
the present, were shown in his early efi'orts 
in the House. 

Re-elected to Congress. 

Under the provisions of the new State 
Constitution the time for electing members 
of Congress was changed, and a member 
had to be selected in the following year. 
The Democratic Convention of his District 
unanimously nominated him, and in 1852, 
he was re-elected. A new apportionment 
had changed the district from its former 
geographical boundaries, giving him to 
some extent a new constituency. His 
opponent in the congressional campaign 
of 1852 was Mr. Bradley, an able and 
brilliant Whig. By an agreement be- 
tween them Messrs. Hendricks and Brad- 
ley held joint discussions throughout the 
district, which was the first of that kind 
of campaigning in Indiana. The cam- 
paign was an exciting one, and this novel 
manner of conducting it drew large au- 
diences composed of both political parties 
at the places selected for this joint discus- 
sion. It was predicted by many of the 
friends of both gentlemen that the experi- 
ment would not succeed — that disorder 
and perhaps bloodshed might ensue from 
bringing men under the pressure of 
political excitement into contact. The re- 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



51 



suit showed that their fears were un- 
founded. The speakers were courteous 
to each other and did not permit party 
feeling to sunder personal friendship, 'and 
the crowds partook of the <;eneral good 



Mr. Hendricks was not misinformed as to 
public opinion at home, but he well knew 
that his convictions were in opposition to 
the views of many of his constituents. The 
time-serving politician would have had no 



humor. As was expected, Mr. Hendricks difficulty in shaping his course under such 



was re-elected by a handsome majority. 

TUe MUnourl Compromise. 

It was during his second term in Con- 
gress that the Missouri Compromise came 
before Congress, and that body as well as 
the country at large felt the most profound 
interest in the proceedings. The friends 
of the Compromise regarded it as the 
anchor which had prevented the nation 
from drifting on the rocks of discord and 
dissolution, whilst others considered it 
the cause of such constant dissension in 
the halls of legislation that its repeal was 
necessary for the security of our govern- 
ment. It is not our purpose to enter into 
a discussion of the question, as it forms 
such an important part of the history of 
that period, and has so often been given 
in its fullest details that every general 
reader is conversant with it. Suffice it to 
say that Henry Clay had almost secured 
the devotion of the people as the father of 
that measure, and with that regard which 
well established principles will obtain, 
the people were taught to look with sus- 
picion and fear upon any interference 
with this compact. Opinions on this ques- 
tion did not drift in strict party channels, 
but men divided on it as a great question 
outside of party lines. In its defence, as 
well as in the opposition, Whig and 
Democrat worked shoulder to shoulder. 
It was a new departure, which created a 
new dividing line between individuals 
wholly upon this single issue. 

Its Repeal. 

The discussions in both Houses of Con- 
gress on the question were of an exciting 
character, and well calculated to inflame the 
public mind. Mr. Hendricks, as a Repre- 
sentative, took part in the House proceed- 
ings and favored its repeal. He advocated 
his position from a constitutional and legal 
standpoint, and divesting himself of all 
personality, and ignoring all local influ- 
ences, he chose rather to be the advocate 
of a nation than the attorney of a district, 



circumstances. He would have stifled 
conscience, abandoned what he considered 
right, and yielded to the clamor of his 
constituents. Not so with Mr. Hendricks. 
He acted as he thought the present de- 
manded, leaving the future to provide for 
itself, and however much we may differ as 
to the propriety and wisdom of his course, 
all agree that he was honest in his con- 
victions. 

He sought to explain his vote in favor 
of its repeal to his constituents, and to 
convince them that his action was right in 
the premises, but that vote lost him a large 
following in his district. He received the 
nomination for a third term in Congress 
but was defeated at the election by Lucien 
Barbour, who has died since, and who 
was the first Republican Congressman 
from the Central district of Indiana. 
However much his people may have, 
differed as to his vote on the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, he was satisfied 
He (as a majority now do) believed that 
the original bill was unconstitutional, and 
apart from any merit it might possess, 
should be repealed. He considered the 
Constitution of the United States long 
enough, broad enough, and strong enough 
to govern our people, and that any uncon- 
stitutional legislation, however valuable it 
might prove for the time, was not only a 
wilful wrong against government, but a 
direct attack upon the fundamental princi- 
ples of the Government. 

On the 4th of March, 1855, his term ex- 
pired, and he left the nation's capital to 
return to his homestead, and again feel 
the sweet and refreshing repose of private 

life. 

At Home. 

Again we find him in Shelbyville, sur- 
rounded by his law books and his briefs, 
the same pleasant, social every-day man 
as before. It is not every one who can 
stand political honors. The adulation of 
sycophants, the importance of duties, the 
eminence of the position, and the eclat 



52 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



that appertains to the office, have a ten- 
dency to turn men's heads, and give them 
false ideas of their greatness. They are 
too apt to forget that it is the position or 
office and not the man that brings atten- 
tion and patronage, and they do not dis- 
cover their mistake until they are rele- 
gated to private life, and find that they are 
disrobed of all that flattered their vanity. 
Not so with Mr. Hendricks. In all stations 
and on all occasions you find him the 
same, plain, unassuming, companionable 
gentleman, neither proud nor pedantic — 
the very beau ideal of an American 
citizen. 

At Hl8 Profession. 

A very few months found him with an 
extensive practice. His former clients re- 
turned, and his reputation brought a large 
influx of new ones. Lawyer Hendricks 
was as popular as Congressman Hen- 
dricks, and to him it was no doubt more 
pleasant, for it is more easy to serve 
clients than constituents, more congenial 
to tender legal advice than to attempt to 
ride on the deceitful billows of public 
opinion. And so the spring, with its pale 
green tints and early flowers, ripened into 
redolent summer, when at the close of a 
hot August day he was sitting on the porch 
of his cozy home, a messenger called and 
placed in his hand an unpretentious pack- 
age. That was thirty-five years ago, 
when many things, both in private and 
official life, were done differently from 
what they now are. At the present time 
appointments are, by means of the tele- 
graph, heralded all over the country, even 
before they are made, and the fortunate 
individual is amongst the last to receive 
the notice. What the President will do is 
more thoroughly discussed through the 
newspapers than what he does, and a man 
is put on trial before his countrymen be- 
fore the indictment is made out. In those 
days it was the very opposite, and such 
matters were " State secrets," which even 
the omnipresent correspondents could not 
find out. He opened the packet which 
bore the seal of the president of the 
United States, and within it found an 
autograph letler from President Pierce 
tendering him the office of 



Commissioner of the Liand Office. 

The offer of the position was a complete 
surprise to Mr. Hendricks who had not 
made application for it or for any other po- 
sition at the disposal of the Executive. 
The President knew him personally, and 
Mr. Hendricks' friends had, unknown to 
him, endorsed him for the place. Life in 
Washington had no particular charms for 
him, he preferred his own quiet home in 
Indiana, and as this position would not 
only necessitate his return to that city, but 
would occupy all of his time there, he was 
at first disposed to decline the proffered 
position. He wrote to the President, ask- 
ing for a few days to decide, and in the 
meantime consulted his father and a few 
of his most intimate friends. The father 
who no doubt felt flattered that his son had 
been selected for such an honorable and 
important position, urged him to accept, 
and his friends argued that inasmuch as 
he had entered public life, and in all prob- 
ability would continue in politics, he should 
take the place as a stepping stone to other 
and higher positions. Accordingly he 
wrote his acceptance to the President, was 
duly appointed and commissioned for the 
office, and in September he left his office 
and his home, and took charge of the Gen- 
eral Land Office. Robert McClelland, of 
Michigan, was then Secretary of the In- 
terior, and was his immediate superior 
officer, and as he knew Mr. Hendricks 
well, it is more than probable that he used 
his influence with the President to have 
him appointed. During the remainder of 
that administration the most friendly rela- 
tions existed between them resulting in a 
friendship that extended through after 
years. 

His Administration of tlie Office. 

His administration of the affairs of the 
office showed that he possessed fine execu- 
tive ability, and never before was the bus- 
iness so promptly executed. He made 
himself familiar with every department of 
the business, knew the details of all its 
branches, and very soon was well posted 
on the efficiency of all his subordinates. 
Whilst holding this position he rendered 
several important decisions relating to our 
public lands, and gave the office a standing 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



53 



and importance it had never before at- 
tained. He placed the office on a strict 
business basis, by which means he was 
able to accomplish the work at less expense 
and with greater despatch. The imprint 
of his worth may still be seen in that office, 
although it has been a quarter of a century 
since he retired from its duties. 

He continued during the remainder of 
Mr. Pierce's administration, and when Mr. 
Buchanan was inaugurated, he asked the 
Commissioner to remain. He did so for 
over two years of his administration, when 
he became weary of the increasing duties 
which for four years had required his un- 
divided attention, and felt that he needed 
that relaxation and comfort which can only 
be found at home. He tendered his resig- 
nation ,to President Buchanan, through 
Jacob Thompson, then Secretary of the In- 
terior, and in 1859 ^^ again sought the 
city of Shelbyville, to rest from his labors 
and eventually to follow his profession. 

Nominated for Governor. 

But he was not permitted to continue at 
his profession. The campaign of i860, an 
eventful one in the history of both party 
and country, agitated the country to its re- 
motest extremity. 

The Democratic Convention held at 
Charleston failed to make a harmonious 
nomination. Stephen A. Douglas, a prom- 
inent leader of the Democracy had 
taken issue with the policy of President 
Buchanan, and a segment of the party 
sustained him in his opinions of public pol- 
icy. His followers were known as Anti- 
Lecompton Democrats, and the delegates 
favorable to the nomination of Mr. Doug- 
las left the convention and afterwards met 
and placed him in nomination at Balti- 
more. Thus the party was hopelessly di- 
vided — one branch sustaining Mr. Breck- 
enridge and the other Mr. Douglas. Abra- 
ham Lincoln had been suddenly lifted into 
notoriety by his joint discussions with Mr. 
Douglas, and the Republicans placed him 
in nomination. Thus a divided Demo- 
cracy had to contend with the solid Re- 
publican party. On one side a party en- 
tirely sectional in its character, endeavored 
to solidify the north in its favor, whilst the 
Democracy put forth its greatest efforts to 



harmonize its discordant elements, and 
stem the tide of popular clamor. At the 
same time the State of Indiana had a gov- 
ernor to elect in October, and the impor- 
tance of a victory at the first election was 
felt by the contending parties. The party 
looked over the field and unanimously 
nominated Mr. Hendricks for Governor. 

Oliver P. Morton was the nominee of 
the Republicans, and the campaign was 
one of the most exciting ever held in the 
State. Sectional prejudices ran so high, 
that men with broad national conservative 
views were accused of fealty to the gov- 
ernment, and enemiesof their own section. 
The result was that Mr. Hendricks was 
defeated by a large majority, and the gov- 
ernment of the State passed into the hands 
of the Republicans. Even his personal 
popularity could not stem the rushing tide, 
and his State yielded to the popular clam- 
or. He had led the forlorn tribe for his 
State and his country, and lost. 

He Removes to Indianapolis. 

Shortly after the election, he left Shelby- 
ville and removed to Indianapolis, and 
opened a law office, where he at once took 
a leading position at the bar of the State 
Capital. The reader will note how he al- 
ternated between politics and law, and 
really during all his public life never actu- 
ally abandoning either. Here he imme- 
diately secured an extensive practice which 
increased beyond his ability to transact, 
and he formed a partnership with Oscar 
B. Hard, a prominent attorney who subse- 
quently became Attorney-General of the 
Commonwealth. This firm became widely 
known, and much of its time was occupied 
with important cases before the higher 
courts. At this time, 1S62, the legislature 
of the State was Democratic, and Jesse D. 
Bright, United States Senator from Indi- 
ana, having been expelled from that body, 
an election was held to choose one to fill 
his unexpired term of about three weeks, 
and David H. Turpin was elected to fill 
the vacancy, 

Cbosen United state* Senator. 

It devolved on the same legislature to 
elect a Senator for the ensuing term of 
six years, from March 4th following, and 
Mr. Hendricks received the unanimous 



54 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



vote of his party, and was elected. And 
thus again as the reader will note, his rele- 
gation to private life was of short duration. 
From the lower house of the State legisla- 
ture he had arisen till he now was selected 
to fill one of the highest and most honor- 
able positions within the gift of his coun- 
tr\^men. It was at a momentous period 
of our national history, and the conserva- 
tive class hailed with delight his advent to 
the chief council of the nation. 

He took his seat in the National Senate 
on the 4th of March, 1863, and served 
until 1869 — four years as the collegue of 
Senator Lane and for two years with Sena- 
tor Morton. With Mr. Hendricks* Sena- 
torial services and record the country is 
familiar. jTle became in great measure 
the leader of the small Democratic minor- 
ity in that bodyj^ 

Hla Course as Senator. 

It is not our purpose to follow the career 
of Mr. Hendricks as United States Sena- 
tor. It is a matter of history with which 
the reader is no doubt familiar. Suffice 
it to say that his course throughout was 
marked by the same general character- 
istics which he had shown in his prior 
public and private life. Although a strict 
party man, he was not a party menial, 
and often on great national questions he 
rose above party, and saw only his country 
and its institutions as a grand whole. He 
met every question presented for consider- 
ation frankly and fairly, giving his views 
without prevarication, and his votes as his 
judgment dictated. He never consumed 
the time of the Senate in useless debate — 
never discussed a question that he did not 
fully comprehend, and never courted or 
succumbed to an excited public opinion. 

There was nothing dramatic in his man- 
ner, and he never did anything for effect. 
He had nothing of the spread eagle style, 
but on the contrary always appeared be- 
fore that body in the character of a broad 
Statesman and a Constitutional lawyer. 
That the reader may be his own judge in 
these matters, we will now reproduced him 
from his official record giving a few of 
his opinions as expressed on the floor of 
the Senate. 



Senator Hendricks' Views. ' 

Senator Hendricks is a sound Constitu- 
tional lawyer, and his legal views always 
obtained the attention and respect of his 
fellow Senators. The following speech is 
given that the reader may judge of his 
power and ability from this standpoint. 
The question at issue was whether in- 
terest on claims against the United States 
should be allowed. 

Mr. Hendricks said : — 
Mr. President, I am not going to discuss 
the question whether the Government, 
which is presumed always to be ready 
when a claim is properly presented, ought 
to pay interest or not. But our policy, 
with a few exceptional cases, has been not 
to pay interest. When the Government 
has owed a private citizen for many years 
and has delayed him in the application, 
and oftentimes allowed him to meet with 
financial ruin before it complied with its 
just obligations to him, still it has refused 
to pay him interest ; and why ? Upon the 
theory that the Government is always 
ready to pay its debts when properly pre- 
sented. But it seems in this case that 
there was no claim for interest presented ; 
it was not demanded. The Senator says 
that the slave power was in the way. 
Why, sir, the slave power paid Massa- 
chusetts all she asked. Did the Senator 
from Massachusetts expect that the slave 
power would go beyond the asking and 
voluntarily pay more than Massachusetts 
wanted ? 

Mr. President, I think this claim ought 
to be put upon the ground that Massachu- 
setts was so earnest in her support of the 
war of 181 2. It does appear that she did 
not advance anything, according to the 
argument of the Senator, until the booming 
of the cannon was heard just beyond the 
hills that line her coast and until her own 
soil was invaded ; and then it seems she 
raised a militia for the purpose of protect- 
ing her own borders, not to aid in the 
general cause except so far as the defense 
of her own borders was connected with 
the general cause ; and I suppose she 
paid this militia that was called out for the 
special purpose of protecting her own 
borders, not like Indiana in the recent 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



65 



war, not like Ohio in the recent war, ad- 
vancing funds so as to fill the Army 
immediately to fight the battles of the 
country upon other than her own soil ; 
but Massachusetts, showing her devotion 
to the cause and the flag of the country in 
the war of 1812, did not want her own soil 
invaded, and she took active means, 
prompt steps to prevent that, and she paid 
that particular force for that particular 
service and then she asked Congress to 
pay it back. It was paid. It was paid a 
long time before a good many other claims 
arising in that war were paid, very 
long before. Why, sir, as young a man 
as I am myself I recollect when I was a 
member of the House of Representatives 
to have presented a claim for an old gen- 
tleman whose vessel had been taken 
under such circumstances that Congress 
had to pay for it, and yet nobody thought 
to pay him interest. 

He was a young man in command of 
his vessel upon the Delaware when it was 
taken from him, and he was left without 
the means of support almost, except his 
hands ; and when it was paid he was old 
and gray and blind, and Congress never 
thought of paying him interest ; and when 
it was asked the slave power, as the Sena- 
tor says controlling Congress at that time, 
would not listen to him. He lived in 
Indiana, and it never occurred to him 
that it was the slave power that was 
opposed to the blind, gray-headed old 
man who did not get interest. Why ? 
Upon the theory that the Government of the 
United States is always ready to pay when 
a claim is established to the satisfaction 
of its conscience. When did Massachu- 
setts present her claim in such form as 
that it could not be questioned any longer ? 
Was it before 1820? It seems that in 
1820 she presented it in such a shape that 
there was a partial allowance made. Did 
Massachusetts in 1820 present the claim so 
as that the conscience of the Government 
was in default in not paying the whole ? 
Then in 1836 some additional evidence 
was presented and additional payment was 
made ; and then in 1859 '^ final allowance, 
when the State having presented all the 
evidence she could produce received the 
money from the Government upon a 



declaration that it is the last payment that 
is to be made. But this is a mistake. It 
is not the last. The Senator says he will 
not stop at all. Why did he allow that to 
go into the law and into the reports that 
this is upon the balance, the final pay- 
ment ? He did not intend it I suppose. 
Now, the truth of the business is that in 
1820 the State of Massachusetts presented 
her evidence as well as she could, 1 sup- 
pose, and she was paid according to the 
claim then established ; in 1836 she added 
to her evidence, I suppose, and she was 
paid according to the claim as then pre- 
sented. 

Mr. President, until four years since 
there was no claim urged by the State of 
Massachusetts for interest ; but she re- 
ceived the money as it was appropriated 
by Congress, upon a statement made by 
the Secretary of War and referred to by 
the law, that that was the balance of the 
claim. The one side, that is, the Govern- 
ment, in her legislation and by her Depart- 
ment ascertains that this is the balance; 
and the State accepting it upon that state- 
ment, in my judgment, is not now in a 
condition to demand interest. 

But, Mr. President, this law of 1859 
shows the fact to have been as I supposed 
it to be, that in 1820 the State of Massa- 
chusetts was not in a condition to demand 
all that was due to her from the Govern- 
ment ; in other words, she had not pre- 
sented her claim to Congress in such form 
as satisfied the conscience of Congress 
that this payment ought to be made ; so 
that in 1836 there was a resolution passed 
authorizing the State of Massachusetts to 
present evidence in support of her claim. 
Up to that time she had not presented evi- 
dence. I ask the Senator from Massachu- 
setts if the Government of the United 
States is under any moral obligation to pay 
interest to a State or any other body or 
person until that person or State is in a 
condition to demand the money ? If the 
accounts of the State when presented are 
not supported by such evidence as makes 
it the duty of the public officers to pay the 
money is the Government in default ? 
This was service rendered peculiarly under 
the eye of Massachusetts. This military 
service was not under the control and man- 



66 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



agenient of the officers of the United 
States, but it was her own militia upon her 
own pay-rolls, as I suppose, and it was for 
her, if she had a claim against the Gov- 
ernment for this irregular service, to pre- 
sent it with such evidence as would justify 
the representatives of the States and of the 
people in making the payment from the 
public Treasury. I submit to Senators can 
interest be demanded upon any principle of 
conscience and equity from the United 
States until the claim is supported by such 
evidence as makes it a duty on the part of 
the Government to pay ? 

Then, in 1S36, Congress — I suppose at 
the request of Massachusetts — provided 
that Massachusetts might furnish evidence 
of her claim, Then she prepares her evi- 
dence, and in 1859, through the Secretary 
of War, that evidence is brought before 
Congress and the appropriation is made of 
the sum of money then found due. I 
want to know from the Senator from Mas- 
sachusetts when was this claim presented 
in such shape as that it became the duty of 
Congress to make the appropriation for the 
$800,000 ? The Senator says that no writ- 
ten report has been made on this subject; 
none was necessary. 

Why, Mr. President, when a claim is 
made against the Government for interest 
what must be established ? Not that the 
principal was found to be due some time, 
but it must be shown that the Government 
was in default in making payment, that it 
unreasonably delayed the party after the 
claim was in proper shape, presented 
against it. Can a citizen, can a State, in 
conscience demand interest of the Govern- 
ment until the State or person has made 
the claim so clear by evidence as that the 
Government in conscience cannot refuse 
it ? The claim for interest is in the nature 
of damages ; and in the nature of damages 
for what .'' For delay of payment, for un- 
reasonable and wrongful delay, for default 
in payment. When does the default occur 
on the part of the Government .'' Not 
when the debt first has its origin ; but 
when the debt is presented against the 
Government in such shape so established 
by evidence as that the public officers are 
in the wrong if they refuse to pay it. In 
this case the officers appealed to were the 



members of the legislative body. When 
then, I ask, was this evidence of the claim 
presented to Congress in such shape as 
that Congress was in default in this mat- 
ter ? I think that the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts cannot say to the Senate that no 
written report has ever been made upon 
this subject, because it was not necessary- 
I want to know of him now when did the 
State of Massachusetts present her case to 
Congress supported by such evidence as 
made it the duty of Congress to appropriate 
eight hundred and odd thousand dollars ? 
It clearly had not been done up to 1836, 
because in 1836 a resolution was passed 
authorizing Massachusetts to present her 
evidence. Then she prepared her testi- 
mony, I suppose in support of her claim, 
and it came finally to be acted upon in 
1859, ^^'^ payment was then received by 
Massachusetts as the balance of the claim, 
urging no interest, thinking of no interest, 
not regarding that as a part of her claim 
until a railroad company becomes inter- 
ested in it and that corporation urges it as 
a claim against the Government. The 
conscience of the Government was not 
charged with wrong by the State of Massa- 
chusetts until her assignment is made to a 
corporation ; and I want to know before 
the Senatorfrom Massachusetts undertakes 
to say that we are in fault in this matter 
when the evidence was completed in sup- 
port of this claim. 

But, Mr. President, it is not the policy of 
the Government to pay interest on claims 
when allowed. I will not discuss the 
right or the wrong of that. A State has no 
better right to interest than the humblest 
citizen of this country. He who furnishes 
corn to feed the cavalry horses or provis- 
ions to feed the soldiers during war is as 
much entitled to interest upon his advances 
as a State that makes an advance of money 
to support the cause, and especially if it be 
made to defend her own borders. 

Now, we had better decide the ques- 
tion whether we choose to reverse the 
whole policy of the Government on 
this question. I am free to say that 
I cannot answer very satisfactorily the 
demand that may be made for in- 
terest by any party after a claim has been 
presented with sufficient evidence to sup- 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



57 



port it. I do not know wliy the riovcrn- 
ment should not pay interest after that 
time; but we have said during our whole 
history that we will not pay interest. 
Shall we reverse it? The citizen comes 
to Congress and he can scarcely have a 
hearing. Session after session he attends, 
he beseeches, he prays, he begs that he 
may be paid what the Government owes 
him ; it may be for a horse taken, it may 
be for provisions supplied ; whatever it is 
he importunes, and he stays about the 
Capitol hoping from day to day that he 
may receive that which the Government 
owes him. At the end of years he gets 
his money upon a claim which was estab- 
lished in the first place by sufficient evi- 
dence, but nobody talks of giving him the 
interest, and by the time he gets the money 
perhaps he is broken up in the prosecu- 
tion of the claim. I have thought some- 
times that the Government was the worst 
debtor that the citizen could possibly find, 
so difficult, so tedious, and so expensive 
is the prosecution of a claim against the 
Government; but after all we say to him, 
" We owe you no interest." Why ? Up- 
on the theory that the Government is 
always ready to pay ; but in the case I 
have referred to it does not pay, has not 
paid e.Kcept upon very uureasonable delay. 
Now, if that citizen thus presenting a 
claim well supported in every respect and 
commanding the conscience of the Gov- 
ernment cannot receive interest why shall 
a State ? 

The State that I represent is somewhat 
interested in this question, for during the 
war she made advances for Army pur- 
poses ; she sold her bonds, and paid 
interest upon those bonds, and when a 
settlement was made in the Departments 
she was only allowed the amount advanced. 
Of course if Massachusetts is paid interest 
this must be returned to Indiana. We 
cannot see a discrimination of that sort 
because there is nothing peculiar in the 
case of Massachusetts. There is much 
that was peculiar in the case of Maryland 
where she sold her trust funds, which 
were yielding interest, in order to raise 
money ; but in this case of Massachusetts 
there is nothing peculiar to justify the 
payment of interest ; and if it be i aid to 



her, then Indiana must have her interest, 
of course. I should not be doing my 
duty to my State if I did not most earnestly 
insist upon it, and do that now. I want it 
to be understood that if this claim be car- 
ried then Indiana must be provided for, 
and I should say all the States ought to be 
provided for that have made advances ; and 
if you go upon thetheory of this proposition 
that interest is to be allowed before a 
State has perfected her evidence in sup- 
port of her claim, then of course Indiana 
must be paid from the date that she made 
the advances, not from the day that she 
demanded the money back again. 

A Case In Point. 

Mr. President, the circumstances of a 
case very much change the zeal of gentle- 
men. A few days ago there was a claim 
of a girl here whose house was taken that 
upon the site of the house there might be 
built a fortification, and the entire prop- 
erty taken for military purposes. No Sen- 
ator in this body was more earnest in 
opposition to that claim than the Senator 
from Massachusetts, and his hostility rested 
upon the most heartless technicality that it 
is possible to conceive. If I oppose this 
claim to-night urged for interest upon the 
theory that the Government is always to 
be presumed ready to pay every demand 
when properly presented, that technicality 
is not so harsh, so cold, so heartless as the 
technicality that a loyal person — using the 
language of the Senator from Massachu- 
setts — in a southern State whose property 
was taken for public use cannot make 
demand against the Government for the 
simple reason that that person was a pub- 
lic enemy. Devoted to the country, stand- 
ing by the flag all the while, never desert- 
ing the old Government, but always true — 
the Senator from Massachusetts says to 
such a person, "Unfortunately your home 
was in a southern State, and you are by 
law branded with the character of a public 
enemy. It is not true in fact; you were as 
loyal as I," says the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts, "as loyal as any son of Massa- 
chusetts, yet you had the misfortune to 
live in a southern State, and therefore the 
law marks you as a public enemy. To 
stand by the flag you had to stand against 



58 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



public sentiment; you had to make a 
stand where it was difficult to stand, and 
in that respect you have greater merit 
than a man living in the North, and yet 
unfortunately you lived in a southern State, 
your property was taken for public uses ; 
your property aided the cause of the coun- 
try, and you cannot be paid because you 
are a public enemy." That was the argu- 
ment made by the honorable Senator the 
other day to save the Treasury from the 
payment of a claim presented here upon 
the most satisfactory evidence. Now he 
says that no technicality is to be urged 
against a claim for interest. I urge against 
the State of Massachusetts — a sovereign 
State, one of the Confederacy — the very 
technicality which is arrayed against the 
humblest citizen that comes to the Halls 
of Congress for relief; the Government is 
always ready to pay its debts when they 
are presented in such form and supported 
by such evidence as makes it an obligation 
of conscience to pay them. 

President Johnson in his message of 
July 15th, 1867, closed with the following 
paragraph : 

" It is worthy the consideration of Con- 
gress and the country whether, if the 
Federal Government by its action were to 
assume such obligations, so large an ad- 
dition to our public expenditures would 
not seriously impair the credit of the na- 
tion ; or, on the other hand, whether the 
refusal of Congress to guaranty the pay- 
ment of the debts of these States, after 
having displaced or abolished their State 
governments, would not be viewed as a 
violation of good faith and a repudiation 
by the national Legislature of liabilities 
which these States had justly and legally 
incurred. " 

When the message was before theSenate, 
and the legal status of the States that had 
been in open rebellion against the govern- 
ment was under discussion, Senator Hen- 
dricks closed his opinion with the follow- 
ing remarks, which as the reader will ob- 
serve were concurred in by Senator How- 
ard (Republican) of Michigan. 

Hla Kxposltlon of tlie La^v. 

Before this subject passes from the con- 
sideration of the Senate, I desire simply 
to add that in my view of this subject the 



Government of the United States can 
rightfully come under no obligation to pay 
the debts of the southen States existing 
prior to the war. 1 think the war was 
prosecuted, as it was declared by Con- 
gress, for the purpose of maintaining the 
rightful authority of the Government of 
the United States ; for the purpose of 
maintaining the fConstitudon and per- 
petuating the Union ; that that being ac- 
complished by the war, the .States re- 
stored to their rightful position in the 
Union, or rather their rightful position 
being maintained no obligation what- 
ever rests upon the Government of the 
United States in regard to their debts. 
But, sir, I think it is worthy of considera- 
tion and reflection what obligations may 
fall upon the United States in the event 
that we maintain the doctrine that the 
States of the South do not rightfully exist, 
and that in some way or other they have 
ceased to be legal States, and that they 
exist, if at ail, by the sufferance and per- 
mission of the United States, and upon 
that position we establish down there a 
government of our own. 

In other words, if we strike out of exist- 
ence the State government, its machinery 
of officers and of courts, and establish in- 
stead a government of our own, placing 
there our own officers, taking control 
through our own officers, appointed by the 
United States, of the revenue of these States, 
and in every way control the States, it is 
worthy of reflection whether that is not an 
absorption practically and by force, and in 
that event what may become of the obliga- 
tions of the Government. Rightfully there 
can no obligation rest upon the United 
States, in my judgment ; and the States 
being held in their relation to the Union as 
defined by the Consdtution, we can incur no 
obligation. However much their relations 
may have been interupted by a rebellion 
which they bring on, we can not be respon- 
sible to any parties for any loss resulting 
to them from that. I agree thus far fully 
with the Senator from Maine ; but if we, in 
fact, strike their State governments out of 
existence upon the proposition that they 
are illegal and de Jure, do not exist at all, 
and exist only de facto — that is our po- 
sition as declared last spring and now — 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



59 



and if upon that proposition we assume over 
them all the powers that may be exercised 
by any Government, we, by our officers, 
controlling the revenues which might go 
to the payment of their debts; we by our 
ofificers, declaring how much of those 
revenues of necessity must go to the pur- 
poses which we declare and enforce, them 
it is a practical question of great moment 
for us whether that is not an absorption 
upon which obligations may rest upon us. 
I hope, sir, we shall not go so far ; but I 
am not prepared to say that it is unwise 
for the President, when he sees that 
Congress has now declared that these 
State governments do not exist de jure at 
all, and that they exist de facto only by 
our permission and only so far as we do 
permit, when we are legislating in the di- 
rection of taking posession and absorbing 
these State governments, and making 
them a part of Federal machinery, it is 
not unwise in my judgment, for the Pres- 
ident, when he sees this course of legis- 
lation initiated, to admonish us of the 
possible obligations that may be incurred. 

Mr. Howard. Mr President, the 
Senator from Indiana and myself, I think, 
do not differ at ail upon some of the points 
raised in this discussion. We do not differ 
as to the original and continued liability of 
the rebel States, for instance, for all debts 
contracted ante heUitm. Such obligations 
arose under legitimate governments, rec- 
ognized by the United States, and are, of 
course, still binding upon the governments 
and the people of those States and will 
always remain as long as there is a people 
constituting a State. That is natural justice, 
and that, 1 understand, is the public law. 
It is matter of plain common sense and 
common justice. We agree in this. Then 
as to all obligations contracted by these 
several States during the war against the 
United States and in and of that treason- 
able war, I take it that we both agree that 
there is no principle of constitutional law 
or of public law which in any possible 
event could make it obligatory upon the 
Government of the United States to pay 
those debts. 



Mr. Hendricks. 
Senator in that. 



I agree with the 



IIU Turlir View*. 

Mr. Hendrick's views uj)on the tariff 
question are in strict harmony with those 
enunceated at Chicago. During his sen- 
atorial career he fully expressed himself 
on that question, and we append some of 
his own utterances in that body. 

January 29, 1867, when a bill affecting 
import duties was before the .Senate, he 
addressed it on the merits of the bill. 
Some extracts from his speech arc given 
below. 

"I am not in favor of the bill. I think 
the western country is taxed enough now. 
I saw a statement the other day which I 
believe in substance, though it may not 
be literally true. The statement was that 
the products of the western country, if 
carried to a market wherever in the world 
the best prices could be found, could be 
sold, and from their proceeds twice as 
much brought back to the people of the 
western States if there were no tariff as 
under this proposed bill. In other words, 
the earnings of Western labor under this 
bill will not bring to the people of that 
section half as much of the comforts and 
necessaries of life as if there were no 
taxation like this. As a representative of 
Western labor I could not vote for such 
a bill. I would cheerfully vote for a 
revenue bill, and am willing reasonably 
to discriminate in favor of the industries 
that have a right to claim discrimination ; 
but we have undertaken in this bill to 
protect every thing. Some minerals that 
a good many Senators have never heard 
of before have been provided for in this 
bill. Why, sir, it is as if we undertook 
almost to create minerals. 

" It is suggested that we shall wait to 
see what the House is going to do with 
the internal revenue system. From that 
intimation I understand we have got to 
change the internal taxes of the country. 
This is the fourth session that I have been 
in this body, and I believe at every ses- 
sion the revenue system of the Govern- 
ment has been changed, the internal 
revenue and the tariff. Nothing is un- 
derstood to be fixed, nothing is stable any 
longer in this country. We give an in- 
toxicating support to a particular industry 



60 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



for a while, and then we change the tax 
upon that, and so prices go up and come 
down according to the action of Congress, 
and Congress changes its action at every 
session. My opinion is that the manufac- 
ing interests as well as the agricultural 
interests of this country now ask for 
stability more than anything else, and I 
cannot conceive of anything more vicious 
than the changing at every session of 
Congress of the revenue system of the 
Government." 

, How It Works. 

It has been a remarkable spectacle that 
we have witnessed here for a week past. 
If you propose to tax a particular article 
the friends of that article say, "You must 
give us a compensation in some other 
direction." If you tax wool the manu- 
facturer of woolen goods says to us, " You 
must tax the manufactured article from 
abroad so that we can pay the increased 
price upon the raw material and still make 
a profit.'' If you put an internal revenue 
tax upon any article of manufacture the 
producer of that article will say to us, 
*' You must put a prohibitory tariff, at least 
a tariff so prohibitory as to allow us to raise 
our prices so that we shall lose nothing by 
this internal tax ; '' and the argument 
being carried into practical legislation an 
entire interest of the country is exempt 
from the burdens of Government. Take 
the manufacturer of woolen goods. For 
the protection of the farmer a duty is im- 
posed upon wool. He says at once, 
" Then put an additional duty upon manu- 
factured woolen goods," and he raises his 
price so as to make a profit, notwithstand- 
ing the increased price of the wool. Lay 
an internal tax upon the manufacturer of 
woolen goods, and he says at once, " In- 
crease the tariff so as that my profits may 
be the same still," and in the end, accord- 
ing to this argument, he is to bear none of 
the burdens of Government. 

But, Mr. President, I did not intend to 
go into the argument of this bill. I do not 
intend to discuss it now ; I do not know 
but that it will be better that it should pass. 
I would like the western people to fairly 
feel for once this policy. They have not 
understood it yet ; but let this bill go into 



operation and I think they will understand 
it. I can say to gentlemen that in my 
opinion, from the day a system is firmly 
adopted here which taxes western labor 
for the benefit of another section of the 
country agitation will commence that will 
not stop until this system is swept out of 
existence. I think the true interest of the 
manufacturer is to take such protection as 
is reasonable, such as will be agreeable to 
the people of the western country, and 
such as will throw upon all interests of the 
country their fair portion of the public 
burdens. Why, sir, there is nothing that 
is not now agitated in Congress. When the 
negro ceases to be agitated here then comes 
the tariff, then comes the banks, and that 
question is to be agitated — an abandon- 
ment of the present system of banking — 
until at this very hour in the country no 
man knows what is going to stand. The 
banks do not know whether they dare loan 
out any money to-day. They do not know 
but that next month they will be required 
to call in their credits. It seems to me it 
is the duty of the Finance Committee to 
give the country to understand that there's 
something settled, some one thing settled 
and fixed. 

I think the Senator refers to the gentle- 
men on his own side of the Chamber. It 
has not been a controversy between the 
Senator from Maine and Senators on this 
side. It has been a controversy among 
the various interests, and it has been a 
strife as to what interest can get the better 
share of this Bill. Everybody can see 
that. An amendment comes from one in- 
terest, and then a corresponding or com- 
pensating amendment must come from 
some other interest. It has been a system 
of exchanges, bargain, equalization; and 
what there is in the bill now I doubt very 
much whether the Senator from Maine has 
a very clear understanding of himself ; he 
had, no doubt, when the bill was reported 
to the Senate. I think he will find some- 
thing to do in correcting all the inequalities 
in this bill if it should be referred to his 
committee, even if the bill should ever come 
back again. 

For the interests that I represent here 
all that I ask is equal legislation ; that 
when a man raises some corn or some 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



61 



wheat or cattle or pork in the western 
States he shall have some fair show in the 
markets of the world. I do not think this 
Government was established to take the 
profits from profitable labor to build up 
unprofitable labor. It is an absurdity in 
political economy. If agriculture in this 
country is naturally, and because of our 
condition and position, profitable, and 
some other pursuit is not profitable, I can- 
not understand the wisdom of taking the 
profits from agriculture and handing them 
over to build up a labor that is not profi- 
table. But, sir, we need a revenue ; we 
need to maintain the credit of the Govern- 
ment; and I think all the eastern interests 
are sufficiently protected when we have a 
revenue system adjusted with a view to 
the maintenance of the public credit. 

It seems to me that the condition of the 
Treasury to-day ought to attract the at- 
tention of Senators. There is locked up 
in the Treasury to-day about ninety-three 
millions of gold. The tariff already es- 
tablished has brought into the Treasury 
$93,000,000 of gold that no demands upon 
the Treasury will send out again into the 
channels of trade, while a currency of 
eight or nine hundred millions dollars, 
nearly one hundred millions, under your 
present legislation, is locked up. 

Now, Senators say we must increase the 
tariff, because we are going to fail to meet 
the public obligations. Upon what state- 
ment of fact do Senators assume that ? 
The present tariff has been in existence 
two years. The first year it brought into 
the Treasury between eighty and ninety 
million dollars, and during the fiscal year 
ending on the 30th of June it brought in 
$179,000,000, $90,ooo,ooolmore than during 
that year could be used, and $40,000,000 
more than can be required the next year. 
And yet Senators say they are justified in 
the opinion that the present tariff will not 
meet the demands of the Government. 

The Senator from Ohio asked the ques- 
tion, what will be the responsibility upon 
Congress should we not increase the tariff 
and should there be a failure to meet the 
demands upon the Treasury ? Mr. Presi- 
dent, I would rather meet that result than* 
to have a revenue system that locks up 
$93,000,000 of gold in the public Treasury. 



I would rather see the Government strained 
to meet her obligations than to sec her 
holding in her coffers one ninth of the cur- 
rency of the country. We need this gold 
now ; we need the currency now, as I 
think, to keep up our trade, to keep it well 
alive, and I cannot vote for any tariff that 
proposes upon the short and unsatisfactory 
experiment we have had of the last bill to 
increase it. 

Mr. President, I am in favor of leaving 
things for a while as they are. I was not in 
favor of the present banking system ; but it 
is established ; it is fixed upon the country ; 
business is being carried on under its influ- 
uence, and using the currency that it furn- 
ishes; and I think it is madness at the pre- 
sent to disturb it, to agitate it. I cannot 
agree altogether with many persons in the 
popular idea that we must rapidly return to 
a specie currency or a specie basis. I think 
that has to be done very gradually indeed. 
As a Democrat, of course I have been ac- 
customed to the doctrine of a specie cur- 
rency, and that if we have any paper cur- 
rency it should be a currency that could 
be redeemed at any time in specie ; but 
we all know that that is not now possible 
without bringing on a financial crisis ; and 
my judgment is, that we had better for the 
present leave the laws as they are. I 
would rather vote to reduce the taxes. 
When I see such an excess of money 
above the present demands of the Govern- 
ment brought into the Treasury and locked 
up and nobody able to tell what to do with 
it, I would rather reduce than increase. 
No Senator can to-day tell us what to do 
with the gold that is in the Treasury. 
Some talk about authorizing the Secretary 
to sell it in New York. As soon as he 
does that he disturbs prices all over the 
country, and that is not right. 

There are a great many inconveniences 
brought about by hasty legislation. The 
present condition of the Treasury, I think, 
is an illustration of it. Take the tax upon 
whisky. Everybody knows now that it is 
not only unjust to the interest, but it is a 
failure with a view to revenue. All over 
the country everybody believes it was an 
unjust tax, and therefore men will cheat 
the Government. We all know that if the 
tax was one dollar a gallon we should re- 



62 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



ceive twice as much revenue as we do 
now ; but see the difficulty ! If we reduce 
it to one dollar, or to sixty or seventy 
cents, as perhaps it ought to be, then all 
the men in the country who are holding 
liquors are broken up and an entire inte- 
rest destroyed, so far as the holders are 
concerned. I refer to this as an illustra- 
tion of the difficulty of coming down after 
we have once raised the taxes to a high 
standard. We ought to be very careful 
about doing it. For these reasons I shall 
vote for the proposition of the Senator 
from Kentucky. 

Heudricfcs' Speech. 

When the Republican party persecuted 
Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded to 
the Presidential chair, because he would 
not violate his obligation and become the 
pliant tool and do the bidding of the Re- 
publican leaders, Mr. Hendricks, arising 
above party prejudices and petty jeal- 
ousies, made a most manly defence for 
him, as the following extracts from his 
speech in the Senate will attest. On the 
17th of January, 1867, Mr. Hendricks 
said: 

Mr. President, from my youth up I have 
looked to the Senate of the United States 
as a body so elevated, so far removed 
from the prejudices and passions of the 
times, that no injustice whatever would be 
done in its action. I have been surprised 
during the course of this debate to hear 
what I have regarded as most unjust 
accusations against the President of the 
United States, and none perhaps so 
marked as that of the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts, [Mr. Sumner.] When discuss- 
ing this bill the other day that Senator 
felt himself authorized to say after quoting 
the line — 

" New actions teach new duties:'' 

"We have a new occasion now teaching 
a new duty. That new occasion is the 
misconduct of the Executive of the United 
States, and the new duty which this occa- 
sion teaches is that Congress should ex- 
ercise all its powers in throwing a shield 
over our fellow-citizens. We see that the 
Executive is determined to continue this 
warfare upon the incumbents of office ; 



shall we not if possible protect them ? I 
say that it is our duty growing out of this 
hour.'' 

The misconduct of the Executive throws 
upon Congress new duties, is the burden 
of the argument of the Senator from 
Massachusetts ; and what is that " mis- 
conduct ? " Not the disregard of any obli- 
gation that the Constitution throws upon 
him, not the violation of any law, except 
in two particular instances to which he 
did not refer, but the violation of duty on 
the part of the President to which he re- 
fers is the exercise on his part of a consti- 
tutional power which has been recognized 
from the very first session of the Congress 
of the United States — the exercise of his 
power of removal from office and appoint- 
ment of other men. 

Mr. President, I have never sympathized 
with the general removal from office. I 
have never seen a faithful officer removed 
that I have not sympathized with him, ex- 
cept in cases where according to our 
doctrine of rotation in office, that party 
had held the office, as we understand, long 
enough. But what is this doctrine of the 
Senator from Massachusetts ? Is it the 
English doctrine, a doctrine, however, 
which has been repudiated in the English 
courts, that a man shall have a right in his 
office as against everybody else, to hold it 
as against the party or power in the 
Government that confers it.-" Is it the 
doctrine that because a man is once in 
office he shall continue in office ? I recog- 
nize the full force of the argument in favor 
of the incumbent where he has done his 
duty. But if he has done his duty, after he 
has held the office a reasonable length of 
time, I think he does not have a claim 
above everybody else in the country. 

But what is this charge that the Senator 
brings against the President ? It has been 
brought down to an exact statement by 
the Senator from Pennsylvania: out of all 
the civil officers of the country under his 
control he has removed one man out of 
six ; he has called into office of the men 
that sympathized with him in what he re- 
gards to be the proper policy one man out 
of six, leaving five office-holders out of six 
against him. And this is charged against 
him as an outrage and a wrong by a 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



63 



Senator who uniformly supported the pohcy 
of Mr. Lincoln. 

Is it not known to every Senator that in 
1 86 1 there was a proscription because of 
opinion more sweeping and terrible than 
had ever been known in the country ? 
Until 1861, when was it ever held that 
every man must be turned out of office 
who did not agree with the party in 
power? Scarcely a man was left in office 
in 1861 to represent the sentiments of the 
large minority in the country. I bring 
this up as no accusation against Mr. Lin- 
coln's administration. I did not claim 
that the men who voted against him ought 
to be kept in office, and I conceded his 
right to call into the executive offices men 
who sympathized sincerely with him in 
his political views, that he should have 
confidence not only in his Secretaries but 
in every executive officer who was to aid 
him in the execution of the laws; and I 
never charged him with a wrong because 
he left no Democrats in office. When 
the Democrats were beaten in i860, and 
the Republican party was successful, I 
thought it right enough for Mr. Lincoln to 
call men to him and to his support in all 
the offices of the country — men who truly 
sympathized with him in his political 
views — that he should have confidence in 
all from the highest to the lowest : and I 
never thought of charging it as an out- 
rage by him, and as a reason why by le- 
gislation the whole policy of the Govern- 
ment should be changed in that regard. 

The proscription since 1861 has been 
surpassing anything ever observed before. 
It has not only extended to the high 
offices of the country, but to the smaller 
offices ; until it has gone to the courts, 
and for the past five years in the Federal 
courts, where the marshal and the clerk 
control the subject, you would scarcely 
see a juror called into the box or placed 
upon the grand jury who did not agree 
in political opinion with the party in power. 
The proscription has gone into the courts, 
and juries have been organized upon polit- 
ical principles. The men called into the 
grand jury-room to inquire of the violation 
of law, and who ought to be free from par- 
tisan feelings, have been selected with a 
view to their party politics. I have thought 



th.at a wrong. I have felt, as a practi- 
tioner of the law, that party politics 
ought never to find its way into the 
court. Stopping short of that and leaving 
it to be left only in the executive offices, I 
have no charge to make against the late 
Administration. But the gentlemen who 
supported that Administration in this pre- 
scriptive policy certainly are not justified 
in saying that Mr. Johnson, the present 
Chief Magistrate, is chargeable with wrong 
if he calls his friends into one sixth of the 
public offices. 

But, sir, is the Senate of the United 
States the place in which to make the 
charge of proscription ? Of all the em- 
ployes of this body I know of but one man 
who sympathizes with the conservative 
sentiment of the country ; and on the first 
or second day of the session, because of 
political party views, three of the distin- 
guished chiefs or heads of committees 
were stricken from their places and as- 
signed to the foot of the committees. I 
should have no criticism to make upon 
that if those committees were in charge of 
matters relating to the political questions 
of the day ; but they had no reference to 
such questions. The three committees to 
which I refer have no charge of any ques- 
tion that now agitates the country or di- 
vides Congress and the President ; but 
simply because brother Senators differ 
upon a political question the majority of 
the Senate proscribe them, and in the 
middle of a Congress assign them from 
the head of a committee to the foot of it. 
And yet Senators say that it is an outrage 
to proscribe men because of political 
opinions. 

Why, sir, in this very city, under the 
eye of the President, nearly all the offices 
are filled by men that oppose him. The 
postmaster in this city is understood to be 
one of the leaders of the opposition to the 
President and of the adherents of Con- 
gress. The collecting officer in this Dis- 
trict is another instance ; and of all the 
clerks in the Departments my information 
is that there is not perhaps one out of ten 
that supports the President of the United 
States. And yet he is charged with pro- 
scription ; he is charged with doing a 
wrong, because some of the officers of the 



64 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



country have been removed and men 
sympathizing with his pohcy have been 
placed in their stead. 

I know very well the argument which is 
used : that Mr. Johnson has proscribed 
men who belong to the party that put him 
in power. Well, sir, who have been ap- 
pointed in their places as a general thing ? 
Not Democrats, not men who opposed the 
Lincoln and Johnson ticket in 1864 ; but, 
as a general thing, the men who have been 
appointed by this Administration are men 
who voted for Mr. Lincoln and Mr. John- 
son in 1864 ; and in removing one man 
and putting in another the President has 
simply selected among the men who sup- 
ported him in the contest of 1864. And 
is it wholly unreasonable that he should 
make such a selection ? Have questions 
not come up since 1864 that did not enter 
into the contest of that year ? Did the 
question that now divides the Congress 
and the President enter into the contest of 
1864, and was Mr. Johnson elected upon 
that question ? I submit to the candid 
judgment of every Senator whether the 
question that divides you from the Presi- 
dent formed an issue in the contest of 
1864 ? It did not. Since Mr. Johnson's 
election and since he has come to be Pres- 
ident of the United States, a question has 
arisen because of the close of the 
war, and that question is in what mode 
shall the States be restored to all their 
proper relations to the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

Upon that great question the President 
of the United States has assumed his 
ground ; Congress has assumed an oppos- 
ite ground ; and here is a difference, a 
difference upon a question that has arisen 
since the President came into power, an 
unexpected difference of opinion. Un- 
doubtedly his views are honestly enter- 
tained by him ; and so on the other hand 
are the views of the majority of Congress 
honestly entertained by them. That ques- 
tion having arisen, and the President of 
the United States being charged with the 
duty to see that the laws are executed, are 
you willing to deny to him that which you 
have claimed for every Administration 
that went before him — the right to put into 
the public offices of the country men who 



sympathise with him and in whom he can 
have entire confidence ? 

It is charged now as a wrong that he 
removes one Republican from office and 
puts another one in. I do not say that 
this is the case in all instances, for there 
are instances of appointment to office of 
men who opposed his election in 1864; 
but they are very few compared with the 
appointments that have been made. The 
great body of appointments that have been 
made are of men who supported the Lin- 
coln and Johnson ticket in 1864. 

Then, sir, this bill proposes to deny to 
Mr. Johnson as President of the United 
States that which has been conceded to 
every President that went before him, to 
place in the offices of the country, to aid 
him in the execution of the laws, men 
who sympathize with him in his views. 

A very signfficant question was asked 
by the Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
Cowan] yesterday : To whom do the of- 
fices belong ? He answered it well in 
saying they belong to the law. The man 
that is appointed is appointed simply to 
execute the law, to discharge his duty 
under the law. The office does not be- 
long to him except for the time during 
which he holds it ; he has no patent by 
which he can hold it beyond the will of 
the power that conferred it. But suppose 
the propositions of Senators be correct, 
that the offices belong to the people, is 
there nothing, then, due to the large mi- 
nority in this country ? At the recent 
elections, in October and November last, 
eighteen hundred thousand voters of this 
country endorsed the policy of the Presi- 
dent; about twenty-two hundred thousand 
endorsed the policy of Congress. Out of 
the four million voters casting their votes, 
eighteen hundred thousand men at the 
polls said they believed the President was 
right. Do Senators say that those eigh- 
teen hundred thousand men, representing 
nine millions of the people of this country 
outside of the seceding States — do Sena- 
tors say, that that large portion of our 
population have no rights in the offices of 
the country ; that it is a wrong, for which 
the President shall be arraigned before 
the judgment of the country if he does not 
leave all the offices in the hands of men 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



65 



who oppose his views ? The President I 
has thus far not asked to aid him in the 
execution of the laws a proportion of the 
officers of the country equal to the popu- 
lar vote in his favor. He has asked for 
but one-sixth ; while of the voters of the 
country there is nearly one-half who sus- 
tain him. In the great States of New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, giving 
a popular vote of about one million, forty- 
four thousand votes cover the majority. 
A change of forty-four thousand in the 
enormous vote of these three great States 
would have thrown them in favor of the 
President — three States that give about 
seventy-two electoral votes. And yet 
Senators say, that if the President of the 
United States respects, in the little matter 
of appointments to office, this enormous 
sentiment of the country, he is to be 
charged with a wrong. 

I\Ir. Williams. I should like to ask the 
honorable Senator from Indiana what pro- 
portion of the one million eight hundred 
thousand men to whom he refers voted 
and detemiined in 1864 that the war for 
the Union was a failure ? 

Mr. Hendricks. I have not made any 
calculation upon that subject ; and, sir, 
I know of no portion of the voters of the 
country who voted that sentiment. I 
know of no expression of that opinion. I 
know of a resolution, to which I suppose 
the Senator means to refer, declaring that 
thus far, up to a certain time, the war had 
proved a failure to restore the Union. 
Eight months after that, in my judgment, 
that resolution ought to have been proved 
untrue, and the result of the war ought to 
have proved that the Union was restored. 
But, sir, the Union is not yet restored ; 
and until the Senator from Oregon is ready 
to bring all of the States into their proper 
relations in the Federal Union upon the 
basis of the Constitution, until he is ready 
to admit into the Senate and House of 
Representatives loyal men who are able to 
take the oath prescribed by law, he cannot 
say that the restoration of the Union is com- 
pleted. 

But, sir, I have spoken of the one million 

eight hundred thousand men who at the 

late elections voted in favor of the policy 

of the President of the United States, to 

5 



say the least of it a very great minority ; 
and when Senators claim that the offices 
belong to the people, what are the rights 
of this large minority ? 

I think that in the late elections the dif- 
ference between the Congress of the United 
States and the President of the United 
States did make a very marked issue in 
the contest, and upon that issue the ma- 
jority which I have mentioned went in 
favor of Congress. I am now speaking 
of the large minority that sustained the 
President. It is known that upon that 
question ten of the States were not al- 
lowed to express any opinion. In the 
States that did at the ballot-box express 
their opinion Congress received the majo- 
rity which I have mentioned. When 
you speak of the offices belonging to the 
people, let me ask what are the rights of 
this minority of one million eight hundred 
thousand men ? It is not asked, and has 
not been asked as a general proposition, 
that the offices should be given to the 
men who opposed the election of the pre- 
sent Chief Magistrate. It is simply asked 
that of the men who voted for him in 
1864 he should be allowed to bring into 
office a reasonable number of those who 
now support him and are in sympathy 
with him. Is that unjust ? Is it an unfair 
thing to demand, so that the Senator 
from Massachusetts is authorized to 
denounce it as misconduct on the part of 
the President ? Is a thing that was so 
generally sustained by the majority party 
in 1861 wrong in 1866? I do not under- 
stand it so. 

Why is it that the President of the Uni- 
ted States by public opinion has been 
sustained in removing men and putting 
those in office who sympathize with him ? 
It is because in the due execution of the 
laws he should have his friends to aid 
him. That is the sentiment of the country 
upon that question ; and now, if it has 
devolved upon the present Chief Magis- 
trate to see that the laws are executed, 
why may he not claim that for himself; 
why may not his friends claim that for 
him which has been conceded to every 
Administration that went before him ? 

But now, when we come to understand 
the facts, we find that only four hundred 



66 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



and fifty out of two thousand four hundred | tion in reference to the appointment of 
and fifty or about that number of office- 
holders have been removed, leaving nearly 
two thousand men in office opposed to the 
President or supposed to be opposed to 
him, and he having called into office only 
about four hundred and fifty of his friends 
to support him. This the honorable Sena- 
tor from Massachusetts calls the " mis- 
conduct " of the President. If the Senator 
had confined his remark to the two cases 
which have been referred to, where the 
President after the adjournment of the 
Senate appointed men who had been re- 
jected by this body, I should have no 
criticism to make upon his argument. I 
think that when the judgment of the Senate 
is expressed upon any nomination that 
judgment ought not to be reversed by the 
Executive; but as a question of law I 
understand the President took the opinion 
of the Attorney General, a very accom- 
plished gentleman, high in the profession 
to which he belongs, an ornament to the 
western bar, an ornament of which we are 
all proud; and the present Attorney 
General, I understand, gave it as his 
opinion that the action of the Senate did 
not disqualify the party for an appointment 
after the adjournment. I think it would 
have been proper for the Attorney General 
to have gone beyond the question of law 
and to have said to the President that he 
owed it to the judgment of the Senate not 
to appoint a man who had been rejected 
for that particular ofHce. The legal right 
and the power of the President under the 
Constitution to make those two appoint- 
ments I beheve has not been questioned 
by any Senator. 

On the question of propriety I agree with 
the Senators who have expressed the opin- 
ion that such appointment ought not to be 
made ; and if Senators wish to prevent 
them in the future and will present a reso- 
lution expressing the sentiment of the 
Senate upon that question I shall have no 
objection to vote for it and let it be known 
as the opinion of the Senate that ^ man 



once rejected by the Senate shall not after 
the adjournment be appointed to that 
office. I think he ought not to be ; but 
certainly the facts stated by the Senator 
from Pennsylvania on that particular ques- 



the postmaster of St. Louis and the reve- 
nue officer at Philadelphia ought to be 
considered by the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts before he passes a harsh judg- 
ment upon the President even upon those 
cases. 

. But this bill has very little relation to 
that particular subject. It goes into the 
whole matter and undertakes to regulate 
the exercise of this constitutional power on 
the part of the President from first to last. 
And now, without referring to the justice 
and right of the thing, I ask Senators if it 
is well, because there is a difference of 
opinion between the President and the 
Senate, that the Senate shall undertake to 
take from the President any power which 
the Constitution confers upon him ? It is 
too late now to question the power of the 
President on the subject of removals from 
office. A uniform practice of so many 
years does not leave it an open question. 
It is a settled question, settled, I believe, 
by every department of the Government. 
It was settled, I think, by the legislative 
department at the first session of Congress. 
It has been settled by the uniform action 
of the executive department. I think it 
has been settled also by the judiciary, by 
the judgment of the Supreme Court upon 
a claim made by the judges in one of the 
Territorie;^ after they had been removed 
from office by the President. I have not 
had occasion to look to that case for some 
time, and I cannot give the particular 
facts ; but my impression of the decision 
is that the Supreme Court decided that 
after removal by the President the parties 
were not in office and could not claim 
their salaries. 

His Senatorial term expired March 4, 
1869, and he again cast aside his official 
robes and returned to his law office in 
Indianapolis. 

Agalu tu Politics. 

In the autumn prior to the exp'ration of 
his Senatorial term, he received the nomi- 
nation for Governor of his State, and the 
Republican convention selected Conrad 
Baker as his opponent. After an exciting 
campaign Baker was elected by about 800 
majority, and Senator Hendricks again 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



G7 



went to his law office, the firm being 
Hendricks, Hard & Hendricks, the latter 
a cousin, Abram W., a Republican with- 
out guile and a man of the finest ability. 
The firm was one of two or three leading 
ones in the city, enjoyed a very lucrative 
practice, and Mr. Hendricks added to a 



TUdfii mid Ilriiilrlt'ka. 

In the Convention that nominated 
this ticket Senator Hendricks was 
a candidate far the first place. The 
circumstances of the nomination of 
Gov. Hendricks on the ticket with Gov. 
Tilden by the St. Louis Convention arc 



comfortable competence he had acquired : fresh in the public mind. He was a can- 



by his shrewdness and providence. Dur- 
ing this period he continued at the law, 
and for two years he was permitted to 
enjoy the comforts of home, unalloyed by 
the labors and vexations of office. He 
never failed, however, to give his party 
his able support and advice, and whether 
as a Lawyer or Public Servant, he was 
alive to the success of the Democratic party. 

Governor of Indiana. 

In 1872 the State was again rent with a 
political contest. The Liberal movement 
of that year on the part of dissatisfied Re- 



didale for the Presidency, as he also was 
in 1868 at the New-York Tammany Hall 
Convention, but there he was antagonized 
by a part of his own State delegation, 
headed by Richard j. Bright. This oppo- 
sition from his own delegation defeated 
him. In 1876 a strong and vigorous op- 
position to Mr. Hendricks was organized 
in his own state and made its appearance 
in St. Louis. The nomination of Mr. 
Tilden and his own nomination for the 
second place was a great humiliation to 
Mr. Hendricks and a sore disappointment. 



publicans gave the Democracy an appar- } After the election, in November, Mr. Hen- 
ent opportunity for success, and again the dricks made no secret of his disagreement 



State Convention nominated Mr. Hen- 
dricks for Governor. His Republican 
opponent was Gen. Thomas M. Browne. 
There was a good deal of temperance senti- 
ment in the State, to which Mr. Hendricks 



with Mr. Tilden's course. He wrote a 
letter the purport of which was that he 
was opposed to the Electoral Commission, 
and that if he were Gov. Tilden he should 
take the oath of office and demand it of 



made himself acceptable. The purpose of i President Grant, leaving the Supreme 
the temperance folks was to secure a local Court to | adjudicate the dispute. Of 
option law, and this Mr. Hendricks course, the inauguration of Hayes and 
allowed himself to be understood he would j Wheeler settled the future for Mr. Hen- 
approve, which he afterwards did in the j dricks, and he proceeded quietly with his 
shape of what is known as " the Baxter | law business. Mr. Hendricks was again 
law." As the result of another remarkably i a candidate for the Presidential nomination 
close election, Mr. Hendricks was chosen in Cincinnati, in 1880, and this time had 
Governor by a plurality of 1,200 votes, | the ardent and enthusiastic support of his 
while all the other officers of the State, entire State delegation. But his nomina- 



except the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, were Republicans. That Mr 
Hendricks' election was caused by the 
influence here spoken of was made evi- 
dent from the fact that in the next month 
Grant carried Indiana by 6,000 majority. 
It has been said by no less a distinguished 
authority than Gov. Hendricks himself that 
any man competent to be a notary public 
could be Governor of Indiana, and so 



tion was impossible, He probably could 
have secured the nomination of Joseph E. 
McDonald. But Mr. Hendricks again re- 
membered 1868, and he would not give 
the word of assent. The result was the 
nomination of Hancock and, with the 
idea of placating Indiana, William H. 
English. This action sent Mr. Hendricks 
into his tent, where he remained until 
nearly the end of the campaign, when he 



there was not much to test the executive emerged because of a bitter attack upon 
abilities of Gov. Hendricks during his term 1 him personally made by the Republican 



if office. He made an urbane, careful, 
satisfactory Governor, and retired from 
the position with the respect of all parties 
in the State. 



press. But there was no harmony between 
the Democratic leaders, as the campaign " 
of that year in Indiana went against the 
Democratic Party. After the election of 



68 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



Garfield Mr. Hendricks was interviewed, 
and in answer to the question whether he 
was outofpohtics answered that he should 
never be out of politics until he was in his 
grave. The Democratic Party had been 
too kind to him to permit him to deafen 
his ears to its voice whenever it demanded 
his service. 

The Past Elglit Years. 

After Mr, Hayes' inauguration he went 
to California, where he was warmly re- 
ceived and his health completely restored 
from the wear and tear of electoral sus- 
pense. Upon his return he went to Europe 
and in the fall came home and went into 
the practice of the law with his former 
partners, O. B. Hood and A. W. Hendricks, 
with the additional partner, Hon. Conrad 
Baker, who had preceded him in the Gu- 
bernatorial office. The four years of his 
executive term was the only period when 
Mr. Hendricks did not practice law, and 
yet he resumed the profession with such 
diffidence, lest he had lost ground therein, 
that the gaining of his first case was very 
much of a surprise to him. It was a fa- 
mous canal case, which had run the gaunt- 
let of the courts for a dozen years and had 
its root and finding in matters dating back 
twenty-seven years. Perhaps the most 
important case which has engaged his at- 
tention was that of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
way, in which he held his own with such 
distinguished talent as that of Judge 
Hoadly, Stanley Matthews and Mr. Mc- 
Donald. His argument at Newport cov- 
ered one hundred pages of printed matter, 
and is a marvel of legal acumen and intel- 
lectual scope. Another great case was 
that of the Toledo and Western. 

lilterary litiboTB. 

The work Mr. Hendricks accomplished 
was not confined to the law. In addition, 
he attended to considerable private busi- 
ness. He also made some valuable con- 
tributions to current literature and traveled 
extensively, making a tour of Europe. So 
versatile and arduous were his labors, in 
fact, that three times in the last eight years 
his health broke down. He would not be 
admonished of danger, and his last severe 
attack of illness was caused by excessive 



fatigue and exposure in the 'campaign of 
1882. It was the attack of phlegmonous 
erysipelas, which came so near costing him 
his life. His perfect recovery, thanks to a 
splendid constitution and well-regulated 
life, was a disappointment to the physicians 
who said he would die, and the forced rest 
and subsequent sojourn abroad give him 
promise of many years of usefulness to 
come. 

" Cleireland and Hendricks." 

When the Democratic Convention met 
at Chicago in July last, to form a Presiden- 
tial ticket, the State of Indiana again pre- 
sented his name as a candidate, and his 
availability was again discussed. But the 
political importance of the Empire State 
gave it, as heretofore the preference of a 
candidate, and Governor Cleveland was 
selected from the array of brilliant names 
before it. Mr. Hendricks was not (and in- 
deed never was) a candidate for the Vice 
Presidency, and the impression prevailed 
that he might not accept the place, but not- 
withstanding this, he was unanimously 
nominated, and is now before the people 
for their suffrages. His countrymen have 
asked him to fill the place, and in this in- 
stance, as in others, he has waived his own 
preferences, and obeyed their orders. 

Prophetic XJtteraiices. 

In the light of the action of the Chicago 
Convention it is interesting to repeat 
Mr. Hendricks' utterances in 1877, even 
if he did not expect this tardy endorse- 
ment. At his reception by the Manhat- 
tan Club, New York, he said : 

"A great and sincere people will pass 
their final verdict upon the outrageous 
act. Democratic principles will be car- 
ried out by the Democrats and by such 
fair-minded Republicans as will not make 
themselves a party to the wrong done last 
winter. This will be accomplished by the 
majority of the voters in the several States, 
* * and Indiana will again do her 
duty." 

It remains for the Democracy now to 
make good the words which, for the lack 
of a renomination of the " old ticket," 
failed in 1880. However, an opinion is 
gaining ground that the issue of Presiden- 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



69 



tial fraud will gradually be lost sight of in 
the absorbing question of reform. In the 
opinion of Mr. Hendricks it is the ques- 
tion and it grows out of the stupendous 
abuses of Republican adminislratiou. 
There must be reform in all matters of 
government and to this view the Demo- 
cratic party is in existence and must be 
placed in power for that express purpose. 

Revenue Reform. 

" The question of revenue reform sug- 
gests itself to every mind when the fact is 
considered that the change in the internal 
revenue and tax laws made by the Repub- 
lican Congress before this, a little more 
than one year ago, left the revenues of the 
government in excess of the demands of 
an economical administration at least 
fifty millions a year. No party in the 
world can stand up before an intelligent 
people and defend the collection from the 
people of more money than the govern- 
ment has a right to use when economi- 
cally administered. Of course this im- 
portant point will attract attention. Ad- 
ministrative reform is not less a question 
of vital interest. Every now and then 
something wrong is looming up in some 
department — carelessness and inefficiency 
characterize many of the departments of 
public service. It is an honor to any 
young man to get an appointment from 
the government, of course, but position is 
not given him in a department for him to 
make it a lounging place. He must work 
with care and diligence and earnestness 
in order that all the interests of the gov- 
ernment shall be amply and fully pro- 
tected, just as the active and honest young 
man in the store, or on the farm, or in the 
railroad office gives the best capabilities of 
his mind and industry to the promotion 
of the interests which he is paid to take 
care of." ' 

In Ills Home. 

A visitor thus describes his home, and 
other interesting details. 

"Since Mr. Hendricks' marriage he has 
lived in many houses, but never in one 
built after a plan of his making or selec- 
tion. Now he resides in a substantial two- 
story brick dwelling, built by the late 
General Low and the double of one erec- 



ted by the General's father-in-law, the late 
Hon. O. H. Smith. It is not a house of 
many rooms, but they are large and hand- 
some and have an air of comfort foreign 
to most more pretentious dwellings. The 
hall is especially spacious, and with the 
open door and inviting chairs and sofa 
makes a pleasant reception room in the 
summer. Mr. Hendricks' private or poli- 
tical library is up stairs, and there he has 
a table and telephone and receives the po- 
liticians who crave a special hearing. 
When the campaign opens he will proba- 
bly have headquarters in a more accessible 
quarter, although his house is not out of the 
way. It faces the State House grounds on 
Tennessee street and is but a stone's throw 
(around the corner) from the Sentinel of- 
fice. 

The best likeness of Mr. Hendricks is 
one which was photographed by Van Loo. 
The portrait of the ex-Senator in the State 
library, painted by Freeman, conveys the 
idea of a high liver, which is not just, Mr. 
Hendricks being rather abstemious than 
otherwise in his habits. The Van Loo does 
justice to the pose of the finely-formed 
head, the brow is clear, the eyes are pene- 
tradng and the expression is pleasing and 
intellectual. The picture even conveys an 
idea of the delicacy of complexion and 
soft, brown tint of hair which marks his 
Scotch descent. His head and face have 
changed a good deal in the last eight 
years. They seem larger. The forehead 
is broad and smooth and the cheeks slope 
gently to the chin, which is innocent of 
beard. The mouth is not large and the 
lips are thin. It is altogether a classic 
mouth and chin, and the nose is w-ell 
formed and delicate in expression. The 
eyes are blue, mixed with gray, and ex- 
press more penetration than reserve. 
They are schooled to express interest 
in whatever subject is presented and 
tell no tales. The head is poised on a 
manly figure, with unusual depth of chest, 
and its perfect proportions are revealed in 
the firm, elastic step. The face in repose 
is ^free from wrinkles. In conversation it 
lights up amazingly, and joined to a plea- 
sing deference of manner has given him 
the reputation of a Talleyrand. That he 
does not deserve, for on occasions he is 



70 



THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS. 



extremely outspoken. In all, the autotype 
of Trajan, familiar in the shops, is a better 
portrait of Mr. Hendricks than the gene- 
rality of those he has had taken. My pic- 
ture of him would not be complete without 
referring to his taste in dress. Those who 
saw him in Chicago will join me in saying 
it is perfect. 

He was nurtured in the Presbyterian 
faith, and was a member of that commun- 
ion until the organization of St. Paul's 
Episcopal Church in Indianapolis in the 
year 1862. He became a member of that 
parish and was elected Senior Warden. 
He has never belonged to but one secret 
society, the Odd Fellows, being a charter 
member of the Wellsville Lodge, but for a 
long time has ceased to actively partici- 
pate in its work. After the election in 1876 
Mr. Hendricks made an extensive tour of 
Europe, meeting with cordial receptions 
everywhere and making the acquaintance 
of many of the most distinguished Euro- 
pean politicians. He was particularly im- 
pressed with Gambetta, of whom he has 
frequently spoken in terms of high admi- 
ration. 

How He opens tlie Campaign. 

As the Chandler letter may be taken 
for the key-note of the campaign, long 
ahead of the opening of the canvass, so 
in Mr. Hendricks* speech at the ratifica- 
tion meeting at his home, he said one 
thing which has already become a watch- 
word. It was this : 

" I will tell you what we need — Demo* 
crat and Republicans will alike agree 
upon that — we need to have the books in 
the government-offices opened for exami- 



nation." * * "What is the remedy ? To 
have a President who will appoint a head 
of a bureau that will investigate the con- 
dition of the books and bring the guilty to 
trial." 

" The books must be opened " is a na- 
tural sequence to " Cleveland, Hendricks 
and Reform " and " Revenue and Admi- 
nistrative Reform." It may be, some 
lengthier axioms from Mr. Hendricks' 
utterances may be in order, such as, 
"Government shall exist for man, and 
not man for government;" "We will not 
enslave man, even that he shall admit 
and practice the truth;" "Where there is 
no freedom of action there can be no 
freedom of judgment;" "Heaven's law 
leaves man able to obey, but free to diso- 
bey ;'' " Habits of tyranny become usages ;" 
"We cannot exclude all from a privilege 
or right because it is abused by a few;" 
" When once in the box the ballot has no 
color." 

Mr. Hendricks* views in regard to the 
service young men should render as em- 
ployes of the government, are a practical 
compendium of civil-service reform, and 
they are backed by life-long devotion to 
the welfare of young men, which has been 
paid in kind. In 1872, when he was the 
first Democratic Governor elected in the 
North after the war, he suddenly took 
heart at the close of a dispiriting canvass 
when one hundred young men — first voters 
— marched in a Democratic procession 
along Washington Street. Due attention 
to the training of young men in Demo- 
cratic faith and good works is one of the 
strong points in Mr. Hendricks' party 
management. 



PROCEEDINGS OF CHICAGO C0NYENTI0:N', 1884. 



Democratic National Contmlttec. 

The Democratic National Committee 
met at Chicago, July 7, at 12 o'clock, 
Chairman Barnum presiding. The States 
represented were as follows : 

Alabama H. O. Semple. 

Arkansas John J. Sumpter. 

California James T. Farley. 

Colorado T. M. Patterson. 

Connecticut William H. Barnum. 

Delaware Ignatius C. Grubb. 

Florida Samuel Puliston. 

Georgia George T. Barnes. 

Illinois W. C. Goudy. 

Indiana Austin H. Brown. 

Iowa M. M. Ham. 

Kansas Charles W. Blair. 

Kentucky Henry D. McHenry, 

Louisiana B. F. Jonas. 

■ Maine Edmund F. Wilson. 

Maryland Outerbridge Horsey. 

Massachusetts Frederick O. Prince. 

Michigan Edward Kanter. 

Minnesota P. H. Kelly. 

Mississippi W. T. Morton. 

Missouri John G. Prather. 

Nebraska Sterling Marten. 

Nevada R. P. Keating. 

New Hampshire Alvah SuUoway. 

New Jersey Orestes Cleveland. 

New York Abraham S. Hewitt. 

North Carolina N. W. Ransom. 

Ohio William W. Armstrong. 

Oregon A. Noltner. 

Pennsylvania Ex-Senator Wallace. 

Rhode Island J. B. Barnaby. 

South Carolina F. W. Dawson. 

Tennessee Robert F. Looney. 

Texas F. T. Stockdale. 

Vermont Bradley B. Smalley. 

Virginia John S. Barbour. 

West Virginia... Alexander Campbell. 

Wisconsin William F. Vilas. 

Mr. Barnes, of Georgia, nominated Au- 
gustus O. Bacon, of Georgia, for temporary 
71 



chairman of the Convention. Mr. Stock- 
dale, of Texas, nominated Governor Rob- 
ert B. Hubbard, of Texas; Mr. Martin, 
of Mississippi, nominated Charles E. 
Hooker, of Mississippi. 

Governor Hubbard Selected. 

The committee proceeded to ballot, with 
the following result : Whole number of 
votes cast, 37 ; Hubbard received 22, Ba- 
con 9, Hooker 6. On motion of Mr. 
Prince the nomination of Governor Hub- 
bard was made unanimous. On motion 
of Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Prince was elected 
temporary secretary of the Convention. 
The following were elected assistant secre- 
taries: E. L. Merritt, of Illinois; George 
W. Guthrie, of Pennsylvania ; G. S. John- 
son, of Iowa ; Robert M. Bashford, of 
Wisconsin ; Charles M. Vallandigham, of 
Missouri ; Henry J. Lynn, of Tennessee ; 
Michael J. Barrett, of New Jersey. 

The committee then adjourned to 10 
o'clock on the following day. 

THE CONVENTION. 
Tbe First Day'd Sesalon. 

The Convention was called to order at 
12:37 by Hon. William H. Barnum, of 
Connecticut, chairman of the Democratic 
National Committee. He presented Rev. 
Dr. Marquis, of Chicago, who opened the 
deliberations of the Convention with 
prayer. 

Mr. Barnum said : — Gentlemen of the 
Convention : Harmony seems to be the 
sense of this Convention ; the ver>' air 
itself seems saturated with the desire and 
the determination to nominate a ticket for 
president and vice-president satisfactory 
to the North as well as to the South, to the 
East as well as to the West — nay, more, a 
ticket that will harmonize the Democracy 
of this nation and insure victory in No- 
vember. No effort has been made to 
nominate a temporary chairman of this 



72 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



Convention in the interest of any candi- 
date, but, on the contrary, one who will 
proceed with absolute impartiality. With 
this spirit and to that end I have been di- 
rected by the unanimous vote of the Na- 
tional Committee to nominate the Hon. 
Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, for tempo- 
rary chairman, and Hon. Richard B. 
Hubbard was elected. The Chair appointed 
Senator B. F. Jonas, of Louisiana, Hon. 
George B. Barnes, of Georgia, and Abram 
S. Hewitt, of New York, a committee to 
wait upon Mr. Hubbard and conduct him 
to the chair. Mr. Hubbard was received 
with vociferous applause and Mr. Barnum 
advancing to the front, said : 

" I have the distinguished honor to pre- 
sent Hon. Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, 
as the absolutely impartial temporary chair- 
man of this Convention." 

Clialrnian Hubbard's Speecli. 

Mr. Hubbard came forward amid loud 
applause and said: "Mr. Chairman and 
gentlemen of the Democratic Convention 
of the Union — I am profoundly grateful 
for the confidence which you have reposed 
in me in ratifying the nomination of the 
National Executive Committee, who have 
done your bidding for the last four years 
by your authority. I accept it, my fellow- 
Democrats, not as a tribute to the humble 
citizen and your fellow-Democrat who 
speaks to you to-day, but rather as a com- 
pliment to the great State from whence I 
come. We accept it as a tribute to the fact 
that Texas, with her two million of people, 
gladly at each recurring election, places 
in the ballot-box over one hundred thou- 
sand Democratic majority. 

" Fellow-Democrats, we have met upon 
an occasion of great and absorbing inter- 
est to our party as well as to our common 
country. The occasion would not justify 
me nor demand that I should attempt to 
speak to you of its great history and its 
distinctive principles through two-thirds of 
the most glorious history of our country. 
I could not stop to discuss, if I would, its 
munificent policy of progress, the part 
which it has taken in building up our 
country, its progress, its territory and its 
wealth. I can only say to you to-day, in 
brief, that the Democratic Party, in all the 
essential elements, is the same as it was 



j when it was founded by the framers of the 
Constitution nearly three-quarters of a 
century ago. 

" Men die as the leaves of autumn, but 
principles are underlying liberty and self- 
government, the right of representation 
and taxation going hand in hand ; economy 
in the administration of the Government, 
so that the Government shall make the 
burdens as small as they may be upon the 
millions who constitute our countrymen. 
These and other principles underlie the 
Democratic Party and cannot be effaced 
from the earth, though their authors may 
be numbered with the dead. 

"The Democratic party is loyal to the 
Union. The 'bloody shirt,' in the vulgar 
parlance of the times, has at each recur- 
ring election been flaunted in the face of 
Southern Democrats and in your own 
faces. With Logan on the ticket I pre- 
sume it will be again. Blaine could hard- 
ly afford it, as he did not indulge much in 
that 'unpleasantness.' They will endeavor 
to stir up the bad blood of the past. My 
countrymen, the war is over for a quarter 
of a century, and they know it. Why our 
boys have married the young maidens of 
the North and children have been born 
since those days. They will continue 
to go to the altar, and, side by side 
at dying beds, they will talk of that bourne 
whence no traveler returns, will lie down 
and be buried together. Why, the boys in 
the blue and the gray have slept together 
for a quarter of a century upon a thousand 
fields of common glory. Let their bones 
alone. They are representing the best 
blood of the land, and, though differing 
in the days that should be forgotten, the 
good men of all parties in our country to- 
day, I thank God, have united in the great 
common progress of our rare to forget the 
war memories of the war times." 

At the conclusion of Gov. Hubbard's 
speech, Mr. Prince, of Massachusetts, Sec- 
retary of the National Convention, then 
made the following report on temporary 
organization : 

For temporary Chairman, Richard B. 
Hubbard, of Texas; for temporary Secre- 
tary, Frederick O. Prince, of Massachu- 
setts ; Assistant Secretaries, E. L. Merrit, 
of Illinois ; George O. Guthrie, of Penn- 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



73 



sylvania ; G. L. Johnston, of Iowa; Ro- 
bert M, Bashford, of Wisconsin; Charles 
M. Vallandingham. of Missouri; H. J. 
Lynn, of Tennessee ; Michael D. Barret, 
of New Jersey. The Report was unani- 
mously adopted. 

Mr. Smalley, of Vermont, then said he 
was instructed by the National Committee 
to offer the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the rules of the last 
Democratic Convention govern this body 
until otherwise ordered, subject to the fol- 
lowing modification : That in voting for 
candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent no State shall be allowed to change 
its vote until the roll of the States has been 
called and every State has cast its vote. 

Mr. Grady, of New York, offered the 
following amendment to the resolution : 

When the vote of a State as announced 
by the chairman of the delegation from 
such State is challenged by any member 
of the delegation, then the Secretary shall 
call the names of the individual delegates 
from the State, and their individual pre- 
ferences as expressed shall be recorded as 
the vote of such State. 

After discussion the question was then 
put, the chairman of each State delegation 
announcing its vote as follows : 

Yeas Nays 



States. 


Yeas Nays 


Alabama, . . 


■ 15 


5 


Arkansas, . . 




14 


Californi.i, . . 


'. 16 




Colorado, . . 


4 


2 


Connecticut, . 


2 


10 


Delaware, . . 


6 


— 


Florida, . . . 


2 


6 


Georgia, . . 


12 


12 


Illinois, . . . 


22 


22 


Indiana, . . . 


■ 30 


— 


Iowa 


. 6 


20 


Kansas . . . 
Kentucky, . . 


3 


IS 


20 


6 


t.ouisiana, . . 


— 


16 


Maine. . . . 


2 


10 


Maryland, . . 


— 


16 


Massachusetts 


21 


7 


Michigan, . . 


12 


12 


Minnesota, . 





14 



States. 
Mississippi, 
Missouri, . . . 
Nebraska, . . . 
Nevada, . . . 
New Hampshire 
New Jersey, . . 
New York, . . 
North Carolina, 

Ohio, 

Oregon, .... 
Pennsylvania, . 
Rhode Island, . 
South Carolina, 
Tennessee, . . 
Texas, .... 
Vermont, . . . 
Virginia, . . , 
West Virginia, 
Wisconsin, . . 



The Secretary announced the result of 
the vote as follows : Total number of votes 
cast, 795 ; yeas, 332 ; nays, 463. 

The call of the roll on the original reso- 
lution was then dispensed with and it was 
unanimously adopted. 

This question having been disposed of 
the roll of the States was called and the 
chairmen of the several delegations named 
the delegates chosen as members of the 
Committees on Credentials and Resolu- 
tions, On the completion of the call of j 



the roll the Convention adjourned until 
II A. M. to-morrow. 

Tlie Platform Comnilttce. 

The following is the Committee on Plat- 
form : Alabama, L. P. W^alker ; Arkansas, 
Benjamin F. Duval ; California, T. J. 
Currie ; Connecticut, A. E. Burr; Florida, 
P. P. Bishop ; Georgia, E. P. Howell ; 
Illinois, William R. Morrison ; Indiana, 
G. V. Menzies ; Iowa, E. H. Thayer ; 
Kansas, Thomas P. Finlan ; Kentucky, 
Henry Watterson ; Louisiana, E. H. 
Burko ; Maine, David R. Hastings ; Mary 
land, C. J. Gwynn ; Massachusetts, B. F. 
Butler; Michigan, S. E. Farsney ; Minne- 
sota, J. C. Wise ; Missouri, W. H. Phelps ; 
Nebraska, J. S. Sterling Morton ; Nevada, 
D. E. McCarthy ; New Hampshire, Henry 
Bingham ; New Jersey, James A. McPher- 
son ; New York, Abram S. Hewitt; North 
Carolina, J. S. Carr; Ohio, George L. Con- 
verse ; Pennsylvania, Malcom Hay ; South 
Carolina, Leroy F. Youmans ; Tennessee, 
Albert T. McNeil; Texas, D. C. Gid- 
dings ; Vermont, James A. Brown ; Virgi- 
nia, P. W. McKenny; West Virginia, 
Henry G. Davis ; Wisconsin, J. G. Jen- 
kins. 

The committee on Permanent Organiza- 
tion met in the evening and decided to re- 
commend to the Convention the name of 
Colonel W. F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, as per- 
manent Chairman, and that the remaining 
officers of the temporary organization be 
made permanent. 



SECOND DAY'S SESSION. 

The Convention was opened with prayer 
by the Right Reverend Bishop McLaren, 
of the Diocese of Chicago. 

Mr. Cummings, of Massachusetts, offered 
a resolution instructing the Committee on 
Resolutions to give a hearing to the com- 
mittee of the Irish National League in favor 
of excluding aliens from acquiring real 
estate in America. 

Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas, submitted the 
report of the Committee on Credentials, in 
which he stated that in Massachusetts, a 
contest appearing in the Twelfth Congres- 
sional District, your committee, after a full 
investigation of the facts, unanimously 
recommended that the parties, Joseph 



7i 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



Callan, E. McLearned, A. L. Perry and 
George H. Bloch, be admitted to this Con- 
vention, and each shall be entitled to a 
half vote. 

Mr. Heenan, of Michigan, offered a res- 
olution for the reduction of taxation to a 
revenue basis. Referred. 

Mr. Taylor, of Arkansas, chairman of 
the Committee on Credentials, reported 
the list of delegates with an amendment 
giving territorial delegates the right to 
vote in the Convention. 

Mr. Randolph, of New Jersey, moved 
an amendment that the territorial dele- 
gates be not allowed to vote. The amend- 
ment was rejected and the report adopted. 

Mr. Gallup, of New York, offered a res- 
olution demanding such a revision of the 
tariff as shall lessen the duty upon those 
articles which supply daily the wants of the 
farmer, mechanic, artisan and laborer. A 
number of other resolutions were offered 
and it was finally decided to refer them all 
to the Committee on Platform. 

Periuaiieiit Orgaulzatlon. 

The report of the Committee on Perma- 
nent Organization was then made, the 
name of W. H. Vilas, of Wisconsin, be- 
ing presented as President, with a list of 
vice-presidents (one from each state) and 
several secretaries and assistants, and that 
the secretaries and clerks of the tempo- 
rary organization be continued under the 
permanent organization. 

The Chair then appointed as a com- 
mittee to escort Mr. Vilas to the chair the 
Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana 
Hon. W. W. Armstrong, of Ohio ; Hon. 
W, H. Parsons, of Georgia ; Hon. John 
N. Henderson, of Texas; Hon. John 
A. Day, of Missouri ; Hon. Mr. Sparks, of 
Illinois, and the Hon. Smith M. Weed, of 
New York. 

Mr. Vilas, in taking the chair, returned 
thanks for the honor done him, not as a 
recognition of himself, but of the young 
Democracy of the Northwest. It was 
their fair due. It was a tribute to their 
lofty zeal and patriotism. They hailed it 
as a presage and prototype of the coming 
triumph. 

This Convention was assembled to con- 
sider a great cause ; to pronounce a mo- 
mentous judgment. Its import and value 



lay not in the hope of mere party victory, 
in clutching the spoils of office. The op- 
portunity was pregnant with mighty possi- 
bilities of good to men. The air was al- 
ready filled with vapors of visionary 
schemes addressed to various interests and 
factions. It is the party of Jefferson and 
Jackson to-day as formerly, and the prin- 
ciples they promulgated are its principles 
now. It is the party of the people ; of 
economy and honesty in the administration 
of Government. It has shaken off the 
venial and time-serving, and has recruited 
from the ranks of its opponents the best 
and wisest. The Democracy are ready to 
continue such exchange. In conclusion, 
he counseled moderation in their action 
and bespoke a generous forbearance for 
himself in the discharge of his duties. 

" I thank God, fellow-citizens, that 
though we have been out of power for a 
quarter of a century, we are to-day, in all 
that makes adherence, and confidence 
and zeal, as much a party organized for 
aggressive war as when the banners of 
victory were perched above our heads. 

" The Democratic party, fellow-citizens, 
since the war time, commencing with recon- 
struction, with our hands manacled, with 
our ballot-boxes surrounded by the gleam- 
ing bayonet, with carpet-bag rulers, with the 
voice of free men who pay their taxes to 
the Government, stifled — the Democratic 
party has lived to see through all this mis- 
rule the day come when in a great majori- 
ty of our states the Democratic party has 
resumed its control, its power. It has 
your House of Representatives, and but 
for treason stalking in the Senate Cham- 
ber, we would have that, too. 

"We want men there whose very lives 
and whose very names would be a plat- 
form to this people; we want men there 
who shall, in all the departments of the 
Government, in its Department of Justice, 
in its postal affairs, its Interior Depart- 
ment, everywhere, follow its servants with 
the eye of the ministers of justice, and see 
that every cent that belongs to the Go- 
vernment shall remain with the Govern- 
ment ; that no tribute shall be demanded, 
except the tribute that U due the Govern- 
ment ; that no assessment shall be levied 
upon 100,000 office-holders, who are paid 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



75 



one hundred millions annually, five mil- 
lions to yo into a corrupt political fund. 
These, we thank God, will be corrected 
when the Democratic party shall get 
into power once more. 

We read of the enunciation of principles 
by the Republican party. They tell us 
they have civil service reform, and yet 
they demand, in the next breath, from 
every federal office-holder of the 100,000, 
his tribute to the corrupt fund that shall be 
paid out to the voter at the polls. They 
tell us that they have a pure government, 
and yet not a solitary felon has been con- 
demned in the flock of those who have 
stolen their millions from the treasury. 

Mr. Snowden, of Pennsylvania, offered 
a resolution for the call of the roll of the 
States and for the placing in nomination 
of candidates for President and Vice Pres- 
ident. Mr. Clunie, of California, moved 
its reference to the committee on platform. 
The nominations should not be made until 
after the adoption of the platform. The 
motion was rejected. 

A motion was made to lay on the table 
Mr. Sr^^owden's motion to make nomina- 
tions now. The question was taken by a 
vote by States and resulted in the negative. 
The vote on call of States was finally an- 
nounced as yeas 2S2, nays 521 ; so the 
Convention refused to lay the motion on 
the table. 

The vote in detail was as follows : 

State. Yeas. Nays 

New Hampshiie — 8 

New Jersey . 
New York . . 
North Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon . . . 
Pennsylvani.i . 
Rhode Island . 
South Carolina 
Tennessee . . 

Texas i. 

Vermortt .... — 8 

Virginia .... — 24 
West Virginia . 2 10 
Wisconsin ... — 22 
Arizona .... — 2 

Dist. Columbia . — 2 

Dakota .... 2 — 

Idaho — 2 

Montana .... — 2 

New Mexico . . — 2 

Washington . . 2 — 
Wyoming ... 2 — 

Delaware. — Attorney General Geeorg 
Gray nominated Bayard of Delaware, 
which was seconded by Col. C. E.Hooker, 
of Mississippi. 

Indiana. — Thomas A. Hendricks nomi- 



State. 


Yeas. 


Nays 


Alabama . . . 


I 


'9 


Arkansas . . . 





>4 


Calitornia . . 


.' 16 




Colorado . . . 


. 6 


— 


Connecticut . 


. — 


12 


Delaware . . 


. 6 


— 


Florida . . . . 





8 


(leorgia . . . 


." 8 


16 


Illinois . . . . 


• 17 


26 


Indiana . . . 


• 30 


— 


Iowa 




36 


Kansas . . . 


• »3 


5 


Kentucky . . 


• 3 


23 


Louisiana . . 


— 


16 


Maine . . . . 


. 3 


8 


Marylr-nd . . 




16 


Massachusetts 


; 6 


H 


Michigan . . 


. — 


26 


Minnesota . . 


. — 


14 


Mississippi . . 


. II 


7 


Missour i . . . 


• 7 


25 


Nebraska . . 


I 


8 


Nevada . . . 


. 6 





14 


4 


— 


72 


— 


22 


19 


24 


S 


I 


24 


35 


I 


7 


II 


7 



23 



natcd McDonald, of Illinois, which was 
seconded by General Hlack. 

Kentucky. — James A. McKenzic nomi- 
nated Carlisle. 

New York. — Mr. Lockwood nominated 
Grover Cleveland, Carter Harrison sec- 
onding the nomination. 

O/tio. — John W. Breckenridge, of Cali- 
fornia, nominated A. G. Thurman, which 
was seconded by Durbin Ward, of Ohio. 

A motion to suspend the order of busi- 
ness was made and carried and then at 
6.20 the convention took a recess until 
10.30 A. M. to-morrow. 

KVENING SESSION. 

At 8.05 the convention was called to or- 
der and a resolution was offered by Mr. 
Henry, of Mississippi, expressing the re- 
gret and intense admiration of the conven- 
tion at reading the statesmanlike, patriotic 
letter of Samuel J. Tilden, in which he 
made known the overpowering and provi- 
dential necessity which constrained him to 
decline the nomination to the Presidency ; 
condemning the fraud and violence by 
which Tilden and Hendricks were cheated 
out of their offices in 1876 ; expressing 
regret that the nation has been deprived 
of the lofty patriotism and splendid exe- 
cutive and administrative ability of Mr. 
Tilden, and appointing a committee to 
convey these sentiments to that gentle- 
man. Adopted. 

At 9 P. M. Morrison, of Illinois, chair- 
man of the committee on resolutions, 
stepped to the platform to present the re- 
port of that committee. 

The reading ot the platform was con- 
cluded at ten o'clock. 

TIHUI3 DAY'S SESSION. 

The convention was called to order at 
1 1:10 and the proceedings were opened 
with prayer by the Rev. George C. Lori- 
mer, of the Immanuel Baptist Church, of 
Chicago. 

The unfinished business of yesterday, 
being the call of States for nominations, 
was resumed. 

Mr. Hoadly of Ohio was placed in nom- 
ination by Thomas E. Powell of Ohio. 

Senator Wallace of Pennsylvania, nom- 
inated Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. 

The nomination was seconded by Go- 
vernor Abbett of New Jersey, 



76 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



John \V. Gumming of Massachusetts 
seconded the nomination of Mr. Bayard. 

The names of the candidates were then 
announced as follows — each name being 
greeted with cheers, but by far the greatest 
demonstration being for Cleveland : 

Thomas Francis Bayard of Delaware, 

Joseph E. McDonald of Indiana, 

John G. Carlisle of Kentucky. 

Grover Clev^eland of New York. 

Allen G. Thurman of Ohio. 

Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. 

George Hoadly of Ohio. 

The candidates having been all presen- 
ted the convention at 2.25 took a recess 
until evening. 

General Butler presented the minority 
report, which was debated, and defeated 
by a vote of 714J to 97^. The Platform 
was then adopted. 

After a motion to adjourn was lost, the 
call of States for the nomination of Presi- 
dent was ordered, and resulted as follows : 

First BaUot. 

Cleveland 392 

Bayard 170 

Randall 78 

McDonald 56 

Thurman 88 

Hoadly 3 

Carlisle 27 

Another motion to adjourn was made at 
l.io A. M. The motion, having been sec- 
onded by New York, was agreed to, and 
the Convention adjourned until 10 A, M. to- 
morrow. 

FOURTH DAY'S SKSSION. 

The Convention was called to order at 
II o'clock, and prayer was offered by Rev. 
Dr. Clinton Locke, of Grace Church, 
Chicago. 

Details of the Second Ballot. 

The second ballot commenced at 11.20, 
with the following result : 
Cleveland Nominated on tlie Seeond Ballot. 

The votes of the States in detail were 
then (i o'clock) announced by the Clerk 
for verification. 

The general result was announced as 
follows at 1. 10 p. M. 

Whole number of votes cast 820 

Necessary to choice 547 

Cleveland 683 

Bayard 8 1 J 

Randall 4 

Hendricks 45 J 



McDonald 2 

Thurman 4 

Tlie Nomination made Unanimous. 

The question was then put on Mr. Men- 
zies' motion to make the nomination unan- 
imous which was triumphantly carried. 

The Convention then at 1:25 took a re- 
cess until 5 o'clock P. M. 

EVENING SESSION. 

At half-past 5 o'clock the evening sess- 
ion was called to order, and the first busi- 
ness done was the adoption of a resolution 
electing Mr. Vilas (Chairman of the Con- 
vention) as Chairman of the committee to 
notify the nominees of their selection as 
candidates 

Naming Candidates for Vice-President. 

The Convention then proceeded to the 
call of the roll for the nomination of a 
candidate for Vice-President. 

Mr. Searles of California, nominated 
General William S. Rosecrans. 

Mr. Branch (Col.) nominated Joseph E. 
McDonald, of Indiana. 

Mr. Bacon (Ga.) said he was commis- 
sioned by his delegation to present the 
name of General John C. Black, of Illi- 
nois. 

Judge Black expressed his appreciation 
of the high and unmerited compliment 
paid him. It was almost absolutely a sur- 
prise to him, but he had come here as the 
spokesman and representative of another 
citizen of the Republic. He had put his 
hand in the hand of Joseph E. McDonald, 
and while that gentlemen's name was 
before the Convention, he (Black) could 
not appear as in any sense his rival for 
any position. He, therefore, respectfully 
declined the nomination. 

Mr. Pinlow (Kan.) presented the name 
of Governor George W. Glick. 

Ex-Senator Wallace (Pa.) said that he 
nominated as a candidate for Vice Presi- 
dent a man conversant with public affairs 
throughout his whole life, an honored 
statesman, a pure and upright citizen, a 
victim of the grossest fraud ever perpe- 
trated on the American people — Thomas 
A. Hendricks. [Cheers.] 

Mr. Searles (Cal.) withdrew the nomi- 
nation of Rosecrans. 

The other nominees were all withdrawn, 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



77 



one, by one, so that Mr. Hendricks' name 
alone remained before the Convention. 

Hendricks lInaiitmou»ly Noiiilnnted. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Clerk 
proceeded to call the roll of States. The 
result was the unanimous nomination of 
Thomas A. Hendricks as the candidate 
for Vice-President. 

The Chairman announced that there 
had been 8i6 votes cast, all of them being 
for Thomas A. Hendricks, and that Mr. 
Hendricks was therefore the candidate 
of the National Democratic Convention 
for Vice-President of the United States. 

The Convention then, at 7.25, adjourned 
sine die. 

Tlic "Vote Tabulated. 

The following table gives the vote of 
each State for Presidential candidates on 
each of the two ballots : 



1ST Ballot. 



States and 
Territories. 







-n 1 








c 






rt 




e: 




u. 










U 










Alabama. . . . 
Arkansas. . . . 
California . . . 
Colorado .... 
Connecticut . . 
Delaware . . . 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky. . . . 
Louisiana. . . . 

Maine 

Maryland . . . 
Massachusetts . 
Michigan. . . . 
Minnesota .... 
Mississippi .... 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire . 
New Jersey . . , 
New York .... 
North Carolina . . 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania . . . 
Rhode Island. . . 
South Carolina . . 
Tennessee .... 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia. . . 
Wisconsin .... 

Arizona 

Dakota 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexico . . . 

Utah 

Washington. . . . 

Wyoming 

Dist. of Columbia 

Total .... 



3D Ballot. 



392,170,5688 78 27 



5!i4 
14 
16 

6 



22 

43' . . 

261 . , 

17! I 

421 

15 . 
12 . 

16 . 

23 
14 



12H 
3 



68381^^145^ 



Democratic Platform. 

AdopUd at Chicago, Jut;i Id, 1884. 

The Democratic party of the Union, 
through its representatives in National 
Convention assembled, recognizes that, as 
the nation grows older, new issues are born 
of time and progress and old issues perish. 
But the fundamental principles of the De- 
mocracy, approved by the united voice of 
the people, remain, and will ever remain, 
as the best and only security for the con- 
tinuance of free government. The preser- 
vation of personal rights, the equality of 
all citizens before the law, the reserved 
rights of the states and the supremacy of 
the Federal Government witliin the limits 
of the Constitution will ever form the true 
basis of our liberties, and can never be 
surrendered without destroying that bal- 
ance of rights and powers which enables 
a continent to be developed in peace, and 
social order to be maintained by means of 
local self-government, but it is indispensa- 
ble for the practical operation and enforce- 
ment of these fundamental principles that 
the Government should not always be 
controlled by one political power. Fre- 
quent change of administration is as ne- 
cessary as constant recurrence to the popu- 
lar will. Otherwise abuses grow and the 
Government, instead of being carried on 
for the general welfare, becomes an instru- 
mentality for imposing heavy burdens on 
the many who are governed for the benefit 
of the few who govern. Public servants 
thus become arbitrary rulers. 

This is now the condition of the coun- 
try ; hence a change is demanded. 

The Republican Party. 

The Republican party, so far as princi- 
ple is concerned, is a reminiscence. In 
practice, it is an organization for enriching 
those who control its machinery. The 
frauds and jobbery which have been 
brought to light in every department of the 
Government are sufficient to have called 
for reform within the Republican party ; 
yet those in authority, made reckless by 
the long possession of power, have suc- 
cumbed to its corrupting influence, and 
have placed in nomination a ticket against 
which the independent portion of the par- 
ty are in open revolt. 

Therefore a change is demanded. Such 
a change was ahke necessary in 1876, but 
the will of the people was then defeated 
by a fraud which can never be forgotten 
nor condoned. Again in 1880 the change 
demanded by the people was defeated by 
the lavish use of money contributed by 
unscrupulous contractors and shameless 
jobbers who had bargained for unlawful 
profits or for high office. The Republican 
party during its legal, its stolen and its 
bought tenures of power has steadily de- 
''cayed in moral character and political 



78 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



/ 



capacity. Its platform promises are now a 
list of its past failures. It demands the 
restoration of our navy ; it has squandered 
J hundreds of millions to create a navy that 
J does not exist. It calls upon Congress to 
'% remove the burdens under which Ameri- 
can shipping has been depressed ; it im- 
posed and has continued those burdens. 
It professes the policy of reserving the 
public lands for small holdings by actual 
settlers ; it has given away the people's 
heritage, till now a few railroads and non- 
resident aliens, individual and corporate, 
possess a larger area than that of all our 
farms between the two seas. It professes 
a preference for free institutions ; it organ- 
ized and tried to legalize a control of state 
elections by Federal troops. It professes 
a desire to elevate labor; it has subjected 
American working-men to the competition 
^of convict and imported contract labor. 
/ It professes gratitude to all who were dis- 
— abled or died in the war, leaving widows 
and orphans ; it left to a Democratic House 
of Representatives the firstxfijw;t to equal- 
ize both bounties and pensionsTNt proffers 
a pledge to correct the ig:agtil«tfties of our 
tariff; it created and hds continued them. 
Its own Tariff Commission confessed the 
need of more than 20 per cent, reduction, 
its Congress gave a reduction of less than 
4 per cent. It professes the Protection of 
American manufactures ; it has subjected 
them to an increasing flood of manufac- 
tured goods and a hopeless competition 
with manufacturing nations, not one of 
which taxes raw materials. It professes to 
protect all American industries ; it has im- 
poverished many to subsidize a few. It 
professes the Protection of American la- 
bor ; it has depleted the returns of Ameri- 
can agriculture — an industry followed by 
half our people. It professes the equality 
of men before the law, attempting to fix 
the status of colored citizens. 

The acts of its congress were overset by 
the decisions of its courts. It " accepts 
anew the duty of leading in the work of 
progress and reform ; '' its caught criminals 
are permitted to escape through continued 
delays or actual connivance in the prose- 
cution. Honeycombed with corruption, 
outbreaking exposures no longer shock its 
moral sense. Its honest members, its in- 
dependent journals, no longer maintain a 
successful contest for authority in its coun 
sels, or a veto upon bad nominations. 
That change is necessary is proved by an 
existing surplus of more than $1 00,000, ocxd, 
which has yearly been collected from a 
suffering people. Unnecessary taxation is 
unjust taxation. We denounce the Repub- 
lican party for having failed to relieve the 
people from crushing war taxes, which 
have paralyzed business, crippled industry, 
and deprived labor of employment and of 
just reward. The Democracy pledges it- 



self to purify the administration from cor- 
ruption,/ to restore economy, to revive re- 
spect forlaw and to reduce taxation to the 
lowest limit consistent with due regard to 
the preservation of the faith of the nation to 
its creditors and pensioners J knowing full 
well, however, that legislation affecting the 
occupations of the people should be cau- 
tious and conservative in method, not in 
advance of public opinion, but responsive 
to its demands. The Democratic party is^ 
pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of/ 
fairness to all interests. ^ 

Tarlif Reduction. 

But in making a reduction in taxes it is 
not proposed to injure any domestic indus- 
tries, but rather to promote their healthy 
growth, v From the foundation of this 
Government; taxes collected at the custom- 
house have been the chief source of federal 
revenue; such they must continue to SeTX 
Moreover, many industries have (y»fnrrtt/ 
rely upon legislation for successful contin- 
uance, so that any change of law must be 
at every step regardful of the labor and 
capital thus involved. The process of re- 
form must be subject in the execution to 
this plain dictate of justice. 

All taxation shall be limited to the re- 
quirements of economical government. 
The necessary reduction in taxation can 
and must be effected without depressing 
American labor or the ability to compete 
successfully with foreign labor, and with- 
out imposing lower rates of duty than will 
be ample to cover any increased cost of 
production which may exist in consequence 
of the higher rate of wages prevailing in 
this country. Sufficient revenue to pay allX 
the expenses of the Federal Government 
economically administered, including pen- 
sions, interest and principal of the public 
debt, can be got, under our present system 
of taxation, from custom-house taxes on 
fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest 
on articles of luxury, and bearing lightest 
on articles of necessity. We therefore de- 
nounce the abuses of the existing tariff 
and, subject to the preceding limitations, 
we demand that federal taxation shall be 
exclusively for public purposes, and shall 
not exceed the needs of the-Government 
economically administered./ The system ' 
of direct taxation known as the " internal 
revenue '' is a war tax, and, so long as the 
law continues, the money derived there- 
from should be sacredly devoted to the re- 
lief of the people from the remaining bur- 
dens of the war, and be made a fund to 
defray the expense of the care and comfort 
of worthy soldiers disabled in the line of 
duty in the wars of the Republic, and for 
the payment of such pensions as Congress 
may from time to time grant to such sol- 
diers, a like fund for the sailors having 
been already provided ; and any surplus 
should be paid into the t- easury. 




PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



ro 



Commerce with South America. I Jeflersoiilan Principles. 

We favor an American continental poll- 1 i^ reaffirming the declarations of the 
cy based upon more mtimate commercial Democratic i)latrorm of 1S56, tliat " the lib- 
and political relations with the fifteen sister jcral principles eml)odied by Jefferson in 
republics of North, Central and South 1 the Declaration of Indei)endence and sanc- 
Ahierica, but entanj^ding alliances withjtioncd in the Constitution, which make 
none. We believe in honest money, the I ours the land of liberty and the asylum of 
gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, ■ the oppressed of every nation, have ever 



and a circulating medium convertible into 
such money without loss. Asserting the 
equality of all men before the law, we hold 



been cardinal principles in the Democratic 
faith,'' we, nevertheless, do not sanction 
the importation of foreign labor or the ad- 



that it is the duty of the Government in its 1 mission of servile races unfitted by habits, 
dealings with the people to mete out equal j training, religion or kindred forabsorption 



and exact justice to all citizens, of whatever 
nativity, race, color or persuasion, religious 
or political. We believe in a free ballot 
and a fair count and we recall to the mem- 
ory of the people the noble struggle of the 
Democrats in the Forty-fifth and Forty- 
sixth Congresses, by which a reluctant Re- 
publican opposition was compelled to as- 
sent to legislation making everywhere illegal 
the presence of troops at the polls, as the 
conclusive proof that a Democratic admin- 
istration will preserve liberty with order. 
The selection of federal officers for the ter- 
ritories should be restricted to citizens pre- 
viously resident therein. We oppose 
sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and 
interfere with individual liberty. We favor 
honest civil service reforms and the com- 
pensation of all United States officers by 
^ fixed salaries; the separation of church 
/ and state, and the diffusion of free educa- 
vtion by common schools, so that every 
child in the land may be taught the rights 
and duties of citizenship. While we favor 
all legislation which will tend to the equi- 
table distribution of property, to the pre- 
vention of monopoly and to the strict en- 
forcement of individual rights against cor- 
porate abuses, we hold that the welfare of 
society depends upon a scrupulous regard 
for the rights of property as defined by law. 
We believe that labor is best rewarded 
where it is freest and most enlightened. It 
should therefore be fostered and cherished. 
We favor the repeal of all laws restricting 
the free action of labor, and the enactment 
of laws by which labor organizations may 
be incorporated, and of all such legislation 
as will tend to enlighten the people as to 
the true relation of capital and labor. We 
believe that the public lands ought, as far 



into the great body of our people or for the 
citizenship which our laws confer. 

American civilization demands that 
against the immigration or importation of 
Mongolians to these shores our gates be 
closed. The Democratic party insists 
that it is the duty of the Government to 
protect with equal fidelity and vigilance 
the rights of its citizens, native and natur- 
alized, at home and abroad, and, to the 
end that this protection may be assured, 
United States papers of naturalization 
issued by courts of competent jurisdiction 
must be respected by the executive and 
legislative departments of our own Gov- 
ernment and by all foreign powers. It is 
an imperative duty of this Government to 
efficiently protect all the rights of persons 
and property of every American citizen in 
foreign lands, and demand and enforce 
full reparation for any invasion thereof. 

An American citizen is only responsible to 
his own Government for any action done 
in his own country or under her flag, and 
can only be tried, therefore, on her own 
soil and according to her laws, and no 
power exists in this Government to expa- 
triate an American citizen to be tried in 
any foreign land for any such act. 

This Country has never had a well de- 
fined and executed foreign policy save un- 
der Democratic administration. The policy 
has ever been, in regard to foreign nations, 
so long as they do no act detrimental to 
the interests of the country or hurtful to 
our citizens, to let them alone. That, as 
the result of this policy, we recall the ac- 
quisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, 
and of the adjacent Mexican territory by 
purchase alone and contrast these grand 
acquisitions of Democratic statesmanship 



as possible, to be kept as homesteads for ; ^ith the purchase of Alaska, the sole fruit 
actual settlers, that all unearned lands, ' of a Republican administration of nearly a 
heretofore improvidently granted to rail- quarter of a century, 
road corporations by the action of the Re- 
publican party, should be restored to the 
public domain, and that no more grants of 
land shall be made to corporations, or to 

be allowed to fall into the ownership of j other great water ways of the Republic, so 
alien absentees. We are opposed to all as to secure for the interior states easy and 
propositions which, upon any pretext, 1 cheap transportation to tidewater. Under 
would convert the general Government a long period of Democratic rule and 
into a machine for collecting taxes to be I policy our merchant marine was fast over- 
distributed among the states, or the citizens 1 taking and on the point of outstripping 
thereof. 



Federal Responsibilities. 

The Federal Government should care for 
and improve the Mississippi River and 



80 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 



that of Great Britain. Under twenty years 
of Republican rule and policy our com- 
merce has been left to British bottoms, and 
almost has the American flag been swept 
off the high seas. Instead of the Republi- 
can party's British policy, we demand for 
the people of the United States an Ameri- 
can policy. Under the Democratic rule 
and policy, our merchants and sailors, 
flying the stars and stripes in every port, 
successfully searched out a market for the 
varied products of American industry. 
Under a quarter of a century of Republi- 
can rule and policy, despite our manifest 
advantages over all other nations in high 
paid labor, favorable climate and teeming 
soils ; despite freedom of trade among all 
these United States ; despite their popula- 
tion by the foremost races of men and an 
annual immigration of the young, thrifty 
and adventurous of all nations ; despite 
our freedom here from the inherited bur- 
dens of life and industry in old world mon- 
archies, their costly war navies, their vast 
tax-consuming, non-producing standing 
armies ; despite twenty years of peace, 
that Republican rule and policy have 
managed to surrender to Great Britain, 
along with our commerce, the control of 
the markets of the world. 

Instead of the Republican party's Bri- 
tish policy, we demand in behalf of the 
American Democracy, an American policy ; 
instead of the Republican party's discred- 
ited scheme and false pretenses of friend- 
ship for American labor expressed by im- 
posing taxes, we demand in behalf of the 
Democracy, freedom for American labor, 
by reducing taxes to the end that these 



United States may compete with unhin- 
dered powers for the primacy among na- 
tions in all the arts of peace and fruits of 
liberty. 

With profound regret we have been ap- 
prised by the venerable statesman.through 
whose person was struck that blow at the 
vital principle of republics (acquiescence in 
the will of the majority), that he cannot 
permit us again to place in his hands the 
leadership of the Democratic hosts, for the 
reason that the achievement of reform in 
the administration of the Federal Govern- 
ment is an undertaking now too heavy for 
his age and failing strength. Rejoicing 
that his life has been prolonged until the 
general j udgment of our fellow-countrymen 
is united in the wish that wrong were 
righted in his person for the Democracy 
of the United States, we offer to him, in 
his withdrawal from public cares, not only 
our respectful sympathy and esteem, but 
also that best homage of freemen, the 
pledge of our devotion to the principles 
and the cause now inseparable in the his- 
tory of the Republic from the labors and 
the name of Samuel J. Tilden. With this 
statement of the hopes, principles and pur- 
poses of the Democratic party the great 
issue of reform and change in administra- 
tion is submitted to the people in calm 
confidence that the popular voice will pro- 
nounce in favor of new men and new and 
more favorable conditions for the growth of 
industry, the extension of trade, the em- 
ployment and due reward of labor and of 
capital, and the general welfare of the 
whole country. 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



The Democratic party with its long his- 
toric record, reaching back to the primi- 
tive days of the Repubhc, has so often 
asserted its fundamental principles, and in 
the administration of the government has 
so fully defined its policy that a passing 
notice is all that is necessary to present 
them to the reader. Its maxim of " the 
greatest good to the greatest number" has 
been the prominent idea of the party since 
the days of Jefferson, and hence its great 
following by the masses of the laboring 
classes. The Democratic party as the 
representative of free institutions, or of a 
government of the people, became from 
the beginning the natural antagonist of 
aristocracy, and the champion of legiti- 
mate industry. It not only welcomed to 
our shores the oppressed of other nations, 
but after clothing them with the garb of 
citizenship it has stood between labor and 
capital, demanding an equitable division 
of their joint earnings. To hold in check 
the syndicates of capital, and to compel 
corporations to deal justly with employees, 
has ever been its aim and end. The 
great national doctrines enunciated by 
Jefferson, whose broad and practical 
views gave our nation a home prosperity 
and a foreign prestige, still form the key- 
stone of the Democratic arch through 
which the present millions march onward 
to a bright future. To preserve national 
honor, to perpetuate our institutions as 
handed down to us by the noble framers 
of our government, to give stability to in- 
dustry and trade, to legislate for the whole 
nation and not for a chosen few — these are 
a few of the prominent ideas of the Demo- 
cratic party. Individual interests will 
differ ; the different callings of life beget a 
friction, and cause collisions between rival 
elements. Governments when just, in- 
stead of favoring one interest to the pre- 
judice of others, bring about such a com- 
promise as aids all by protecting all. 
6 



The two great political parties substan- 
tially agree as to the true intent and pur- 
pose of government. They both declare 
their purpose to be to secure the perpetuity 
of our institutions, the prosperity of our peo- 
ple, and the rapid and safe development 
of our resources. Each recognizes the 
constitutional rights of our people, and 
the supremacy of legal enactments in ac- 
cordance therewith. Executive officers 
and legislators without regard to party 
must protect and defend our institutions, 
and carry on the government as they shall 
deem best for its present and future good. 
It is at this point that party lines diverge 
on the question of policy. The division is 
not as to what we need as a nation, but as 
to the best way to secure it. Thus, we 
need money to carry on the government, 
but the ciuestion as to the best way to pro- 
cure it is probably the real dividing line 
between the great parties. At the present 
time our receipts are from duties on im- 
ports, from . internal revenue taxes, and 
from the sale of public lands. As regards 
the money raised by the taxation of articles 
produced in our own country, there is a 
large following in both the Democratic and 
Republican parties that the necessity for 
said tax no longer exists, and its collection 
should be discontinued. 

Protection la-ws are unstable. 

An essential of a just law is that it af- 
fects all alike, and measured from this 
stand point our tariff legislation is undoubt- 
edly very unjust. Protection instead of 
being designed for the common good, is 
special and discriminating, and is there- 
fore partial. It favors the one at the ex- 
pense of the other, and all tariff legislation 
having a view to protect must necessarily 
do so. When it discards favoritism and 
ceases to discriminate, it cannot protect, 
because a law which affords equal protec- 
tion to all the home industries would leave 
them in precisely the same condition as if 

81 



82 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



they had no legal protection. As has been 
truly said, " the attempt to protect every- 
thing protects nothing. The history of 
our country shows further, that these par- 
tial laws cannot be permanent, and the 
knowledge that they are liable to change 
at any session of Congress tends to dis- 
organize business and thus destroy the ge- 
neral prosperity. Capitalists are slow to 
invest in any business, which is subject to 
the mutations of popular legislation, thus 
placing them and those whom they employ 
at the mercy of each congressional dele- 
gation. A tariff which favors one class to- 
day, may be changed to favor another to- 
morrow, and thus capitalists become bank- 
rupt and labor is paralyzed under the hy- 
pocritical name of protection. The De- 
mocratic party is pledged against such fa- 
voritism, and sham protection, and favors 
such tariff legislation as will give stability 
to all our industries, and through that, 
prosperity to the whole country. What 
the country needs is a rest from such legis- 
lation as vainly strives to regulate that 
which is only governed by the stern laws 
of supply and demand, when business 
will take its natural channel, labor receive 
its proper compensation, and prosperity 
will bless and restore what protective laws 
have blasted. 

TKe Duties are Principally Paid by tlie 
Consumer. 

Those who advocate a Protective Tariff 
assert that the importer pays the duty, and 
thus foreign Governments pay the principal 
portion of our taxes. The absurdity of 
this proposition is evident from the fact 
that if it were true, all nations would im- 
mediately resort to such a tariff in order 
that they might be relieved from taxation. 
But even for a moment admitting it to be 
true, no possible benefit could be derived 
from such a system, as the reciprocal fea- 
ture would require us to pay the taxes of 
other nations in the same amount that they 
might pay ours. 

It may be laid down as a verity, that 
the consumer of an article pays its full 
value, including all costs and charges in- 
cident to its production and delivery to the 
last purchaser, and hence whatever we 
consume of foreign product or manufac- 
ture we pay for to the uttermost farthing. 



We are even obliged to pay more than the 
value in a foreign market with the duties 
and freight added, because these commo- 
dities of necessity pass through more hands 
than domestic produce, and each demands 
his percentage on the actual cost. The 
wealthy who can afford to purchase in 
large quantities of first hands, purchase at 
less rates than the poor who are compelled 
to buy in small quantities, at much higher 
rates, and hence the laboring poor of the 
country, who are least able to pay, have to 
bear the major part of this taxation. Duties 
on imports are therefore a direct tax on 
the labor of the country much more oner- 
ous and unjust to the poor than a direct 
taxation would be. To put the case plainly, 
the consumer of an imported article pays, 
in addition to its market price at home, 
the expense of transportation and insur- 
ance, the amount of duty levied under the 
tariff law, the cost of maintaining our cus- 
tom houses and their accessories, the com- 
missions of agents, the percentage of 
wholesale dealers, the profits of jobbers, 
and the augmented prices of the retail 
dealers, so that the original price is often 
quadrupled ere it is purchased by the 
sweat of labor. It compounds its rates as 
it passes from hand to hand, and the 
consumer must pay both principal and 
interest. 

But the Protectionist replies, that not- 
withstanding this, the consumer purchases 
at a cheaper rate than he can buy the 
same goods manufactured at home — that 
foreign manufacturers must undersell our 
market before they can find purchasers. 
If this were true, it would successfully re- 
fute the position taken by the Democratic 
Party on the tariff question, and com- 
pletely disarm the opponents of Protec- 
tion so far as this principle applies. But 
it is not the fact, as may be shown in a 
single sentence. The idea that goods 
manufactured in the old countries are su- 
perior to ours, is entertained by a great 
majority of our people, and hence they 
are willing to pay a higher price for them 
than for similar articles made at home. 
There was a time when the proposition 
was true, but the rapid development of the 
country, and its advance in all the skilled 
industries, enables it now to make almost 



THE ISSUES OF 18S4. 



83 



every article of utility or luxury as good 
as it is made abroad. 15ut the prejudice still 
exists, and it is kept alive by the agents of 
foreign establishments, so that in many 
cases foreign trash is purchased in prefer- 
ence to home staples, because it is " im- 
ported," and thus foreign goods in many 
cases do not compete with our own, but 
are purchased at higher prices under the 
delusive impression that they are superior 
because of foreign manufacture. A Pro- 
tective Tariff with its school of trained 
theorists, and its army of officers fed and 
fattened out of fees is the breeder of this 
fallacy, through which our manufacturers 
suffer more than if they were exposed to 
an open competitive market. A lady will 
pay 53-00 per yard for an imported silk 
no better in quality than that produced at 
home and sold for $2.00 per yard, because 
it is " imported." A gentleman pays $50 
for a suit ot imported fabric, inferior in 
quality to what he can obtain for $}^ of 
American make. The Cincinnati hog mer- 
chant sells bacon at 8 cents per pound, 
but knowing this sophistry by which for- 
eign goods are sold, he ships it to Belfast, 
and then re-ships it to New York, and 
obtains 20 cents a pound for his genuine 
Irish Bacon. 

Protection does not Protect. 

So long as we are schooled to the belief 
that goods manufactured in foreign coun- 
tries are superior to our own, and we are 
willing to pay enhanced prices for them, 
protection cannot protect our industries. 
Apart from this it may be conceded that 
some of our industries are temporarily 
stimulated by protective duties, and that 
producers thereby realize large profits on 
their products, but it is done at the ex- 
pense of the domestic consumers who pay 
the increased price. Protection proposes 
to promote industry at the expense of the 
products of industry, and justifies the in- 
creased expenditure on the grounds that 
the additional amount paid would have 
been expended for something else. It is 
impossible for such a tariff to equally pro- 
tect capital and labor, which, although in 
one sense are so closely allied, yet at the 
same time have antagonistic interests. 
Capital without labor is non-producing — 



labor without the aid of capital is inopera- 
tive. But the unity of interest ceases here, 
and the contest between the two elements 
begins. Capital desires cheap labor in 
order to produce cheap goods. Labor de- 
sires such remuneration as will secure the 
necessities of life at fair prices, and asks 
for an equitable division of profits. If our 
import system makes the capitalist wealthy 
and the operative poor, or vice versa, it is 
not equitable, and cannot add to the gen- 
eral prosperity. Whenever it protects the 
one at the expense of the other it is working 
a personal and a public evil. The Demo- 
cratic Party resists this protective policy on 
the grounds that it is neither practical, 
equitable nor honest. It is directly in the 
interest of corporations, of capitalists and 
syndicates of speculators. It protects that 
which can protect itself, and leaves the 
laboring poor at the mercy of soulless 
money making corporations. It protects 
the one by laying tribute on every article 
that enters into competition with his busi- 
ness ; it secures for him the entire home 
market for his goods, and enables him to 
fix his prices on what he sells, under the 
plea of Protection to American Industry, 
while at the same time it allows him to 
supplant American labor which demands 
fair wages with cheap labor from abroad. 
There is no protective tariff on labor — the 
foreign workman comes in free of duty, 
and at low wages drives home labor from 
its callings. If a tariff is intended to pro- 
tect American labor, it must not only tax 
the products of foreign labor, but also the 
labor itself when employed in this country, 
otherwise it cannot protect our own indus- 
try. It is in behalf of American labor that 
the Democratic Party opposes a tariff for 
the protection of capital at the expense of 
the working man. A manufactory in this 
country filled with foreign operatives em- 
ployed at lower prices than are paid to 
native labor, is the class of industry that 
is protected by our tariff, and on account 
of which hundreds of millions of dollars 
are annually paid by our consumers. The 
products of such an establishment are as 
truly foreign as though they had been 
manufactured in Sheffield or Lyons. The 
natural effect of such a tariff is, first, to 
force native labor out of employment, and 



84 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



second, to tax the people of the country 
for thus depressing our industries. 

A Protective Tariff Is on the Principle of 
Slavery. 

The great value of property is the right 
to exchange it for the property of another, 
as by this exchange both parties are bene- 
fited — each disposing of what he does not 
need, and receiving that which he does 
need, and any system of law that denies 
to an individual or a people the rights of 
exchange, violates the great principle of 
liberty. As well might government deter- 
mine what you should make, as how you 
should dispose of the products of your 
labor. It might as well dictate who should 
be merchants, mechanics, or artisans, as 
to direct as to the sale or exchange of their 
goods. "No man can be free," says an 
able writer, "who, by arbitrary enactment 
is not allowed, in trying to exchange his 
products for another, to obtain all that the 
laws of value acting freely would give 
him ; or who has some part of the pro- 
duct of his labor arbitrarily taken from 
him for the use and enjoyment of some 
other man who has not earned it. 

The argument that is generally put forth 
by the advocates of the policy of protec- 
tion, in justification of legislation restricting 
freedom of exchange, or in defence of the 
pithily expressed proposition that "it is 
oetter to compel an individual to buy a 
hat for five dollars, rather than to allow 
him to purchase it for three, is that any 
prcseiit loss or injury resulting from such 
restriction to the individual will be more 
than compensated to him, or to society, 
through some future and indirect accruing 
benefit. But it should be borne in mind 
that this is the same argument that has 
always been made use of in past times as 
a warrant for every crime against liberty 
It ought not therefore to be a matter of 
surprise, that the intellectuality of this lat- 
ter third of the nineteenth century, recog- 
nizing the antagonism of any other position 
to the great cause of human progress, 
should have ranged itself by an over- 
whelming majority on the side of indus- 
trial and commercial freedom, equally and 
for like reasons and motives as it has on 
the side of intellectual, religious and politi- 
cal freedom ; that no man intellectually 



great by general acknowledgment, who 
has given any special attention to this sub- 
ject, and who is not avowedly working in 
tlie interests of despotism, or private gain, 
can be pointed out in either hemisphere, 
that is not unqualifiedly in favor of remov- 
ing speedily and to the greatest extent 
compatible with the requirements of gov- 
ernments for revenue, all restrictions on 
the commercial intercourse of both nations 
and individuals ; and that there is not to- 
day a first-class college or institution of 
learning in the whole world which would 
admit or invite to its chair of political 
economy, a person who theoretically be- 
lieved in the theory or expediency of re- 
stricting exchanges as a means of increas- 
ing popular welfare and abundance." 

Tlie Party opposed to Centralization of 
Power. 

The Democratic party opposes a protec- 
tive tariff because it tends to a centralization 
of power not warranted by the Constitu- 
tition. In countries where the government 
is a despotism, without any limitation or 
restraint, such a policy would be in strict 
accordance with its powers, but under a 
free government, where the powers of the 
ruler are the vested rights of the people, 
it is a question whether its legislators have 
the right to levy discriminating taxes other 
than to defray public expenditures. As 
ours is a government of the people, for the 
people as a whole, and not for any particu- 
lar portion or class, it becomes a question 
whether any legislation discriminating be- 
tween them, and thus affecting their rights 
as citizens is not a direct violation of our 
Constitution. At all events it is commit- 
ting a wrong upon one class to benefit 
another, and is not equitable, if legal. It 
takes from those who can least afford to 
pay, and gives to those who do not need 
it. 

WUat tlie Supreme Court says. 

The Democratic policy as regards this 
great question cannot be more accurately 
stated, than in the words of Justice Miller, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in an opinion of that Court, given in Wal- 
lace Reports, volume xx. " The theory 
of our governments. State and National, is 
opposed to the deposit of unlimited power 
anywhere. The executive, the legislative 



THE ISSUES OF 18S4. 



85 



and the judicial branches of these govern- 
ments are all of limited and defined 
powers. They are limitations of such 
powers which grow out of the essential 
nature of all free governments ; implied 
reservation of individual rights, without 
which the social compact could not exist, 
which is respected by all governments 
entidcd to the name. Of all the powers con- 
ferred upon governments that of taxation 
is most liable to abuse. Given a purpose 
or object for which taxation may be law- 
fully used, and the extent of its exercise is 
in its very nature unlimited. This power 
can as readily be employed against one 
class of individuals and in favor of another, 
so as to ruin the one class and give un- 
limited wealth and prosperity to the other, 
if there are no implied limitations of the 
uses for which the power may be exercised. 
To lay with one hand the power of the 
government on the property of the citizen, 
and with the other to bestow it upon 
favored individuals to aid private enter- 
prise and build up private fortunes, is none 
the less robbery because it is done under 
the forms of the law and is called taxation. 
This is not legislation ; it is a decree under 
legislative forms. Nor is it taxation. Be- 
yond a cavil there can be no lawful tax 
which is not laid for a public purpose. It 
may not be easy to draw the line in all 
cases so as to decide what is a public pur- 
pose in this sense and what is net. If it 
be said that a benefit results to the local 
public of a town, by establishing manufac- 
tures, the same may be said of any other 
business or pursuit which employs capital 
or labor. The merchant, the mechanic, 
the inn-keeper, the banker, the builder, 
the steamboat owner, are equally promoters 
of the public good and equally deserving 
the aid of the citizens by forced contribu- 
tions. No line can be drawn in favor of 
the manufacturer which would not open 
the public treasury to the importunities of 
two-thiids of the business men of the 
city or town." Here is an exposition of 
Democratic doctrine given by the Supreme 
Court within ten years, to which there was 
but one dissenting opinion. It confirms 
the great party principle that protection to 
aid private interests in manufacturing or 
in any other line of business is beyond the 



province of State and National govern- 
ments, and when such legislation is had, to 
use the words of Justice Miller, " it is none 
the less robbery because it is done under 
•^he forms of law, and is called taxation." 

A distinguished judge of the Supreme 
Court of Michigan in his work on the 
"Principles of Constitutional Law," says : 
" Constitutionally a tax can have no other 
basis than the raising of a revenue for pub- 
lic purposes, and whatever governmental 
action has not this basis is tyrannical and 
unlawful. A tax on imports, therefore, 
the purpose of which is not to raise a 
revenue, but to discourage and indirectly 
prohibit some particular import for the 
benefit of some home manufacture, may 
well be questioned as being merely colora- 
ble, and, therefore, not warranted by 
Constitutional principles." 

Another learned jurist says " If there is 
any proposition about which there is an 
entire and uniform weight of judicial 
authority, it is that taxes are to be imposed 
for the use of the people of the State in 
the varied and manifold purposes of gov- 
ernment, and not for private objects or 
the special benefit of individuals. The 
State cannot discriminate among occupa- 
tions, for a discrimination in favor of one 
is a discrimination adverse to all others. 
While the State is bound to protect all, it 
ceases to give that just protection when it 
affords undue advantages, or gives special 
and exclusive preferences to particular 
individuals and particular and special 
industries at the cost and charge of the 
rest of the community." 

Does Protection Increase Wages T 

The argument advanced that we need 
a Protective tariff in order that our laborers 
may receive fair wages, is another of the 
fallacies adduced by the Republican party 
in order to control the votes of the opera- 
tives in our manufactories. It is asserted 
that in the absence of this protective policy 
the influx of foreign goods at low prices 
will first reduce the rates of labor, and 
finally compel the manufacturers to close 
their business. When we reflect that only 
a very small percentage of our people are 
engaged in occupations which admit of 
being protected against foreign competi- 



se 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



tion, it is also important to observe how 
ver}"- few of the many products of home 
manufacture can possibly be directly bene- 
fited by a protective tariff. That which 
can be exported promptly and regularly, 
and sold in competition abroad with sim- 
ilar foreign products, cannot be directly 
benefited by any tariff legislation — on the 
contrary it must prove a decided detri- 
ment. The influx of foreign goods does 
not affect the general result, for supposing 
that in consequence of the abandonment 
of protection, large quantities of foreign 
goods should come to our market, they 
must be sold and paid for, before they can 
compete with our own. They are not given 
away to the people for nothing. Product 
for product is the imperative law of ex- 
change, and we can only purchase from 
abroad, with what we produce at home, 
and hence the absurdity of the proposition 
that without a protective tariff we should 
be deluged with foreign goods. The whole 
question is met with the self-evident fact 
that if more goods are imported under a 
low tariff than under a high one, we must 
produce more at home to enable us to pur- 
chase them, in which case our domestic 
industries would be stimulated and in- 
creased, or else we must obtain a higher 
price for what we manufacture and pro- 
duce, either of which would add to our 
national prosperity. We cannot purchase 
foreign goods unless we have the money, 
and that money must be obtained through 
our own industry. The whole thing is 
compensation because people as a rule 
purchase only what they need, and what 
they have the money to buy. Labor is 
not for labor, but for its recompense, and 
human wants multiply just as the means 
to gratify them are obtained. The luxuries 
of one generation become the necessities 
of the succeeding one, so that if the price 
of labor was cjuadrupled, the demand for 
additional comforts and luxuries would 
increase in the same ratio. 

The cheaper goods are, the more will 
be consumed, and nothing is more irra- 
tional than the supposition that the cheap- 
ness of goods, or the increased ability to 
purchase, diminishes or restricts the oppor- 
tunity to labor. To quote a standard 
authority : "Wages arc the laborers' share 



of product." Nojemployer of labor can con- 
tinue for any great length of time to pay 
wages, unless his product is large. If it is 
not, and he attempts it, it is only a ques- 
tion of time when his affairs will be wound 
up by the sheriff. Or, on the other hand, 
if a high rate of wages continues perma- 
nently to be paid in any industry and in 
any country, it is in itself proof positive 
that the product of labor is large, that the 
laborer is entitled to a generous share of 
jt, and that the employer can afford to give 
it to him. And if to-morrow the tariff of 
the United States was swept out of exist- 
ence, this natural advantage which, sup- 
posing the same skill and intelligence, is 
the sole advantage which the American 
laborer has over his foreign competitor, 
would not be diminished to the extent of 
the fraction of an iota. Consider for ex- 
ample, the American agriculturist. He 
pays higher wages than his foreign com- 
petitor. In fact the difference between the 
wages paid in agriculture in the United 
States and Europe are greater than in any 
other form of industry. The tariff cannot 
help him, but by increasing the cost of all 
his instrumentalities of production, greatly 
injures him. With a surplus product in 
excess of any home demand to be dis- 
posed of, no amount of other domestic 
mdustry can determine his prices. How 
then can he undersell all the other nations 
and at the same time greatly prosper indi- 
vidually ? Simply because of his natural 
advantages of sun, soil and climate, aided 
by cheap transportation and the use of 
ingenious machinery, which combined give 
him a greater product in return for his 
labor than can be obtained by the laborers 
in similar competitive industries in any 
other country. What has he to ask of 
government other than that it will interfere 
with him to the least possible extent ? " 

Hon. E. Crossland, of Kentucky, in 
his speech in the House of Representa- 
tives, March 16, 1872, thus defines the pro- 
tective policy : 

We have heard all our lives politicians 
argue that American industry, American 
manufactures, and American labor must 
be protected. What does this mean, the 
people inquire? Why, simply this, "and 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



87 



nothing more" or less: that tlierc arc a 
few men in the United States who have 
money enough to buy machinery. They 
erect large factories and engage in the 
business of making iron and steel, manu- 
facturing salt, spinning and weaving cot- 
ton, and making cotton cloth, weaving 
and making woolen cloth, making leather, 
and manufacturing for wholesale shoes 
and boots, manufacturing books, paper, 
medicine, &c. Across the ocean, in Eng- 
land and other countries, there are men 
who are also engaged in manufacturing. 
They are willing to sell what they make 
at a small profit, and having more than 
there is a demand for at home, they desire 
to bring it over to this country and sell it 
to our people for small profits, or exchange 
it with them for bread and meat, tobacco, 
and other products of this country, each 
getting a fair price for their products ; but 
the American manufacturer wishes to sell 
his goods for more than their worth, and 
notwithstanding the fact that they are 
already protected by the wide waste of 
waters that lie between us and Scotland, 
England and Germany, by long, perilous 
and expensive transportation that foreign 
goods must pay, incited by greed and 
avarice, comes to Washington and makes 
his appeal to Congress for statutory pro- 
tection. And they, acting under the 
double influence of prejudice to foreigners 
and partiality for the home manufacturer, 
losing sight of the interest of the great 
majority engaged in other pursuits, enact 
laws, and say that before the foreign-made 
goods shall be sold to the people there 
must be paid an average of forty-eight per 
cent, on their value, so as to enable the 
American manufacturer to sell his goods 
for forty-eight per cent, more than they 
are worth, and in this no man under the 
sun is protected or benefitted except the 
owners of the money invested in the vari- 
ous branches of manufactures. 

It Shuts UH out from the Commerce of the 
AVorld. 

Besides, as I have said, this high taxa- 
tion on foreign products or manufactures 
drives them to seek markets where they 
are less taxed and restricted, and to ex- 
change them for such articles as they do 
not produce in such abundance as to sup- 



ply the liome demand; and in this way 
we drive off purchasers of our large sur- 
plus of products, and the farmer is obliged 
to sell his produce at home, where the 
supply largely exceeds the demand, and 
the consequence is he receives a low price 
for it. And under this most iniquitous 
system of exclusion the foreign goods are 
taxed so high that they do not come in 
quantities sufficient to make healthy com- 
petition. The manufacturer, having no 
competition, sells his goods for the highest 
prices, because the people cannot buy 
them elsewhere, and then, having no 
competition, no one to bid against him 
for the farmer's produce, he takes it at his 
own price ; and thus everything the peo- 
ple buy is high, and all they sell is low, 
and they are kept in poverty and the 
manufacturer made rich. Protectionists 
urge what they call the general prosperity 
of the people as an evidence that the 
tariff does not oppress them. We do see 
the people, by the hardest labor and the 
strictest economy, able to live; but what 
we do not see is the general prosperity 
that would pervade all classes when they 
could sell the results of their labor for 
good prices, and not then be obliged to 
pay away half or two thirds of it to the 
monopolists called manufacturers. Our 
farmers raised last year eighteen hundred 
million bushels of grain, and we exported 
less than seventy million bushels. 

The home market in the United States 
can never absorb this immense annual 
production ; a large surplus is inevitable, 
and must find a market somewhere, or 
the prosperity of this great class must end; 
and the cost of transportation from the 
farms to the markets is greatly increased 
by this unjust taxation. Railroad iron, 
cars and engines are all made of taxed 
articles; steamboats and all other means 
of transportation, from the farm-wagon to 
the grand steamers that plow the ocean 
main, all are taxed. The railroad compa- 
nies and steamboat owners must make 
profits on their investments, and to do this 
high freights must be charged, and all 
paid by the farmer. Here is an interest 
greater than all others in this land, an 
industry to which all classes must look for 
food; for bread and meat, identical with 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



all others, (except that of the monopolists ;) 
the class that feeds us all, ought it not 
above all others to be fostered and pro- 
tected? Yet you hear no application from 
the farmers or mechanics to oppress an- 
other class in their interests. No lobbyists 
are here asking the Committee of Ways 
and Means to tax other industries to pro- 
tect them; no, that sturdy class love jus- 
tice, and all they ask for is justice and 
fairness in life's great struggle. They are 
willing to labor and thus earn a livelihood ; 
all they ask is equality. Unlike the mo- 
nopolists, they ask for no exclusive privi- 
leges. 

Hon. Mr. Johnson presents the party 
views of Protection as follows : 

THe True Denultlon of Protection. 

I do not know how else to define protec- 
tion except to say that it is a cunningly 
devised scheme by which a portion and 
but a small portion of the community, 
under the pretense of raising a revenue for 
the support of the Government, get rich at 
the expense of the large majority of the 
people. 

That being the idea that I have of what 
constitutes protection, I will inquire for a 
moment, whom does it protect ? Unless 
it protects some considerable portion of 
the community, it ought not to be retained 
upon our statute-books ; and if it protects 
only a small part of the community at the 
expense of the great body of the people, 
still less ought it to be the policy of the 
country. 

I am unable to see whom it protects 
except the manufacturer himself. If a 
man converts raw cotton into cotton cloth, 
or if he converts iron ore into pig iron, he 
is the person to be protected. He gets the 
benefit of the duty which is assessed upon 
these articles when they are brought in 
from abroad ; but he is the only man who 
gets it ; nobody else does. It is simply 
the man whose capital is employed in con- 
verting the raw material into the manufac- 
tured article that gets the benefit of the 
duty. His employes, and every other man, 
woman, and child in the community suffers 
the loss for the benefit of this one man. 
While it protects him, it injures the farmer. 



the planter, the teacher, the mechanic, the 
lawyer, the doctor, the merchant, the 
laborer, and every other class of the com- 
munity. 

The Home Market Fallacy. 

One favorite theory of the protectionists 
is that they create a home market. Their 
idea is that the agricultural community 
must have a market here composed of 
manufacturers to sell their products to, 
and that the manufacturing community 
must in return sell their products to the 
farmers, and thus home markets will be 
created for both. But it must be apparent 
to everybody that this home market is 
entirely too small for either industry. You 
can never get a condition of things in this 
country in which all of its vast agricultural 
products can find a market here. We can 
never have enough manufacturers and 
attendant laborers to consume all that our 
rich lands in this great and extensive 
country can raise. There must be some 
market abroad, therefore, as well as a 
home market for our agricultural products. 
And if we did have manufacturers and 
attendant laborers enough to consume the 
surplus our farmers make, it is certain that 
they could manufacture infinitely more 
than the agricultural community could 
want or purchase. We could not sell 
enough to our whole people to make man- 
ufacturers entirely prosperous. We must 
have, therefore, to be prosperous, in addi- 
tion to the home market, a foreign market 
for our manufacturer as well as for our 
agricultural products. 

The scheme, then, of a home market as 
being sufficient and as affording all that 
we ought to ask, is of course not to be en- 
tertained. We must so arrange our sys- 
tem as to have not only a good home 
market, but at the same time a good 
foreign market, both for agricultural pro- 
ducts and manufactured articles. 

Our True Policy. 

It is manifest, therefore, that the policy 
of our country should be to cheapen pro- 
duction so that whatever we have got to 
sell we can sell in the markets of the 
world in competition with other manufac- 
turers. We should be ableto'go anywhere 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



89 



that England goes and sell our products 
at the same rate she sells hers. If we 
cannot do that we cannot compete with 
her. When we make the cost of produc- 
tions high, wc to that extent limit our 
market and exclude ourselves from the 
rest of the world. 

The protective system, of necessity, has 
the effect of withdrawing wealth from one 
portion of the community and concentrat- 
ing it in a particular class. The wealth of 
the country outside of the real estate is 
nearly a fixed quantity. It increases 
slowly with business. If, therefore, we 
legislate in such a way as to give one por- 
tion of the community a large share of 
this fixed quantity, as a matter of course 
it can only be done by abstracting it from 
the rest. 

But it is said that this not only benefits 
the manufiicturer but benefits the laborer, 
the employe of the manufacturer, because 
it enables the manufacturer to give him 
higher wages. Well, sir, wages, like every- 
thing else, are great or small by compari- 
son. A dime is just as good as a dollar 
when it will buy as much. It is no answer 
to say that in this country wages are a 
dollar, or a dollar and a half, or two 
dollars a day, and that in Europe they are 
less, unless the purchasing power of the 
dollar, or dollar and a half, or two dollars 
in this country is greater than the purchas- 
ing power of a smaller sum in Europe. 
While the nominal amount of wages may 
be greater, yet if their actual value is not 
greater the laborer is not benefited. But 
while the nominal value of wages is 
greater, yet all the expenses attending 
living are increased by this protective sys- 
tem. Why ? The laborer must have 
woolens, cottons, leather, and the products 
of these things to clothe himself and 
family ; he has to pay rent ; he has to pay 
taxes, and when he buys articles of prime 
necessity for his support, he buys them 
with the tariff duty added to their cost ; he 
buys them with the protective burden upon 
them ; he buys them at the increased 
price which is necessitated by the high 
rate of duties that is imposed upon them. 
If you give him a dollar a day and sell 
him cottons at twice as much as he can 
buy them for abroad you see at once that 



his wages, while nominally better, are not 
really so. 

The People ^vniit Kow I'rlrra. 

But, sir, against what docs protection 
protect? It only protects against low 
prices. The people want low prices ; they 
want everything they use at reasonable 
cost. When protection is asked for, it is 
a protection not against the English manu- 
facturer, but a protection against low prices. 
It is a protection against the right of the 
people to purchase what they want and 
must have on the best terms for them. It 
is a protection against the people living as 
easily as they can and at as little cost as 
possible. 

What else does protection secure? Do 
high tariffs produce low prices? That 
claim is astonishing. Unless it enables 
the manufacturer to sell his commodity at 
a higher price, how, I ask, is it possible to 
benefit even him? He says, "I am not 
getting enough for my goods; I make 
cottons, and I can only get ten cents a 
yard; I cannot afford to do that; I want 
protection ; fix your duty upon cottons so 
that I can get fifteen cents a yard, and 
then I will be protected." So a man who 
makes iron says, "I can only sell my iron 
at twenty dollars a ton, which does not 
pay ; but I can afford to make it if I can 
get twenty-five dollars a ton ; protect me, 
therefore, and let me get twenty-five dol- 
lars a ton." Unless protection has that 
effect, how does it benefit the manufac- 
turer? How can any one conceive it pos- 
sible that a man should be benefited 
unless he is enabled to sell his commodi- 
ties at a greater price than he did before ? 

It is said by the advocates of protection 
that it increases the wages of the laborers. 
How is that? If the wages of labor are 
raised, of course the cost of the article 
made must be enhanced. If the manu- 
facturer give his hands one dollar a day 
this month and two dollars a day next 
month, can he sell for less when the labor 
costs him two dollars than when it only 
costs him one ? They say, " Protect us 
and we can give higher wages." Higher 
wages, of course, indicate increased cost 
of production, and having given higher 
wages, and made your articles cost more 



90 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



than they would otherwise, we will still 
sell them for less than we did before." 
This proposition is one that hardly needs 
refutation. 

Hon. Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee, 
states the question as follows : 

In a Government like ours, instituted by 
the people, for the people, and under a 
written compact or Constitution ; sealed 
as ours has been by an expenditure of 
blood and treasure unequalled in the his- 
tory of the civilized world, whose territory 
extends over so vast an area, possessing 
so many diversified interests to be fostered 
and encouraged ; the task of providing 
laws equally just to all, it will be readily 
seen, is one difficult in the extreme, if not 
altogether impossible. The law-maker, 
then, should seek to evolve from all meas- 
ures brought to his consideration "the 
greatest good to the greatest number," 
and to do this his mind should be free 
from prejudices for or against any section 
or industry. The wants and wishes of the 
wealthy manufacturer, the merchant 
prince, or the lordly banker, should weigh 
no more with him, nay, not so much, as 
the wants and wishes of the humblest citi- 
zen, who, obeying the fiat of the great 
Ruler of the universe, " in the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread " gathers a har- 
vest from the bosom of mother earth, 
delves beneath her surface to bring forth 
hidden riches, or in the workshop fashions 
the productions of the one or the other 
into articles of use or luxury ; and unless 
the legislator remembers and acts upon 
this principle he is unfaithful to his trust 
and unfit to represent a free people ; he 
has violated the theory of republican insti- 
tutions as well as his official oath. 

Now, what benefits have the people to 
show for this increased taxation ? Where 
are the great internal improvements, the in- 
creased facilities for commerce or for 
education that should result from this ex- 
penditure ? Nowhere but upon paper pro- 
jects, which these proteges of the Govern- 
ment have inaugurated, and the funds for 
carrying which into execution they have 
wrung from an impoverished people and 
stole". 



"What Mr. Kerr Says : 

The gentleman from Pennsylvania pro- 
tests that he wishes to legislate in the 
interests of the whole country ; and he 
boasts of the comfortable homes of his 
bounty-fed neighbors, their well-furnished 
parlors, their pianos, and other musical 
instruments, and their comfortable houses 
lighted with gas, supplied with hot and 
cold water, well carpeted, and filled with 
convenient and handsome furniture. If 
this boast is well founded, whose bounty 
enables them thus to enjoy life ? If in 
these professions he is sincere, why does 
he not offer to reduce the taxes and bounty 
paid by the people on all these things 
which are indispensable to the general 
prosperity, happiness and improvement of 
the people? Why does he cling with 
such hungry tenacity to grossly protective 
taxes on copper, iron, steel, lumber, 
leather, all kinds of clothing, carpeting, 
earthenware, glassware, and nearly every- 
thing that protectionists manufacture ? 
Why does he constantly defend laws 
which discriminate against agriculture ? 
Is he willing that the common people of 
the South and West, the millions of com- 
mon laborers mechanics, and farmers all 
over the country, may live in log huts, 
poor-houses, with no parlors, no carpets, 
no pianos, no comforts beyond the hard 
necessities of mere life and toil ? Does he 
want to keep them in such conditions by 
compelling them to pay bountiful tribute 
to the petted and pampered favorites of 
this State and city ? That is his way of 
legislating for " the whole country." I 
repel it, and denounce it as unjust, sec- 
tional, selfish, and lawless. I plead for 
the poor, for the sons of toil, for the 
"hewers of wood and drawers of water," 
and demand equal laws, equal burdens, 
taxation for revenue only, and justice 
for all. 

Robert J. Walker, then Secretary of 
the Treasury, in his great report of Decem- 
ber 3, 1845, uttered a pregnant truth when 
he said : 

" A protective tariff is a question regard- 
ing the enhancement of the profits of 
capital, and not the augmentation of the 
wages of labor, It is a question of per- 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



91 



centage, and is to decide whether money 
vested in our manufactures shall, by special 
legislation, yield a profit of ten, twenty or 
thirty per cent., or whether it shall remain 
satisfied with dividends equal to those 
accruing from the same capital invested 
in agriculture, commerce, or navigation." 

TIic EtTvct on Agriculture. 

The products of agriculture in the coun- 
try at large cannot be otherwise than 
injuriously affected by tariffs. This has 
been the uniform experience of our country. 
It was the experience of Great Britain, 
now admitted by all her statesmen and 
economic writers. Give agriculture abso" 
lute freedom from Government interfer- 
ence, with moderate taxation for revenue 
alone, and its prosperity will be certain, 
speedy, and permanent. But protective 
tariffs discriminate against it and in favor 
of manufactures. It is compelled to pay 
them tribute to swell their generous profits 
and diminish its own moderate earnings. 
The commodities they consume are con- 
stantly aggravated in price by the tariff, 
and their own products of the soil are 
made to cost them very much more than 
they should ; and they are thus left at the 
mercy of the favored manufacturers, who, 
by the gross and criminal partiality of the 
Government, are enabled to dictate prices, 
to monopolize the markets, to keep out 
competition, and by enhancement of the 
cost of production to make successful 
foreign commerce impossible. By the 
increased cost of production in our country, 
caused chiefly by the tariff, but in part 
also by our depreciated currency, we are 
always at a disadvantage in all the great 
markets of other countries. Thus the pro- 
tected few in this country are able to 
regulate directly the prices the people shall 
pay them for their manufactureo products, 
and indirectly to exclude the farmers and 
other producers of values from the markets 
of the world. 

Protection in our country has produced 
more poverty than it ever relieved. Penn- 
sylvania and Massachusetts, that have for 
ten years confessed themselves dependent 
for material well-being and prosperity upon 
the bounty of the whole country, and have 
levied tribute to the extent of many hun- 



dred millions of dollars upon all the people, 
have more poverty, more pauperism, more 
embarrassed poor to-day than ever before 
in their history except in periods of finan- 
cial crises or from causes having no imme- 
diate connection with tariffs. To-day wc 
have an average of over two hundred 
thousand constant paupers in our country, 
notwithstanding our boundless territory 
and youthful vigor and inexhaustible re- 
sources, and we spend in their subsistence 
and protection out of public .-evenues over 
$11,000,000 annually, and in private and 
voluntary charities many millions more. 
Protective and restrictive laws, under one 
name and pretense or another, continued 
for centuries, are the potential causes of 
so much pauperism in the countries of the 
Old Worid. Out of those laws arose 
systems and institutions oppressive to the 
poor and the multitude. By their aid, the 
few increased in revenues, powers, titles, 
and dignity, at the expense of the people. 

Mr. Atkinson, a very intelligent man- 
ufacturer and revenue reformer, whose 
statements are always worthy of the ut- 
most respect, says : 

" I think it cannot be denied that al- 
though wages are nominally higher, yet 
very many workingmen and women find 
themselves compelled to work as many 
hours for no better shelter and subsistence 
than before these great improvements 
(in machinery) had been made. I think 
it cannot be denied that it is more impru- 
dent for young people to be married than 
it used to be, even if they are free from 
luxurious nonsense ; that men of moderate 
means and small salaries find it more and 
more difficult to live in comfort and inde- 
pendence. I think it cannot be denied 
that society is becoming sorted into classes, 
more clearly divided, and each knowing 
and caring less about the other than ever 
before. I think it cannot be denied that 
the chief benefit of our progress in the 
useful arts in the last ten years has inured 
to the few and not to the many, and that 
this inequitable distribution is due to bad 
laws." 

TUe Rights of Labor. 

Tariffs for protection are direct assaults 
upon the personal liberty of labor. There 



92 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



is an element of tyranny and brigandage 
in every one. The right to Hve and to 
labor is no more inherent, original, and 
sacred than the right to control and dis- 
pose of the fruits of labor. The right to 
buy or sell where you please is no more 
undeniable than the right of immunity 
from assault and battery at the hands of 
every strong man you meet. Free ex- 
change of the products of different lands 
and sections among men is no less neces- 
sary for the well-being of individuals and 
society than is free action of the atmos- 
phere to the health of human beings. 
Then why shall Government deny these 
sacred rights ? Is Government wiser in 
the practical affairs of life than all the 
members who compose society ? Has it 
any right to take the earnings of one and 
give them to another ? That would be to 
take property without compensation. All 
men are equal in elementary rights. It is 
infamous, it is tyranny for Government to 
have favorites among its citizens. Nothing 
but the brutal sophism that "might makes 
right" can justify such a thing. Labor, 
and the true friends of labor, must learn 
these great principles. They are eternal 
and beneficent as truth itself. 

Natural justice demands that the Gov- 
ernment shall be supported by the citizens 
in proportion to their ability to pay. Taxa- 
tion should bear a just relation to the 
property of the tax-payer. If this honest 
policy were adopted, the poor would pay a 
very moderate portion of the revenues. 
The dividends of the rich and the monopo- 
lists would be diminished by larger contri- 
butions to the Government. But under our 
present cruel tariff, the poor, the great body 
of consumers, the agriculturists and arti- 
sans, are compelled to pay both taxes and 
tribute, to contribute the bulk of the public 
revenue and also to fill the plethoric cof- 
fers of the monopolists with bounty. This 
is outrageous robbery and will not always 
be endured by freemen. Favored classes 
may as well now take warning that per- 
sistence in such policy will sooner or later 
lead to fimdamental changes in our system 
of taxation, whereby property, and not 
poverty and necessity, shall be made to 
support the Government. The sons of 
toil cannot be forever deceived or enslaved. 



either in mind or body. With their intel- 
ligent awakening may come a conflict, 
bitter but just, whose result will vindicate 
their rights. The time approaches in our 
country when the bounty fed few "who 
pay tribute to the Lord out of the pockets 
of the poor," must do justice, or themselves 
suffer wrongs. 

Wliat Mr. Brlglit says. 

Hon. John M. Bright declares that what- 
ever trifle the manufacturer may agree to 
pay he gets a thousand-fold remuneration 
in the royal protection of his Government. 
He is on the inside of the gates of commerce, 
and escapes the duty tribute to the support 
of his Government. The farmer, mechanic* 
and day laborer are the consumers of 
dutiable goods, and thus they pay the 
taxes for the support of the Government. 
The manufacturer's neck has never been 
indurated by the yoke of taxation. He 
chafed and fretted under the income tax 
until the Government gently lifted it off. 
This is bad enough, but it is not all. The 
farmer, mechanic, and laborer have not 
only to support the Government and pay 
its debts, but, on the top of these, they, in 
the consumption of protected goods, pay 
bounty and support the manufacturers in 
pompous munificence, who, under shelter 
of the Government, can raise the price of 
their goods to the high water mark of pro- 
tection. 

This protection is in the nature of a 
pension bounty, which goes to the manu- 
facturer and not to the Government. The 
Government does not have the nioney to 
pay, and it can afford to be liberal at the 
people's expense. Of course the manu- 
facturers do not complain of a burden 
which they do not feel. 

The result is that the manufacturer is 
not only exempted from paying a fair pro- 
portion to the expenses of the Government, 
but through the artificial contrivance of 
the tariff he is sluicing and making enor- 
mous profits out of the other industries of 
the country. Any system which works 
out such a result is manifestly wrong and 
calls for a remedy. The pretext which 
called the protective policy into existence 
in our Government has long since ceased 
to exist. The doctrine was founded in the 
idea that it was a national duty to eucour- 



THE ISSUES OF 18S4. 



or 



age the home manufacture of war materials 
to make us independent of foreign nations. 
When we grew to be great and powerful, 
and wc were ashamed to own a ridiculous 
timidity, the protectionists changed the 
cry into protection for American labor ! 

The manufacturer, with the bleating elo- 
quence of a starveling calf, was let to the 
Government udder, and he has been tug- 
ging away since, until he has grown to 
huge proportions, and now moves about 
with a lumbering, pig-metal tread, roaring 
like a very bull of Bashan, full-horned, 
and goring every other industry from tlic 
Government manger. 

But it is not our purpose to make war on 
our manufacturing interests, but on the 
vicious policy of our Government, which 
victimizes other interests for their protec- 
tion. Free trade, restricted by a purely 
revenue tariff, is, in fact, not the antagonist 
of manufacturing industry. By its liberal 
policy it opens up new fields of trade, gives 
expansion to consumption, stimulates de- 
mand, elicits additional capital, demands 
larger quantities of raw materials, emjiloys 
more operatives, invigorates commerce, 
swells the volume of importations, and 
multiplies the comforts of all the people. 

Our manufacturers, with their exemption 
from revenue duties, with the incidental 
protection of a purely revenue tariff, and 
the natural protection of the three thousand 
miles of waves which roll between us and 
Europe and the four thousand miles be- 
tween us and China, will still occupy the 
highest vantage ground of any other 
American industry. 

But it seems that some of our manufac- 
turers have been so long protected with 
Government bounty that they claim it by 
prescriptive right, and would extract their 
tribute from the other industries, with the 
insane and uncalculating cupidity of one 
"who would burn his neighbor's house to 
roast his own eggs." 

Then let the Government retrench its 
extravagance, lay its tariff for revenue 
alone, and with a benign policy, like the 
cope of heaven, span every department 
of industry alike ; and while the land may 
tremble with rumbling machinery, let the 
tariff blockades be struck down to give 
vent to our redundant commerce ; let our 



argosies be turned loose to climb tlic waves 
of every sea, and go touching at every 
island, landing at every coast, sweeping 
every continent, gathering up the wealth 
of the Old World, and returning to empty 
their treasures into the lap of our own 
country. 

Hon. Mr. Read's views: 

I now desire to call the attention of the 
House for a short time to the subject of 
the present 

Ouerontt TarlfT, 

which is oppressing the people of the 
country so sorely. I would like, if I had 
the time, to investigate and analyze that 
subject thoroughly, or so far as my feeble 
ability would permit. I have the figures 
and facts before me, and if arranged in 
proper form, they would ptartle the tax- 
payers and consumers of the whole coun- 
try ; but I am admonished to confine my 
remarks to results, and put the facts in an 
aggregated form. 

The tariff is a source of raising revenue 
for the purpose of defraying the expenses 
of Governments. It has been a question 
that has given the statesmen of both this 
country and Europe for many years great 
thought and attention. The object of all 
patriots and statesmen should be to pro- 
cure for themselves and posterity the best 
form of government, and devise ways and 
means by which their Government can be 
best supported and give contentment to 
its subjects. More discord and discontent 
has grown out of the manner in which 
taxes ought to be raised than that of all 
others. Internal discords and strife have 
arisen, and frequently produced in many 
instances by an honest misconception of 
the true policy to be pursued, but more 
frequently for the imposition, practiced on 
the people by scheming politicians, and 
with a desire to foster and make wealth at 
the expense of the many. 

The present tariff was procured by the 
capitalists and submitted to by a patriotic, 
patient, and law-abiding people. Civil 
war was pending; patriotism suggested 
that the integrity of the Union must at all 
hazards be maintained, and that it could 
not be without money. A hi^h tariff was 
suggested, which looked to the patriot that 



94 



THE ISSUES OF 1884. 



if put in practical operation it would yield 
more money than would be necessary to 
meet the exigencies of the war. A high 
protective tariff bill was passed by Con- 
gress, and to the astonishment of the 
uninitiated, the result of its operation fell 
far short of expectation ; a tax or tariff 
was placed on about four thousand articles 
of consumption, but the articles that yield 
revenue to the Government of any conse- 
quence are but few in number, say ten or 
fifteen; there may be a few more. The 
tariff had the effect to prohibit the impor- 
tation of articles of goods that the con- 
sumer needed and wanted, and built up 
and protected a monopoly the effect of 
which is burdensome. The people have 
submitted to a prohibition of the various 
needed articles of consumption, and the 
consumer was thus driven to make his 
purchases of supplies of the monopolists 
of the country, and thereby subjected to a 
tax on any article of supplies necessary to 
the comfort of themselves and families, 
ranging from fifty to three hundred and 
fifty per cent. 

But the Radicals say that this is not 
true ; that a protective tariff is necessary 
to enable us to compete with foreign coun- 
tries, and also to protect the laboring man 
and woman at home ; that if the tariff is 
reduced it will depress labor ; that we 
cannot compete with the pauper labor of 
foreign countries. God pity the poor la- 
borer and mechanic of other countries if 
they are in a worse condition than the 
operatives of the manufactories of this 
country. The poor have to live in other 
countries by their labor as well as ours, 
and they are fed as well as ours if the 
reports be true. Then how is it that the 
operatives can live cheaper in England 
and France than in this ? It is because 
nearly all the articles consumed by the 
laboring classes of those countries are 
governed by the laws of free trade, and 
the articles of consumption are therefore 
cheaper than what they are in this. Sub- 
jected to a tariff of protection let us for a 
moment examine and see the effect of the 
present tariff upon the articles consumed 
by the operatives, or a portion of them, 
thus consumed. 



"Wages of Labor not Helped Ity Taxation. 

Hon. William R. Morrison, of Illinois, 
the present Chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means in the House, in his 
speech of April 15, 1884, says: 

" During more than half of the last ten 
years wages have been as low or lower 
than before the adoption of the taxing 
policy as a pretended means of making 
wages higher. They are lower still when 
compared with the use which those who 
earn wages are compelled to make of 
them, for they must use them to obtain the 
means of comfortable living. Counted by 
what our laborers are able to accomplish 
and produce in quantities, and especially 
in values, wages here are but little more 
in many industries than the wages paid 
by our chief commercial rivals. There is 
but one horizontal reduction for which our 
opponents are willing to legislate — the re- 
duction of wages — and this their favorites, 
with or without regard to legislation, are 
now executing day by day with cruel reg- 
ularity. 

'* Of all the false pretenses with which 
protection mocks its victims the assumption 
that labor is helped or protected by taxing 
its earnings is the flimsiest. Protectionists, 
in common with our people, invite the sur- 
plus labor of all the world to come, un- 
taxed, unrestricted, free, and join us on 
equal terms and share in the profits of the 
wonderful heritage this newer world affords. 
The captains and masters of industry, if 
not masters of Congress as well, take to 
themselves protection of a very different 
kind — they tax the people at home that they 
may have no competition from abroad.'' 

liOW Tariff Develops the Country Most. 

When this is done manufacturing indus- 
tries may add something to the wealth of the 
nation by reason of the tribute which other 
nations must pay to its endless resources 
and the unrivalled skill and intelligence 
of its people. 

The grand aggregate of national wealth, 
counted in the census at $43,300,000,000 in 
1880, was but ;{S26,46o,ooo,ooo in 1870. 
" Behold," exclaims the protectionist, " the 
results of our system which so multiplies 
and nearly doubles the wealth and national 
savings in a single decade." Further in- 



THr: ISSUES of 1884. 



95 



vcstigalion will show that in the ten years 
from 1850 to i86o with very low tariff taxes 
wealth was more than doubled, and that 
was the only decade in our history which 
doubled wealth. I'rotection has prevented 
this industry from bringing anything to the 
wealth of the country from abroad. Had 
manufacturing industry produced more 
that could be sold profitably abroad it 
might have better claim to the credit of the 
country's growth and development, when 
for its own prosperity it has been depen- 
dent upon other domestic industries. 

Hon. W. T. Hamilton declares agalnat an 
undue restrlctlou upon trade. 

When we consider that revenue is the 
primary object of this species of taxation, 
all these schemes to pervert it to the sub- 
servience of special interests are practical 
wrongs upon the people, and in principle 
altogether wrong. 

There can be no question but that un- 
der the Constitution the object of this spe- 
cies of taxation is revenue ; it must mean 
taxation, nothing more, nothing less. It 
cannot, in the philosophy and nature of 
things, mean that you lay this tax to pro- 
tect, or, if you please, encourage certain 
named branches of industry, and not to 
raise revenue. If no revenue were re- 
quired, and you possessed the power un- 
der the Constitution, I apprehend a far 
different system would prevail. Then the 
system of protection would be a question 
pure and simple, not embarrassed by du- 



ties for revenues, but the lcgi!>lation of the 
country would go directly to the main 
question itself, whether any or what com- 
modities should be imported at all, and 
under what restraints, if any, they shoild 
be allowed to be imported. This would 
open up a broad field for legislation, 
where the theories of protection could be 
carried out to their greatest extent, and 
where the industries, productions, and en- 
ergies of the citizen would be unhappily 
placed under the control of Congress. 
Fortunately for the country, fortunately 
for her great industrial interests, no such 
power has ever been exercised or claim- 
ed as a distinct substantive power under 
the Constitution. 

Is such a principle right in a Govern- 
ment claiming to be free, and where the 
primary object is claimed to be the benefit 
of man, and where he is supposed to be se- 
cure in the full enjoyment of the fruits of 
his toil and in deriving from it all the be- 
nefit and happiness he can ? Is this pro- 
tection the golden thought that has been 
rioting upon the common mind for centu- 
ries and for so many years in this country ? 
It is a finely formed, rotund, impressive, 
seductive word, gaudily, nay richly attired, 
veiled even as the Prophet of Khorassan, 
but when stripped it presents features nar- 
row and contracted, repulsive with low 
cunning, morbid selfishness, and base in- 
stincts. There is nothing in it broad, nor 
good, nor benevolent, nor liberal. 



96 



THE ISSUES OF TG84. 



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• In Conneotifiut, the vote for Sheriff is taken. In Now York, the average vote on four of the five 
State officers choHen.exohiding Scnrotary of State. In Nebraska, Democratic and Anti-Monopoly vote 
combined on .Iiidf^e. t American, 707 j scattering, 980. X Scattering, 106. § In these States the vote on 
Lientmant-Governor was taken, as being, from special causes, a fairer test of party strength. In the 
others the principal State ofticer was taken. Whore State officers were not elected, the Congressional 
vote was taken. In Georgia, CimgresHmen-at-Large was taken. || The vote for Chief Judge. IT The 
Regular and Independentliepublican vote la combined. ** Vote of the two Democratic candid ates is 
combined. 



PART 11. 

OF 

POLITICAL PARTIES. 



i-^.-^^„ , 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



POLITICx\L PARTIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Colonial Parties— WHilg and Tory. 

The parties peculiar to our Colonial 
times hardly have a place in American 
polities. They divided people in senti- 
ment simply, as they did in the mother 
country, but here there was little or no 
power to act, and were to gather results 
I'rom p;ij-ty victories. Men were then 
Whigs or Tories because they had been 
prior to their emigration here, or because 
their parents had been, or because it has 
ever been natural to show division in in- 
dividual sentiment. Political contests, 
however, were unknown, for none enjoyed 
the pleasures and profits of power ; the 
crown made and unmade rulers. The 
local self-government which our fore- 
fathers enjoyed, were secured to them by 
their charters, and these ivere held to be 
contracts not to be changed without the 
consent of both parties. AH of the inhabi- 
tants of the colonies claimed and were 
jastly entitled to the rights guaranteed by 
the Magna Charta, and in addition to 
these they insisted upon the supervision of 
all internal interests and the {)owcr to levy 
and collet taxes. These claims were con- 
ceded until their growing prosperity and 
England's need of additional revenues 
suggested schemes of indirect taxation. 
Against these the colony of Plymouth pro- 
tested a-s early as 1(!3G, and s])asm()dic pro- 
tests from all the colonies followed. These 
increased in frequency and force with the 
growing demands of King George III. In 
1651 the navigation laws imposed upon th(> 
colonics rcfjuired l>oth export-? and imports 
to be carried in British ship-, and all who 



traded were compelled to do it with Eng- 
land. In liJ72 inter-colonial duties were 
imposed, and when manufacturing sought 
to flank this policy, their establishment 
was forbidden by law. 

The passage of the Stamp Act in 17()5 
caused high excitement, and for the first 
time parties began to take definite shape 
and manifest open antagonisms, and the 
words Whig and Tory then had a plainer 
meaning in America than in England'. 
The Stamp Act was denounced by the 
Whigs as direct taxation, since it jirovidcd, 
that stamps previously paid for should be 
affixed to all legal papers. The colonies 
resented, and so general were the protests 
that for a time it seemed that only those 
who owed their livings to the Crown, or 
expected aid and comfort from it, re- 
mained with the Tories. The Whigs were 
the patriots. The war for the rights of 
the colonies began in 1775, and it was 
supported by majorities in all of the Co- 
j lonial Assemblies. These majorities were 
{ as carefully organized then as now to pro- 
mote a popular cause, and this in the lace 
of adverse action on the part of the sev- 
eral Colonial Governors. Thus in Vir- 
ginia, Lord Dunmore had from time to 
time, until 177o, ])rorogued the Virginia 
I Assembly, when it seized the opportunity 
to pass resolves instituting a committoe of 
correspondence, and recommending joint 
I action by the legislatures of the other 
j colonies. In the next year, the same body, 
I under the lead of Henry, Ixandolph, Lee, 
j Washington, Wythe and other patriots, 
I officially deprecated the closing of the 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



port of Boston, and set apart a day to im- 
plore Divine interposition in behalf of the 
colonies. The Governor dissolved the 
House for this act, and the delegates, 89 in 
number, repaired to a tavern, organized 
themselves into a committee, signed arti- 
des of association, and advised with other 
colonial committees the expediency of 
''appointing deputies to meet in a general 
correspondence" — really a suggestion for 
a Congress. The idea of a Congress, how- 
ever, originated with Doctor Franklin the 
year before, and it had then been approved 
by town meetings in Providence, Boston 
and New York. The action of Virginia 
lifted the proposal above individual advice 
and the action of town meetings, and 
called to it the attention of all the colo- 
nial legislatures. It was indeed fortunate 
in the incipiency of these political move- 
ments, that the people were practically 
unanimous. Only the far-seeing realized 
tne drift and danger, while nearly all could 
join their voices against oppressive taxes 
and imposts. 

The war went on for colonial rights, the 
Whigs wisely insisting that they were wil- 
ling to remain as colonists if their rights 
should be guaranteed by the mother coun- 
try ; the Tories, chiefly fed by the Crown, 
were willing to remain without guarantee 
— a negative position, and one which in 
the high excitement of the times excited 
little attention, save where the holders of 
fiuch views made themselves odious by the 
enjoyment of high official position, or by 
Lai-sh criticism upon, or treatment of the 
patriots. 

The first Continental Congress assembled 
in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and 
there laid the foundations of the Republic. 
While its a.ssembl:ige was first recom- 
mended by home meetings, the cause, as 
already shown, was taken up by the as- 
BtMublies of Miissachusetts and Virginia. 
Georgia alone was not represented. The 
members were called delegates, who de- 
clared in their official papers that they 
were " appointed by the good people of 
these colonies." It was called the " revo- 
lutionary government," because it derived 
its power from the people, and not from 
the functionaries of any existing govern- 
ment. In it each colony was allowed but 
a single vote, regardless of the number of 
delegates, and here began not only the 
unit rule, but the practice which obtains 
in the election of a President when the 
contest reaches, under the constitution and 
law, the National House of Representa- 
tives. The original object was to give 
c<piality to the colonies as colonies. 

In 1775, the second Continental Con- 
gress assembled at Philadelphia, all the 
colonies being again represented .save 
Ge/>rgia. The delegat<?s were chosen prin- 
oipally by conventions of the people, ] 



though some were sent by the popular 
branches of the colonial legislatures. In 
July, and soon after the commencement 
of hostilities, Georgia entered the Con- 
federacy. 

The Declaration of Independence, passed 
in 1776, drew yet plainer lines between the 
Whigs and Tories. A gulf of hatred sepa- 
rated the opposing parties, and the Tory 
was far more despised than the open foe, 
when he was not such, and was the first 
sought when he wjis. Men who contend 
for liberty ever regard those who are not 
for them as against them — a feeling which 
led to the expression of a political maxim 
of apparent undying force, for it has since 
found frequent repetition in every earnest 
campaign. After the adoption of the De- 
claration by the Continental Congress, the 
Whigs favored the most direct and abso- 
lute separation, while the Tories supported 
the Crown. On the 7th of June, 1776, 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved 
the Declaration in these words: 

'^Resolved, That these united colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and indepen- 
dent states ; that they are absolved from 
all allegiance to the British Crown, and 
that all political connection between them 
and the State of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Then followed preparations for the for- 
mal declaration, which was adopted on the 
4th of July, 1776, in the precise language 
submitted by Thomas Jefferson. All of 
the state papers of the Continental Con- 
gress evince the highest talent, and the 
evils which led to its exhibition must have 
been long but very impatiently endured to 
impel the study of the questions involved. 
Possibly only the best lives in our memoiy 
invite our perusal, but certain it is that 
higher capacity was never called to the 
performance of graver political duties in 
the histoiy of the world. 

It has been said that the Declaration is 
in imitation of that published by the Uni- 
ted Netherlands, but whether this be true 
or false, the liberty-loving world has for 
more than a century accepted it as the 
best protest against oppression known to 
political history. A great occasion con- 
spired with a great author to make it 
grandly great. 

Dr. Franklin, as early as July, 1775, first 
prepared a sketch of articles of confedera- 
tion between the colonies, to continue until 
their reconciliation with Great Britain, 
and in failure thereof to be perpetual. 
John Quincy Adams says this plan wa.s 
never discussed in Congress. June 11, 
1776, a committee was apj)ointed to pre- 
pare the force of a colonial confederation, 
and the day following one member from 
ea(;i\ colony was appointed to perform th« 
duty. The report was submitted, laid 
aside August 20, 1776, taken up April 7, 



PARTICULARISTS— STRONG GOVERNMENT WHIGS, 



1777, and (lo').ited from time to time until 
Novciuher luth, (if the same yeiir, when 
the report w;is agreed t.o. It \v:w then 
submitted to the legishiUirort of the several 
states, the.-<e being advised to authorize 
their delegates in Congress to ratify the 
same. On the 2i)Ch of June, 177.S, the rat- 
ifieation was oriKred to be engrossed and 
signed by the delegates. Those of New 
Hampshire, ^lassaehusett.s J>ay, Rhode 
Island, Conneetieut, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia and South ("aroliiia 
Higned.Iuly Hth, 1778 ; those of North Car- 
olina July 21st ; Cieorgia July 21th ; Jersey 
November 2t>th, same year; Delaware 
February 22d and May ')th, 1779. Mary- 
land refused to ratify until the question of 
the eondieting elaims of the Union and 
of the separate IStates to the property of 
the criwn-lands should be adjusted. This 
was aceoni]>lished by the cession of the 
lands in dispute to the United States, and 
Maryland signed March 1st, 1781. On 
the 2d of March, Congress assembled un- 
der the new powers, and continued to act 
for the Confederacy until the 4th of March, 
1789, the date of the organization of the 
government under the Federal constitu- 
tion. Our political life has therefore three 
period.s, " the revolutionary government," 
the confederation," and that of the "fed- 
eral constitution," which still obtains. 

The federal constitution is the result of 
the labors of a convention called at Phila- 
delphia in May, 1787, at a time when it 
was feared by many that the Union was 
in the greatest danger, from inability to 
pay soldiers who had, in 1783, been dis- 
banded on a declaration of peace and an 
acknowledgment of independence ; from 
prostration of the public credit and faith 
of the nation ; from the neglect to provide 
for the payment of even the interest on 
the public debt ; and from the disappoint- 
ed hopes of many who thought freedom 
did not need to face responsibilities. A 
large portion of the convention of 1787 
etill clung to the confederacy of the states, 
and advocated as a substitute for the con- 
stitution a revival of the old articles of 
confederation with additional powers to 
Congress. A long discussion followed, 
and a most able one, but a constitution for 
the people, embodying a division of legis- 
lative, judicial and executive powers pre- 
vailed, and the result is now daily wit- 
nessed in the federal constitution. While 
the revolutionary war lasted but seven 
years, the political revolution incident to, 
identilied with and directing it, lasted 
thirteen years. This Wiis completed on 
the 30th of April, 1789, the day on which 
Wivshington wjus inaugurated as tiie first 
President under the federal constitution. 



The Partlcniarlfits. 

As questions of goveriunent were evolved 



by the sfrugj^lcs for independencp, tho 
\Vhigs, who ol course greatly ontnunil>erc<l 
all others during tiie Ri-voliition, naturally 
dividetl in sentiment, though their divi- 
sions were not sudiciently serious to excite 
the estaldishment of rival oarlies — somo- 
thiiig which the great majoriiy of our foro- 
fatlicrs were too wise to think of in time of 
war. When the war closed, however, an. I 
the question of establishing the Union wasj 
iirought clear to tho view of all, one clang 
of the Whigs believed that state govern- 
ment should be supreme, and that no cen- 
tral power should have suflicient authority 
to coerce a st^ite, or keep it to the conri- 
pact against its will. All accepted tlio 
idea of a central government ; all realized 
the necessity of union, but the fear that 
the states would lose their power, or sur- 
render their independence was veiy greiii, 
and this fear was more naturally shown by 
both the larger and the smaller states. Tins 
class of thinkers were then called Partic^ 
ularists. Their views were oji{)osed by 
the 



Strong Government Wblgs 

who argued that local self-government was 
inadexjuate to the establisliment and per- 
petuation of political freedom, and that it 
afforded little or no power to successiully 
resist foreign invasion. Some of thev? 
went so far as to favor a government pat- 
terned after that of England, save that it 
should be republican in name and spirit 
The es-ential diftcrences, if they can be re- 
duced to two sentences, were these : Tho 
Particularist Whigs desired a government 
rejHiblican in form and democratic in 
spirit, with rights of local self-government 
and state rights ever uppermost. The 
Strong CJdvernment Whigs desired a gov- 
ernment republican in form, with checta 
upon the impulses or passions of the peo- 
ple; liberty, sternly regulated by law, and 
that law strengthened and confirmed by 
central authori y — the authority of the nar 
tional government to be final in appeals. 
As we have stated, the weakness of the 
confederation was acknowledged by many 
men, and the majority, as it proved to bo 
after much agitation and discussion 
thought it too imperfect to amend. Tlie 
power of the confederacy was notacknow- 
edged by the !-tat<'s, its congress not J"©- 
spected by the people. Its requisitions 
were disregarded, foreign trade could not 
be successfully regulated ; foreign nations 
refused to bind themselves by commercial 
treaties, and there was a rapid growth of 
very dangerous bu.^iness rivalries and 
jealousies between the several stat^i. 
Those which were fortunate enough, in- 
dependent of congress, to possess or se- 
cure port-s for domestic or foreign com- 
merce, taxed the imports of their \Blel 



6 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



states. There was confusion which must 
poon have apprnaclied violence, for no 
fentliority beyond the limits of the state 
was respected, and Congress was notably 
powerless in i^s attempts to command aid 
from the states to meet the payment of 
f.lie war debt, or the interest thereon. In- 
stead of general respect for, there was al- 
most general disregard of law on the part 
of legislative bodices, and the people were 
not slow in imitating their representatives. 
Civil strife became imminent, and Shay's 
Uebellion in Massachusetts was the first 
v/arlike manifestation of the spirit which 
was abroad in the land. 

Alive to the new dangers, the Assembly 
of Virginia in 1786, appointed commis- 
sioners to invite all the states to take part 
in a convention for the consideration of 
questions of commerce, and the propriety 
of altering the Articles of Confederation. 
This convention met at Annapolis, Sept. 
1 1th, 1780. But five states sent representa- 
fcjves, the others regarding the movement 
with jealousy. This convention, however, 
adopted a report which urged the appoint- 
ment of commissioners by all the states, 
"to devise such other provisions as shall, 
to them seem necessary to render the con- 
dition of the Federal government adequate 
tu the exigencies of the Union ; and to re- 
port such an act for that purpose to the 
United States in Congress assembled, as, 
v.'hen agreed to by them and afterwards 
confirmed by the legislatures of every state, 
will effectually provide for the same." 
Congress approved this action, and passed 
resolutions favoring a meeting in conven- 
tion for the "sole and express purpose of 
revising the Articles of Confederation, and 
report to Congress and the State legisla- 
tures." The convention met in Philadel- 
phia in Mav, 1787, and continued its ses- 
sions until September 17th, of the same year. 
The Strong Government Whigs had previ- 
o.nsly made every possible effort for a full 
and able representation, and the result did 
not disappoint them, for instead of simply 
revising the Articles of Confederation, the 
convention framed a constitution, and sent 
it to Congress to be submitted to that body 
Hnd through it to the several legislatures. 
The act submitting it provided that, if it 
should be ratified by nme of the thirteen 
states, it should be binding upon those 
ratifying the same. Just here was started 
the custom which has since passed into 
law, that amendments to the national con- 
stitution shall be submitted after approval 
i)y Congress, to the legislatures of the sev- 
eral states, and after approval by three- 
'fourths thereof, it shall be binding ?/;w?i all 
— a very proper exercise of constitutional 
authority, as it seems now, but which 
would not have won popular ai)pr()val 
when Virginia proposed the Anna])olis 
convention in 178G. Indeed, the reader of 



our political historj- must ever be impressed 
with the fact that changes and reforms 
ever moved slowly, and that those of slow- 
est growth seem to abide the longest. 



The Federal and Anti-Federal Parties. 

The Strong Government Whigs, on the 
submission of the constitution of 1787 to 
Congress and the legislatures, and indi- 
rectly through the latter to the people, who 
elect the members on this issue, became 
the Federal party', and all of its power was 
used to promote the ratification of the in- 
strument. Its ablest men, headed by 
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, 
advocated adoption before the people, and 
their pens supplied much of the current 
political literature of that day. Eighty- 
five essays, still noted and quoted for their 
ability, under the 7iom de plume of " Pub- 
lius," were published in " The Federalist." 
They were written by Hamilton, Madison 
and Jay, and with irresistible force advo- 
cated the Federal constitution, which was 
ratified by the nine needed states, and 
Congress was officially informed of the fiict 
.July 2d, 1788, and the first Wednesday in 
March, 1789, was fixed as the time " for 
commencing proceedings under the con- 
stitution." 

This struggle for the first time gave the 
Federalists an admitted majority. The 
complexion of the State legislature prior 
to it showed them in fiict to be in a mi- 
nority, and the Particularist Whigs, or 
Anti-Federals opposed every preliminniy 
step looking to the abandonment of the 
Articles of Confederation and the adoption 
of a Federal constitution. They were 
called Anti-Federals because they opposed 
a federal government and constitution and 
adhered to the rights of the States and 
those of local self-government. Doubtless 
party rancor, then as now, led men to op- 
pose a system of government which it 
seems they must have approved after fight- 
ing for it, but the earlier jealousies of the 
States and the prevailing ideas of liberty 
certainly gave the Anti-Federals a popu- 
larity which only a test so sensible as that 
proposed could have shaken. They were 
not without popular orators and leaders. 
Patrick Henry, the earliest of the pa- 
triots, and " the-old-man-eloquent," Samuel 
Adams, took special pride in espousing 
their cause. The war questions between 
Whig and Tory must have passed quickly 
away, as living issues, though the news- 
papers and coiitemjjoraiieous history show 
that the old taunts and battle cries were 
applied to the new situation with a plain- 
ness and virulence that must still be envied 
by the sensational and more bitterly parti- 
san journals of our own day. To read 
these now, and some of our facts are gath 



FEDERALS AND ANTI-FEDERALS. 



ercd from such sources, is to account for 
the frwjui'nt use of the saying toucliinj; 
" the iii,i:;riititu(le of rci)ul)lic.s," for wlu'ii 
partisuii hatred could deritki tlie still rv- 
ce.iit uttcraiu-es nf ilcnry heforc the startled 
assembly of Virginians, and of Adams in 
advoeatinj:; the adoption of the Declaration, 
there must at leiust to every surface view 
have been rank ingratitude. Their good 
names, however, survived the struggle, a.s 
good nanu'i in our republic have ever sur- 
vived the passions of the law. In politics 
the Americans then as now, hated with 
promptness and forgave with generosity. 

The Anti-Federals denied lu'iirly all that 
the Federals asserted. The latter had for 
the first time assumed the aggressive, and 
had the advantage of position. They 
showed the deplorable condition of the 
country, and their opponents had to bear 
the burdens of denial at a time when nearly 
all public aiul private obligations were dis- 
honored ; when labor was poorly paid, work- 
men getting but twenty-five cents a day, with 
little to do at that ; when even the rich in 
lands were poor in purse, and when com- 
merce on the seas was checked by the cold- 
ness of foreign nations and restricted by 
the action of the States themselves ; when 
manufactures were without protection of 
any kind, and when the people thought 
their struggle for freedom was about to end 
in national poverty. Still Henry, and 
Adams and Hancock, with hosts of others, 
claimed that the aspirations of the Anti- 
P^ederals were the freest, that they pointed 
to personal liberty and local sovereignty. 
Yet many Anti-Federals must have accept- 
ed the views of the Federals, who under 
the circumstances must have presented the 
better reason, and the result was as stated, 
the ratification of the Federal constitution 
of 1787 by three-fourths of the States of 
the Union. After this the Anti-Federalists 
were given a new name, that of " Close 
Constructionists," because they naturally 
desired to interpret the new instrument in 
such a way as to bend it to their views. 
The Federalists became " Broad Construc- 
tionist.?," because they interpreted the con- 
stitution in a way calculated to broaden 
the power of the national government. 

The Confederacy once dissolved, the 
Federal party entered upon the enjoy- 
ment of full political power, but it was not 
tvithout its responsibilities. The govern- 
ment had to be organized upon the basis 
of the new constitution, as upon the suc- 
ceasof that organization would depend not 
alone the stability of the government and 
the happiness of its people, but the repu- 
tation of the party and the fame of its 
leaders as statesmen. 

Fortunately for all, party hostilities were 
not manifested in the Pre^sidential election. 
All bowed to the popularity of Washing- 
toa, and he was unauimoualy nominated 



by the congressional caucus and appointed 
by the electoral c<jllege. He selected hiH 
cabinet from the leading minds of both 
parties, and while liimscif a recognized 
V'ederalist, all felt that he was acting for 
the good of all, and in the earlier years of 
his administration, none disputed this 
liiet. 

As the new measures of the government 
advanced, however, the anti-federalisUs or- 
ganized an opposition to the party iti 
power. Immediate danger had passed. 
The constitution worked well. The laws 
of Congress were respected ; its calls for 
revenue honored, and Washington de- 
voted much of his first and second mes- 
sages to showing the growing prosj)eritv 
of the country, and the respect which it 
was beginning to excite abroad. But 
where there is political power, there is 
opposition in a free land, and the great 
leaders of that day neither forfeited their 
reputations as patriots, or their characters 
as statesmen by the assertionof honest dif- 
ferences of opinion. Washington, Adams, 
and Hamilton were the recognized leaders 
of the Federalists, the firm friends of the 
constitution. The success of this instru- 
ment modified the views of the anti- 
Federalists, and Madison of Virginia, its 
recognized friend when it was in prepara- 
tion, joined with others who had been its 
friends — notably, * Doctor Williamson, of 
North Carolina, and Mr. Langdon, of 
Georgia, in opposing the administration, 
and soon became recognized leaders of tho 
anti-Federalists. Langdon was the Presi- 
dent pi-o tern, of the Senate. Jefferson was 
then on a mission to France, and not until 
some years thereafter did he array himself 
with those opposed to centralized power in 
the nation. He returned in November, 

1789, and was called to Washingt<')u'8 
cabinet as Secretary of State in March, 

1790. It was a great cabinet, with Jeffer- 
son as its premier (if this term is suited to 
a time when English political nomenclature 
was anything but popular in the land;) 
Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Knox, Secretary of War, and Edmund 
Randolph, Attorney-General. There was 
no Secretary of the Navy until the ad- 
ministration of the elder Adams, and no 
Secretary of the Interior. 

The first session of Congress under the 
Federal constitution, held in New York, 
sat for nearly six months, the adjournment 
taking place September 29th, 1789. Nearly 
all the laws framed pointed to the organi- 
zation of the government, and the discus- 
sions were able and protracted. Indeed, 
these discussions developed opposing views, 
which could easily find separation on much 
the same old lines as those which separated 
the founders of constitutional government 

* Edwia Witliama In Stotegman'a MonnaL 



8 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



from those wlio favored the old confederate 
methodri. The Federalists, on pivotal 
questions, at this session, carried their 
measures only by small majorities. 

Much of the second session was devoted 
to the discussion of the able reports of 
Hamilton, and their final adoption did 
much to build up the credit of the nation 
and to promote its industries. He was 
the author of the protective system, and at 
the first session gave definite shape to his 
theories. He recommended the funding 
of the war debt, the assumption of the 
state war debts by the national government, 
the providing of a system of revenue from 
the collection of duties on imports, and an 
internal excise. His advocacy of a pro- 
tective tariff was plain, for he declared it 
to be necessary for the support of the gov- 
ernment and the encouragmivnt of manu- 
factures that duties be laid on goods, wares, 
and merchandise imported. 

The third session of the same Congress 
was held at Philadelphia, though the seat 
of the national government had, at the 
previous one, been fixed on the Potomac 
instead of the Susquehanna — this after a 
compromise with Southern members, who 
refused to vote for the Assumption Bill 
until the location of the capital in the 
District of Columbia had been agreed 
upon ; by the way, this was the first exhi- 
bition of log-rolling in Congress. To 
complete Hamilton's financial system, a 
national bank was incorporated. On this 
project both the members of Congress and 
of the cabinet were divided, but it passed, 
and was promptly approved by Washing- 
ton. By this time it was well known that 
Jefferson and Hamilton held opposing 
views on many questions of government, 
and these found their way into and influ- 
enced the action of Congress, and passed 
naturally from thence to the people, who 
•were thus early believed to be almost 
equally divided on the more essential po- 
litical issues. Before the close of the ses- 
sion, Vermont and Kentucky were ad- 
mitted to the Union, Vermont was the 
first state admitted in addition to the 
original thirteen. True, North Carolina 
ana Rhode Island had rejected the consti- 
tution, but they reconsidered their action 
and came in — the former in November, 
1789, and the latter in May, 1700. 

The election for members of the Second 
Congress resulted in a majority in both 
branches favorable to the administration. 
It met at Philadelphia in October, 171)1. 
The exciting measure of the session was 
the excise act, somewhat similar to that of 
the previous year, but the oi)position 
wanted an issue on which to rally, they 
accepted this, and this agitation led to vio- 
lent and in one instance warlike opposi- 
tion on the part of a portion of the ncople. 
Those of western I'ennsylvania, largely 



interested in distilleries, prepared for 
armed resistance to the excise, but at the 
same session a national militia law had 
been passed, and Washington took ad- 
vantage of this to suppress the "Whisky 
Rebellion" in its incipiency. It was a 
hasty, rash undertaking, yet was dealt with 
so firmly that the action of the authorities 
strengthened the law, and the respect for 
order. The four counties which rebelled 
did no further damage than to tar and 
feather a government tax collector and rob 
him of his horse, though many threats 
were made and the agitation continued 
until 1794, when Washington's threatened 
appearance at the head of fifteen thousand 
militia settled the whole question. 

The first session of the Second Congress 
also passed the first methodic apportion- 
ment bill, which based the congressional 
representation on the census taken in 1790, 
the basis being 33,000 inhabitants for each 
representative. The second session which 
sat from November, 1792, to March, 1793, 
was mainly occupied in a discussion of the 
foreign and domestic relations of the coun- 
try. No important measures were adopted. 



The Bepuhllcan and Federal Parties. 

The most serious objection to the con- 
stitution before its ratification was the ab- 
sence of a distinct bill of rights, which 
should recognize "the equality of all 
men, and their rights to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness," and at the first 
session of Congress a bill was framed con- 
taining twelve articles, ten of which were 
afterwards ratified as amendments to the 
constitution. Yet state sovereignty, then 
imperfectly defined, was the prevailing 
idea in the minds of the Anti-Federalists, 
and they took every opportunity to oppose 
any extended delegation of authority from 
the states of the Union. They contended 
that the power of the state should be 
supreme, and charged the Federalists with 
monarchical tendencies. They opposed 
Hamilton's national bank scheme, and 
Jefferson and Randolph plainly expressed 
the opinion that it was unconstitutional — 
that a bank was not authorized by the 
constitution, and that it would prevent the 
states from maintaining banks. But when 
the Bill of Rights had been incorporated 
in and attached to the constitution as 
amendments, Jefferson with rare political 
sagacity withdrew all opposition to the in- 
strument itself, and the Anti-Federalists 
gladly followed his lead, for they felt that 
they had labored under many partisan dis- 
advantages. The constitution was from 
the first too strong for successful resistance, 
and when opposition was confessedly 
abandoned the party name was changed, 
also at the suggestion of Jeficrson, to that 



REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 



of Republican. The Anti-FederalistH were 
at first (lisjKJsed to cull tlicir party tlin 
Deiiincratic-llcpuhlicaiis, hut dually called 
it simply Koi)ul)licaii, to avoid tlui opi)osile 
of the extreme whiih they changed aii,aiii.st 
the Federalists. Each party had its tauut.s 
in use, the Federalists heiuf^ denouuced as 
monarchists, the Auti-Feder.dists as Dem- 
ocrats; the one presumed to he looking 
forward to monarchy, the other to the rule 
of tlie mob. 

r>y 17!i { partisan lines under the names 
of Federalists and Republicans, were plain- 
ly drawn, and the schism in the caiiiuct 
•was more marked than ever. Personal 
aml)ition may have had much to do with 
it, for \Vadiinj;ton had previously shown 
his desire to retire to private life. While 
he remained at the head of affairs he was 
unwillini^ to part with Jetferson and Ham- 
ilton, and did all in his power to bring 
about a reconciliation, but without suc- 
cess. Before the close of the first consti- 
tutional Presidency, however, AV;vsliington 
had become convinced that the people de- 
Kired him to accept a re-election, and he 
was accordingly a candidate and unani- 
mously chosen. John Adams was re-elect- 
ed Vice-President, receiving 77 votes to 
50 for Geo. Clinton, (5 scattering) the Re- 
publican candidate. Soon atler the inau- 
guration Citizen Genet, an envoy from the 
French republic, arrived and sought to 
excite the symj)athy of the United States 
and involve it in a war with Great Britain. 
Jetferson and his Re})ublicau party warmly 
sympathized with France, and insisted 
that gratitude for revolutionary favors 
commanded aid to France in her struggles. 
The Federalists, under Washington and 
Hamilton, favored non-intervention, and 
insisted that wc should maintain friendly 
relations with Great Britain. Washington 
showed his usual firmness, and before the 
expiration of the month in which Genet 
arrived, had issued his celebrated procla- 
mation of neutrality. This has ever since 
been the accepted foreign policy of the 
nation. 

Genet, chagrined at the issuance of this 
proclamation, threatened to appeal to the 
people, and made himself so obnoxious to 
Washington that the latter demanded his 
recall. The French government sent M. 
Fauchet as his successor, but Genet con- 
tinued to reside in the United States, and 
under his inspiration a numl)er of Demo- 
cratic Societies, in imitation of the French 
Jacobin clubs, were founded, but like all 
such organizations in this country, thev 
were short-lived. Secret political societies 
thrive only under despotisms. In Repub- 
lics like ours they can only live when the 
great parties are in confusion and greatly 
divided. They disappear with the union 
of sentiment into two great parties. If 
there were many parties and factions, as in 



Mexico and some of the South American 
repuldics, there would be evtii a wider 
liehl for them here tiiaii there. 

Th(^ French agitation shelved its ii:iprcs.s 
upon the nation as late as 17'.)4, when a 
'\ resolution to cut off intercourse with (jreat 
Britain p;issed the Hou^e, and wa.s de- 
feated in the Senate only by the c:Lstiii>^ 
vote of the Vice-President. Many people 
favored France, and to such silly heights 
did the excitement run that these irisi.sted 
on wearing a national cockaile. Jelfcrson 
had left tlie cabinet the December j)re- 
vious, and had retired to his j)lantation in 
Virginia, where he spent his leisure in 
writing political essays and organizing the 
Repui)lican Jfarty, of which he w;ls the ac- 
knowledged founder. Here he escaped the 
errors of his party in Congress, but it w;us 
a potent fact that his friends in official 
station not only did not endorse the non- 
intervention policy of Washington, but 
that they actively antagonized it in many 
ways. The Congressional leader in these 
movements was Mr. Madison. The policy 
of Britain fed this op^)osition. The forts 
on Lake Erie were still occupied by the 
British soldiery in defiance of the treaty of 
1783; American vessels were seized on 
their way to French ports, and American 
citizens were impressed. To avoid a war, 
Washington sent John Jay as special en- 
voy to England. He arrived in June, 
1794, and by November succeeded in mak- 
ing a treaty. It was ratified in June, 1795, by 
the Senate by the constitutional majority 
of two-thirds, though there was much de- 
clamatory op])Osition, and the feeling be- 
tween the Federal and Republican parties 
ran higher than ever before. The Republi- 
cans denounced while the Federals con- 
gratulated Washington. Under this treaty 
the British surrendered possession of all 
American ports, and as Gen'l Wayne dur- 
ing the previous summer had conquered 
the war-tribes and completed a treaty with 
them, the country was again on the road 
to prosperity. 

In Washington's message of 1794, ho 
plainly censured all "self-created political 
societies," meaning the democratic so- 
cieties formed bv Genet, but this part of 
the message the House refused to endorse, 
the speaker giving the ca.sting vote in the 
negative. The Senate was in harmony 
with the political views of the President. 
Party spirit had by this time me;usurably 
affected all classes of the people, and as 
subjects for agitation here multi?dicd, the 
opposition no longer regarded Wivshing- 
ton with that respect and decorum which 
it had been the rule to manifest. His wis- 
dom as President, his patriotism, and in- 
deed his character as a man, were all 
hotly questioned by political enemies. He 
was even charged with corruption in ex- 
pending more of the public moneys than 



10 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



had been appropriated — charges which were 
soon shown to he groundless. 

At the first session of Congress in De- 
cember, 1795, the Senate's administration 
majority had incretused, but in the House 
the opposing Republicans had also in- 
creased their numbers. The Senate by 14 
to 8 endorsed the message ; the House at 
first refused but linally qualified its an- 
swers. 

■ In March, 179G, a new political issue 
was sprung in the House by Mr. Living- 
stone of New York, who offered a resolu- 
tion requesting of the President a eoj^y of 
the instructions to Mr. Jay, the envoy who 
made the treaty with Great Britain. Alter 
a debate of several days, more bitter than 
any which had jsreceded it, the House 
passed the resolution by 57 to 35, the Re- 
publicans voting aye, the Federals no. 
Washington in answer, took the position 
that the House of Representatives was not 
part of the treaty-making power of the 
government, and could not therefore be 
entitled to any papers relating to such 
treaties. The constitution had placed this 
treaty making and ratifying power in the 
hands of the Senate, the Cabinet and the 
President. 

This answer, now universally accepted 
as the projier one, yet excited the House 
and increased political animosities. The 
Republicans charged the federals with 
being the "British party," and in some 
instances hinted that they had been pur- 
chased with British gold. Indignation 
meetings were called, but after much 
sound and fury, it was ascertained that the 
people really favored abiding by the treaty 
in good faith, and finally the House, after 
more calm and able debates, passed the 
needed legislation to carry out the treaty 
by a vote of 51 to 48. 

In August, 1796, prior to the meeting 
of the Congressional caucus whieh then 
placed candidates for the Presidency in 
nomination, Washington issued his cele- 
brated Farewell Address, in which he gave 
notice that he would retire from public 
life at the expiration of his term. He had 
been solicited to be a candidate for re- 
election (a third term) and told that all 
the people could unite upon him — a state- 
ment which, without abating one jot, our 
admiration for the man, would doubtless 
have been called in question by the Re- 
publicans, who had become implacably 
hostile to his political views, and who were 
encouraged to believe they could win con- 
trol of the Presidency, by their ra])idly in- 
creasing power in the House. Yet the ad- 
dress was everywhere received witli marks 
of admiration. Legislatures commended 
it by resolution and ordered it to be en- 
grossed upon their records; journals 
praised it, and upon the strength of its 
plain doctrines the Federalists took new , 



courage, and prepared to win in the Presi- 
dential battle which followed. Both parties 
were plaiidy arrayed and confident, and 
so close was the result that the leaders of 
both were elected — John Adams, the nom- 
inee of the Federalists, to the Presidency, 
and Thomas Jefferson, the nominee of the 
Republicans, to the Vice-Presidency. The 
law which then obtained was that the 
candidate who received the highest num- 
ber of electoral votes, took the first place, 
the next highest, the second. Thomas 
Pinckney of South Carolina was the Fed- 
eral nominee for Vice-President, and Aaron 
Burr of the Republicans. Adams received 
71 electoral votes, Jeficrson 68, Pinckney 
59, Burr 30, scattering 48. Pinckney had 
lost 12 votes, while Burr lost 38 — a loss of 
popularity which the latter regained four 
years later. The first impressions which 
our forefathers had of this man were the 
best. 

John Adams was inaugurated as Pres- 
ident in Philadelphia, at Congress Hall, 
March 4th, 1797, and in his inaugural was 
careful to deny the charge that the Fed- 
eral party had any sympathy for England, 
but reaffirmed his endorsement of the 
policy of Washington as to strict neutral- 
ity. To this extent besought to soften the 
asperities of the parties, and measurably 
succeeded, though the times were ^till 
stormy. The French revolution had 
reached its highest point, and our people 
still took sides. Adams found he would 
have to arm to preserve neutrality and at 
the same time punish the aggression . of 
either of the combatants. This was our 
first exhibition of "armed neutrality." 
An American navy was quickly raised, and 
every j^reparation made for defending the 
rights of Americars. An alliance with 
France was refused, after which the 
American Minister was dismissed and the 
French navy began to cripple our trade. 
In May, 1797, President Adams felt it his 
duty to call an extra session of Ccngress, 
which closed in July. The Senate ap- 
proved of negotiations for reconciliation 
with France. They were attempted but 
proved fruitless; in May, 1798, a full naval 
armament was authorized, and soon several 
French vessels were captured before there 
was any declaration of war. Indecr*. neith- 
er power declared war, and as soon as 
France discovered liow earnest the Ameri- 
cans were she made overtures for an ad- 
justment of dilhculties, and these resulted 
in the treaty of 1800. 

The Republicans, though warmly favor- 
ing a contest, did not heartily sup])ort that 
inaugurated by Adams, and contended 
after this that the militia and a small naval 
force were sufficient for internal defense. 
They denounced the position of the Fed- 
erals, wlio favored the enlargement of the 
army and navy, as measures calculated to 



REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 



11 



overawe public sentiment in time of peace. 
TJio Fecieruls, liowcver, tliroiijijh their 
prompt ro.sfntmerit of the a,!_'i!;rL-.ssi()ns of 
Fniiu-e, liiid many adherents to their 
party. Tiiey orijjanized their power and 
sought to j)erj)etiiate it liy tiie passa_L'c of 
the alien and sedition, and a naturali/a- 
tioii law. 

Tiie alien and sedition hiw gave tlic 
President authority " to order all .sucii 
alieiH an he shall judge dangerou.s to the 
peace and .safety of the United States, or 
tihall have rea-sonable grounds to suspect 
are eoneerned in any lreasonal)le or secret 
machinations against the govennnent 
thereof, to depart out of the territory of 
the United States, within such time as 
shall be expressed in such order." The 
provisions which followed were in iceeping 
with that quoted, the 3d section command- 
ing every master of a ship entering a port 
of the United States, immediately on liis 
arrival, to make report in writing to the 
collector of customs, the names of all aliens 
on board, etc. The act Avas to continue 
in force for two years from the date of its 
passa^fe, and it was approved June 2-5th, 
1798."' 

A resolution was introduced in the Sen- 
ate on the 25th of April, 1798, by Mr. 
Hillhouse of Connecticut, to inquire what 
provision of law ought to be made, &c., as 
to the removal of such aliens as may be 
dangerous to the peace of the country, &c. 
This resolution was adopted the next day, 
and Messrs. Hillhouse, Livcrmore and 
Read were appointed the committee, and 
Hubsequently reported the bill. It passed 
the Senate by 1(5 to 7, and the House by 
46 to 40, tlie Republicans in the latter 
body resisting it warmly. The leading 
opposing idea was that it lodged with the 
Executive too much power, and was liable 
to great abuse. It has tmpiently since, 
in arguments against centralized power, 
been used for illustration by political 
speakers. 

The Naturalization law, favored by the 
Federalists, because they knew they could 
acquire few friends either from newly ar- 
rived English or French aliens, among 
other requirements provided that an alien 
nm-it reside in the United States fmirtern 
years before he could vote. The Republi- 
cans denounced this law as calculated to 
check immigration, and dangerous to our 
country in the fact that it caused too 
many inhabitants to owe no allegiance. 
They also asserted, as did those who op- 
posed Americanism later on in our histoiy. 
that America was properly an asylnm for 
all nations, and that those coming t'^ 
America should freely share all the privi- 
leges and liberties of the government. 

These laws and the political resentments 
which they created gave a new and what 
eventually proved a dangerous current to 



politica. thouglit and action. They were 
the immediate cause of tlio Ketitueky and 
Virginia resolutions of 171»>^, Jellcrson be- 
ing liie author of the fi>rmcr and Madison 
of t lie latter. 

Thee resolutions were full of political 
significance, anil gave tone to sectional dis- 
cussion uj) to the close of the war for tho 
Union. They first promulgated the doc- 
trine of nullification or secession, Hud 
l)olitieal writers mistake who point toCai- 
lioun lus the father of that doctrine. It 
began with the old Republicans under the 
leadership of Jeiferson and Madison, and 
though diri!ctly intended as jirotests against 
the alien and sedition, and the naturaliza- 
tion laws of Congress, they kept one eye 
u])on the question of slavery — rather that 
interest was kept in view in their declara- 
tions, and yet the authors of both were 
anything but warm advocates of slavery. 
Tliey were then striving, however, to rein- 
force the opposition to the Federal party, 
which the administration of Adams had 
thus far apparently weakened, and they 
had in view the brief agitation which had 
sprung up in 1793, five years before, on the 
petition to Congress of a Penn.sylvania 
society " to use its powers to stop the traffic 
in slaves." On the question of referring 
this petition to a committee there arose a 
sectional debate. Men took sides not be- 
cause of the party to which they belonged, 
but the section, and for the first time the 
North and South were arrayed against each 
other on a question not then treated either as 
partisan or political, but which most minds 
then saw must soon become both partisan 
and sectional. Some of the Southern de- 
baters, in their protests against interfer- 
ence, thus early threatened civil war. With 
a view to better protect their rights to slave 
property, they then advocated and suc- 
ceeded in passing the first fugitive slave 
law. This was approved February 12, 1793. 

The resolutions of 179S will be found in 
the book devoted to political platforms. 
So highly were these esteemed by the Re- 
publicans of that day, and by the interests 
whose support they so shrewdly invited, 
that they more than counterbalanced the 
popularity acquired by the Federals in their 
resistance to France, and by ISOO they 
caused a rupture in the Cabinet of Adams. 

In the Presidential election of ISOO John 
Adams was the nominee for President and 
C. C. Pinckney for Vice-President. A 
"Congressional Convention" of Republi- 
cans, held in Philadelphia, nominated 
Thomas Jefl'erson and Aaron Burr as can- 
didates for these offices. On the election 
which followed the Republicans cho.se 73 
electors and the Federalists Go. Each 
elector voted for two persons, and the Re- 
pu])licans so voted that they unwi.sely gave 
Jefferson and Burreacli 73 votes. Neither 
being highest, it was not legally determined 



12 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



which should be President or Vice-Presi- 
dent, and the election had to go to the 
House. The Federalists threw 65 votes to 
Adams and G4 to Piuckney. The Repub- 
licans could have done the same, but Burr's 
intrigue and ambition prevented this, and 
the result was a prctracted contest in 
the House, and one which put the country 
in great peril, but which plainly pointed 
out some of the imperfections of the elec- 
toral features of the Constitution. The 
Federalists proposed to confess the inabil- 
ity of the House to agree through the vote 
by States, but to this proposition the Re- 

?ublicans threatened armed resistance, 
'he Federalists next attempted a combina- 
tion with the friends of Aaron Burr, but 
this specimen of bargaining to deprive a 
nominee of the place to which it was the 
plain intention of his party to elect him, 
really contributed to Jetferson's popularity, 
if not in that Congress, certainly before the 
people. He was elected on the 36th ballot. 
The bitterness of this strife, and the 
dangers which similar ones threatened, led 
to an abandonment of the system of each 
Elector voting for t^vo, the highest to be 
President, the next highest Vice-President, 
and an amendment was offered to the Con- 
stitution, and fully ratified by September 
25. 1804, requiring the electors to ballot 
separately for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

Jefferson was the first candidate nomi- 
nated by a Congressional caucus. It con- 
vened in 1800 at Philadelphia, and nomi- 
nated Jefferson for President and Burr for 
Vice-President, Adams and Pinckney 
were not nominated, but ran and were ac- 
cepted as natural leaders of their party, 
just as Washington and Adams were be- 
fore them. 



Do'tvnfall of the Federal Party. 

This contest broke the power of the 
Federal party. It had before relied upon 
the rare sagacity and ability of its leaders, 
but the contest in the House developed 
such attempts at intrigue as disgusted 
many and caused all to quarrel, Hamilton 
having early showed his dislike to Adams. 
As a party the Federal had been peculiarly 
brave at times when high bravery was 
needed. It had framed the Federal Gov- 
ernment and stood by the i)owers given it 
until they were too firmly i)lanted for even 
newer and triumphant partisans to reck- 
lessly trifle with. It stood for non-inter- 
ference with foreign nations against the 
eloquence of adventurers, the mad impulses 
of mobs, the generosity of new-born free- 
men, the harangues of demagogues, and 
best of all against those wlio sought to fan 
these popular breezes to their own (comfort. 
It j)roviued for the payment of the debt, 
had the courage to raise revenues both 



from internal and external sources, and to 
increase expenditures, as the growtli of tlie 
country demanded. Though it passed out 
of power in a cloud of intrigue and in a 
vain grasp at the " flesh-pots," it yet had a 
glorious history, and one which none un- 
tinctured with the better prejudices of that 
day, can avoid admiring. 

The defeat of Adams was not unexpect- 
ed by him, yet it was greatly regretted by 
his friends, for he was justly regarded as 
second to no other civilian in the estab- 
lishment of the liberties of the colonies. 
He was eloquent to a rare degree, possessed 
natural eloquence, and made the most 
famous speech in advocacy of the Declara- 
tion. Though the proceedings of the 
Revolutionary Congress were secret, and 
what was said never printed, yet Webster 
gives his version of the noted speech of 
Adams, and we reproduce it in Book III, 
of this volume as one of the great speeches 
of noted American orators. 

Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated the third 
President, in the new capitol at Washing- 
ton, on the 4th of March, 1801, and Vice- 
President Burr took his seat in the Senate 
the same day. Though Burr distinctly dis- 
avowed any participancy in the House 
contest, he was distrusted by Jefferson's 
warm friends, and jealousies rapidly 
cropped out. Jefferson endeavored through 
his inaugural to smooth factious and party 
aspcrities,and so well were his words chosen 
that the Federalists indulged, the hope that 
they would not be removed from office be- 
cause of their political views. 

Early in June, however, the first ques- 
tion of civil service wsis raised. Mr. Jefl'er- 
son then removed Elizur Goodrich, a Fed- 
eralist, from the Colleetorship of New 
Haven, and appointed Samuel Bishop, a 
Republican, to the place. TI13 citizens re- 
monstrated, saj'ing that Goodrich -was 
prompt, reliable and able, and showed that 
his successor was 78 years old, and too in- 
firm for the duties of the office. To these 
remonstrances Mr. Jefferson, under date of 
July 12th, replied in language which did 
not then, as hedid later on, jilainly assert 
the right of every administration to have 
its friends in office. We quote the fol- 
lowing: . 

"Declarations by myself, in favor of 
political tolerance, exhortations .to har- 
mony and aflection in social intercourse, 
and respect for the equal rights of the 
minority, have, on certain occasions, been 
quoted and misconstrued into assurances 
that the tenure of office was not to be dis- 
turbed. But could candor apply such a 
construction? When it is considered that, 
during the late administration, those who 
were not of a particular sect of politics 
were excluded from all office; when, by a 
steady jKirsuit of this measure, nearly the 
whole offices of the United States were 



DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALS. 



13 



monopolized by that sect ; whon the public 
aeutiinont at length deflan-il itself, ami 
burst open the doors ot" honor and confi- 
dence to those whose opinions they ap- 
proved; was it to be iniai^inod that this 
monopoly of ollire was to be continued in 
the liands of the minority ' IJoes it violate 
tljeir equal riglits to lussert some riglits in 
the majority also? li it political intolerance 
to claim a proportionate share in the direc- 
tion of the puolic allairs? If adue partici- 
pation of otlice is a matter of right, how 
are vacancies to be obtained ? Those by 
death are few, by resignation none. C.-in 
any other mode than lliat of removal be 
proposed? This is a painful oliice ; but it 
13 made my duty, and I meet it :issuch. I 
proceed in the operation with deliberation 
and inrpiiry, that it may injure the best 
men leas.t, and effect the purposes of justice 
and public utility with the least private 
distress, that it may be thrown tus much as 
possible on delinquency, on oppression, on 
intolerance, on ante-revolutionary adhe- 
renoe to onr enemies. 

" I lament sincerely that unessential dif- 
ferences of opinion should ever have been 
deemed sufficient to interdict half the 
society from the rights and the blessings 
of self-government, to proscribe them as 
unworthy of every trust. It would have 
been to mo a circumstance of great relief, 
hail I ibund a moderate participation of 
office in the hands of the majority. I 
would gladly have left to time and accident 
to raise them to their just share. But their 
total exclusion calls for prompter correc- 
tions. I shall correct the procedure ; but 
that done, return with joy to that state of 
things when the only questions concerning 
a candidate shall be : Is he honest? Is he 
capable? Iske faithful to the constitution?" 

Mr. Adams had made few removals, and 
none because of the political views held 
by the incumbents, nearly all of whom 
had been appointed by Washington and 
continued through good behavior. At the 
dato of the appointment of most of them, 
Jefferson's Republican party had no exist- 
ence; so that the reasons given in the 
quotation do not comport with the facts. 
Washington's rule was integrity and ca- 
pacity, for he could have no regard for 
nolitics where political lines had been ob- 
literated in his Own selection. Doubtlc^ 
these office-holders were human, and ad- 
hered with warmth to the administration 
which they .served, and this fact, and this 
alone, must have angered the Republicans 
and furnished them with arguments for a 
change. 

Mr. Jefferson's position, however, made 
his later conduct natural. He waa the ac- 
knowledged leader of his party, its founder 
indeed, and that party had carried him 
into power. He di\sired to keep it intact, 
to strengthen its lines with whatever pa- 



tronage he had at his disposal, and he evi- 
dently regarded the cause of Adams in not 
rewarding his friends aa a mistake. It 
wai, therefore, Jefi'erson, and not Jackson, 
wlio was the author of the theory that " to 
tlie victors l>elong the sjioils." Jackson 
gave it a sharp ancl j)erlLH-tly defined shajjc 
by tin; use of tlu«e words, but the spirit 
and prin(i|>Ie were conceived by Jefferson, 
who tlirougliout his lite siiowed fargreatiT 
originality in politics than any of the early 
patriots. It was his acute sense of just 
what was right for a growing p<»lilical 
parly to do, which led liim to turn the 
thoughts of his followers into new and 
poi)ular directions. [Seeing that they were 
at grave disadvantage when opposing the 
attitude of the government in its policy 
with foreign nations ; realizing that the 
work of the Federalists in strengthening 
the power of the new government, in pro- 
viding revenues and ways and means for 
the payment of the debt, were good, ho 
changed the character of the opposition 
by selecting only notoriously arbitrary 
measures for assault — and changed it even 
more radically than this. He early saw 
that simple opposition was not progress, 
and that it was both wise and popular to 
be progressive, and in all hia later politi- 
cal papers he sought to make his party the 
party favoring personal freedom, the one 
of liberal ideas, the one which, instead of 
shirking, should anticipate every change 
calculated to enlarge the liberties and the 
opportunities of citizens. These things 
were not inconsistent with his strong views 
in favor of local self-government ; indeed, 
in many particulars they seemed to sup- 
port that theory, and by the union of 
the two ideas he shrewdly arrayed po- 
litical enthusiasm by the side of politi- 
cal interest. Political sagacity more pro- 
found than this it is difficult to imagine. 
It has not since been equalled in the his- 
tory of our land, nor do we believe in the 
history of any other. 

After the New Haven episode, so jealous 
was Jefferson of his good name, that while 
he confided all new appointments to the 
hands of his political friends, he made few 
removals, and these for apparent cause. 
The mere statement of his position had 
proved an invitation to the Federalists in 
office to join his earlier friends in the sup- 
portof his administration. Many of them 
did it, 80 many that the clamorings of 
truer friends could not be hushed. With 
a view to create a new excuse, Jeflerson 
declared that all appointments made by 
Adams aflor February 14th, when the 
House beean its ballotings for Presidtmt, 
wore void, these aj)pointments belonging 
of right to him, and fmm this act of 
Adams we date the political legacies which 
some of our I'rcjidents have since lianded 
down to their successors. One of the 



14 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



magistrates whose commission had been 
made out under Adams, sought to compel 
Jefferson to sign it by a writ ol" mandamus 
before the Supreme Court, but a " profound 
investigation of constitutional law " in- 
duced the court not to grant the motion. 
All commissions signed by Adams after 
the date named were suppressed. 

Jeilerson's apparent bitterness against 
the Federalists is mainly traceable to the 
contest in the House, and his belief that 
at one time they sought a coalition with 
Burr. This coalition he regarded as a vio- 
lation of the understanding when he was 
nominated, and a supposed effort to ap- 
point a provisional office he regarded as an 
usurpation in fact. In a letter to James 
Monroe, dated February 15th, speaking of 
this contest, he says : 

" Four days of balloting have produced 
not a single change of a vote. Yet it is 
confidently believed that to-morrow there 
is to be a coalition. I know of no founda- 
tion for this belief. If they could have 
been permitted to pass a law for putting 
the government in the hands of an officer, 
they would certainly have prevented an 
election. But we thought it best to de- 
clare openly and firmly, one and all, that 
the day such an act passed, the Middle 
States would arm, and that no such usur- 
pation, even for a single day, should be 
submitted to." 

It is but fair to say that the Federalists 
denied all such intentions, and that James 
A. Bayard, of Delaware, April 3, 1806, 
made formal oath to this denial. In this 
lie says that three States, representing 
Federalist votes, offered to withdraw their 
opposition if John Nicholas, of Virginia, 
and the personal friend of Jefferson, avouUI 
secure pledges that the public credit should 
be supported, the navy maintained, and 
that subordinate public officers, employed 
only in the execution of details, established 
by law, should not be removed from office 
on the ground of their public character, 
nor without complaint against their con- 
duct. The Federalists then went so far as 
to admit that officers of " high discretion 
and confidence," such as members of the 
cabinet and foreign ministers, should be 
known friends of the administration. This 
proposition goes to show that there is noth- 
ing very new in what are called our 
modern politics; that the elder Bayard, as 
early as 1800, made a formal proposal to 
bargain. Mr. Nicholas offered Ids assur- 
ance that the-^e things would prove accep- 
table i<) and govern tJie conduct of Jeffer- 
son's administration, but he declined to con- 
suit with Jefferson on the points. General 
Smith subsequently engaged to do it, and 
Jefferson replied that the points given 
corresponded with his views and inten- 
tions, and that Mr. Bayard and his friends 
might confide in him accordingly. The 



opposition of Vermont, Maryland and De- 
laware was then immediately withdrawn, 
and Mr Jefferson was made President. 
Gen'l Smith, twelve days later, made an 
affidavit which substantially confirmed 
that of Bayard. Latimer, the collector of 
the port of Philadelphia, and M'Lane, col- 
lector of Wilmington, (Bayard's special 
friend) were retained in office. He had 
cited these two as examples of his opposi- 
tion to any change, and Jefferson seemed 
to regard the pledges as not sacred beyond 
the parties actually named in Bayard's ne- 
gotiations with Gen'l Smith. 

This misunderstanding or misconstrno- 
tion of what in these days would be plain- 
ly called a bargain, led to considerable 
political criticism, and Jefferson felt it ne- 
cessary to defend his cause. This he did 
in letters to friends which both then and 
since found their way into the public 
prints. One of these letters, written to 
Col. Monroe, March 7th, shows in every 
word and line the natural politician. In 
this he says : 

" Some (removals) I know must be 
made. They must be as few as possible, 
done gradually, and bottomed on some 
malversation or inherent disqualification. 
Where we shall draw the line between all 
and none, is not yet settled, and will not 
be till we get our administration together ; 
and perhaps even then we shall proceed 
a talons, balancing our measures according 
to the impression we perceive them to 
make. This may give you a general 
view of our plan." 

A little later on, March 28, he wrote to 
Elbridge Gerry : 

" Officers who have been guilty of gross 
abuses of office, such as marshals packing 
juries, etc., I shall now remove, as my 
predecessor ought in justice to have done. 
The instances will be few, and governed 
by strict rule, not party passion. The 
right of opinion shall suffer no invasion 
from me." 

Jefferson evidently tired of this subject, 
and gradually modified his views, as shown 
in his letter to Levi Lincoln, July 11, 
wherein he says : 

" I am satisfied that the heaping of abuse 
on me personally, has been with the de- 
sign and the hope of provoking me to make 
a general sweej) of all Federalists out of 
oflice. But as I have carried no passion 
into the execution of this disagreeable 
duty, I shall suffer none to be excited, 'ihe 
clamor which h;is been raised will not pro- 
voke me to remove one more, nor deter 
me from removing one less, than if not a 
word had been said on thesul)ject. In the 
course of the summer, all which is neces- 
sary will be done ; and we may hope that, 
this cause of offence being at an end, the 
measures we shall pursue and ]>ropose for 
the amelioration of the public affairs, will 



DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALS. 



15 



be 80 confessedly salutary as to unite all 
men not monarchi-its in principle." In 
the same letter he warmly berati^-s the 
monarchieal federalists, saying, " they are 
incurables, to be taken eare of in a mad- 
house if necessary, and on motives of 
charity." 

Tlie seventh Congress assembled. Po- 
litical parties were at first nearly equally 
divided in the Senate, but eventually 
there wits a majority for the administration. 
Jefferson then discontinued the custom es- 
tablished by Washington of delivering in 
person his message to Congress. Tlu' 
change was greatly for the oetter, as it 
afforded relief from the requirement of 
immediate answers on the subjects con- 
tained in the message. It has ever since 
been followed. 

The seventh session of Congress, pursu- 
ant to the recommendation of President 
Jefferson, established a uniform system of 
naturalization, and so modified the law as 
to make the required residence of aliens 
five years, instead of fourteen, as in the act 
of 1798, and to permit a declaration of in- 
tention to become a citizen at the expiration 
of three years. By his recommendation 
also was established the first sinking fund 
for the redemption of the public debt. It 
required the setting apart annually for this 

Eurpose the sum of seven millions and three 
undred thousand dollars. Other mea- 
sures, more partisan in their character, 
were proposed, but Congress showed an 
aversion to undoing what nad been wisely 
done. A favorite law of the Federalists 
establishing circuit courts alone was re- 
pealed, and this only after a sharp debate, 
and a close vote. The provisional army 
had been disbanded by a law of the previ- 
ous Congress. A proposition to abolish the 
naval department wa.s defeated, as was that 
to discontinue the mint establishment. 

At this session the first law in relation to 
the slave trade was passed. It was to pre- 
vent the importation of negroes, mulattoes 
and other j)ersons of color into any port of 
the United States within a state which had 
prohibited by law the admission of any 
such person. The penalty was one thou- 
sand dollars and the forfeitureof the vessel. 
The slave trade was not then prohibited by 
the constitution, nor Wiis the subject then 
generally agitated, though it had been as 
early as 17'J3, when, jis previously stated, 
an exciting sectional debate followed the 
presentation of a petition from Pennsylva- 
nia to abolish the slave trade. 

Probably the most important occurrence 
under the first administration of Jefferson 
was that relating to the purchase and ad- 
mission of Louisiana. There had been 
apprehensions of a war with Spain, and with 
a view to be ready Congress had passed an 
act authorizing the President to call upon 
the executives of such of the states as he 



might deem expedient, for detachments of 
militia not exceeding eighty tiiousand, or 
to accept the services of volunteers for a 
term of twelve UKJiiths. The disagreement 
arose over the south-western boun<hiry line 
and the right of navigating the Mississii)iii. 
Our government learned in the spring of 
18U2, that Spain ha<l by a secret treaty 
made in October, 1800, actually ceded 
Louisiana to France. Our government had 
in 17i)') made a treaty with Spain which 
gave us the right of dc|)osite at New Or- 
leans for tliree years, but in October, 1802, 
the Spanish authorities gave notice by 
j>roclamation that this right was withdrawn. 
Excitement followed all along the valley 
of the Mississippi, and it was increased by 
the belief that the withdrawal of the privi- 
lege was made at the suggestion of France, 
though Si)ain still retained the territory, aa 
the formalities of ceding it had not been 
gone through with. Jefferson promptly 
took the ground that if France took j)os- 
session of New Orleans, the United States 
would immediately become allies of Eng- 
land, but suggested to Minister Livingston 
at Paris that France might be induced to 
cede the island of New Orleans and the 
Floridas to the United States. It was his 
belief, though a mistaken one, that France 
had also acquired the Floridas, Louisiana 
then comprised much of the territory west 
of the Mississippi and south of the Mis- 
souri. 

The Federalists in Congress seized upon 
this question as one upon which they could 
make an aggressive war against Jefferson's 
administration, and resolutions were intro- 
duced asking information on the subject. 
Jefferson, however, wisely avoided all en- 
tangling suggestions, and sent Monroe to 
aid Livingston in effecting a purchase. 
The treaty was formed in April, 1803, and 
submitted by Jeffenion to the Senate in 
October following. The Republicans ral- 
lied in favor of this scheme of annexation, 
and claimed that it was a constitutional 
right in the government to acquire territory 
— a doctrine widely at variance with their 
previoas position, but occasions are rare 
where parties quarrel with their administra- 
tions on pivotal measures. There was also 
some latitude here for endorsement, as the 
direct question of territorial acquisition liad 
not before been presented, -but only hypo- 
thetically stated in the constitutional dis- 
putations then in great fashion. Jefferson 
would not go so far as to say that the con- 
stitution warranted the acquisition to for- 
eign territory, but the scheme was never- 
theless his, and he stood in with his friends 
in the political battle which followed. 

The Federalists claimed that we had no 
power tr) acquire territory, and that the 
acquirement of Louisiana would give the 
South a preponderance which would " con- 
tinue for all time (poor prophets they I), 



16 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



since southern would be more rapid than 
northern development ; " that states cre- 
ated west of the Mississippi would injure 
the commerce of New England, and they 
even went so far as to say that the " ad- 
mission of the Western World into the 
Union would compel the Eastern States to 
establish an eastern empire," Doubts 
were also raised as to the right of Louisi- 
anians, when admitted to citizenship un- 
der our laws, as their lineage, language 
and religion were different from our own. 
Its inhabitant's were French and descend- 
ants of French, with some Spanish Cre- 
oles, Americans, English and Germans — 
in all about 1)0,000, including 40,000 slaves. 
There were many Indians of course, in a 
territory then exceeding a million of square 
miles — a territory which, in the language 
of First Consul Napoleon, "strengthens 
forever the power of the United States," 
and which will give to England a mari- 
time rival that will sooner or later humble 
her pride " — a military view of the change 
fully justified by subsequent history. Na- 
poleon sold because of needed prepara- 
tions for war with England, and while he 
had previously expressed a willingness to 
take fifty million francs for it, he got sixty 
through the shrewd diplomacy of his min- 
isters, who hid for the time their fear of 
the capture of the port of New Orleans by 
the English navy. 

Little chance was afforded the Federal- 
ists for adverse criticism in Congress, for 
the purchase proved so popular that the 
people greatly increased the majority in 
both branches of the eighth Congress, and 
Jefferson called it together earlier for the 
purpose of ratification. The Senate rati- 
fied the treaty on the 20th of October, 1803, 
by a vote of 24 to 7, while the House 
adopted a resolution for carrying the treaty 
into effect by a vote of 90 to 25. Eleven 
million dollars of the purchase money was 
appropriated, the remaining four millions 
being reserved for the indemnity of Amer- 
ican citizens who had sustained losses by 
French assaults upon our commerce — from 
which fact subsequently came what is 
known as the French Spoliation Bill. 

Impeachment trials were first attempted 
before the eightli Congress in 1803. Judge 
Pickering, of the district court of the 
United States for New Hampshire, was 
impeached for occasional drunkenness, 
and dismissed from office. Judge Chase 
of the U. S. Supreme Court, and Judge 
Peters of the district court of Pennsylva- 
nia, both Federalists, were charged by arti- 
cles proposed in the House with illegal 
and arbitrary' conduct in the trial of par- 
ties charged with political offenses. The 
Federalists took alarm at these proceed- 
ings, and so vehement were their charges 
a^jainst the llepublioans of a desire to de- 



stroy the judiciary that their impeach* 
ments were finally abandoned. 

The Republicans closed their first na- 
tional administration with high prestige. 
They had met several congressional re- 
verses on questions Avhere defeat proved 
good fortune, for the Federalists kept a 
watchful defence, and were not always 
wrong. The latter suflered numerically, 
and many of their best leaders had fallen 
in the congressional contest of 1800 and 
1802, while the Republicans maintained 
their own additions in talent and number. 

In 1804, the candidates of both parties 
were nominated by congressional caucuses. 
Jefferson and Clinton were the Republi- 
can nominees ; Charles C Pinckney and 
Rufiis King, the nominees of the Federal- 
ists, but they only received 14 out of 176 
electoral votes. 

The struggle of Napoleon in Europe 
with the allied powers now gave Jefferson 
an opportunity to inaugurate a foreign 
policy. Enghmd had forbidden all trade 
with the French and their allies, and 
France had in return forbidden all com- 
merce with England and .her colonies. 
Both of these decrees violated our neutral 
rights, and were calculated to destroy our 
commerce, which by this time had become 
quite imposing. 

Congress acted promptly, and on the 21st 
of December passed what is known as the 
Embargo Act, under the inspiration of the 
Republican party, which claimed that the 
only choice of the people lay between the 
embargo and war, and that there was no 
other way to obtain redress fi"om England 
and France. But the promised effects of 
the measure were not realized, and so soon 
as any dissatisfaction was manifested by 
the people, the Federalists made the ques- 
tion a political issue. They declared it 
unconstitutional because it was not limited 
as to time; that it helped England as 
against France (a cunning assertion in 
view of the early love of the Republicans 
for the cause of the French), and that it 
laid violent hands on our home commerce 
and industries. Political agitation in- 
creased the discontent, and public opinion 
at one time turned so strongly against the 
law that it was openly resisted on the 
eastern coast, and treated with almost as 
open contempt on the Canadian border. 
The bill had passed the House by 87 to 
35, the Senate by 19 to 9. In January. 
1809, the then closing administration of 
Jefferson had to change front on the ques- 
tion, and the law w;i:i repealed on the 18th 
of ]\Iarch. The Republicans when they 
changed, went all the way over, and advo- 
cated full protection by the use of a navy, 
of all our rights on the high seas. If the 
Federals could have rc'called their old 
leaders, or retained even a considerable 
portion of their power, the opportunity 



DEMOCRATS A^;l) I'EI) KIl A LS, 



17 



presented by the embargo issue could 
have brought them back to full political 
power, but lacking these leaders, the oi>- 
portuuity passed 



Ut-iuofrntM aud Fedcralfi. 

During the ninth Congress, whicli as- 
sembled on the second of December, 180'), 
the Republicans dropped their name and 
accepted tliat of " Democrats." In all 
their earlier strifes they had been charged 
by their opiioncnts with desiring to run to 
the extremes of the democratic or " mol) 
rule," and fear of too general a belief in 
the truth of the charge led them to denials 
and rejc .tion of a name which the father 
of their party had ever shown a fondness 
for. The earlier dangers which had 
threatened their organization, and the re- 
collection of defeats suffered in their at- 
tempts to establish a government anti-fed- 
eral and confederate in their composition, 
had been greatly modified by later suc- 
cesses, and with a characteristic cuteness 
peculiar to Americans they accepted an 
epithet and sought to turn it to the best 
account. In this they imitated the patriots 
who accepted the epithets in the British 
satirical song of " Yankee Doodle," and 
called themselves Yankees. From the 
ninth Congress the Jeffersonian Republi- 
cans called themselves Democrats, and the 
word Republican passed into disuse until 
later on in the history of our political 
parties, the opponents of the Democracy 
accepted it as a name which well filled the 
meaning of their attitude in the politics of 
the country. 

Mr. Randolph of Roanoke, made the 
first schism in the Republican party under 
Jefferson, when he and three of his friends 
voted against the embargo act. He resisted 
its passage with his usual earnestness, and 
all attempts at reconciling him to the mea- 
sure were unavailing. Self-willed, strong 
in argument and sarcasm, it is believed 
that his cause made it even more desirable 
for the Republicans to change name in 
the hope of recalling some of the more 
wayward " Democrats " who had advoca- 
ted Jacobin democracy in the years gone 
by. The politicians of that day were 
never short of expedients, and no man so 
abounded in them as Jefferson himself. 

Randolph improved his opportunities by 
getting most or the Virginia members to 
act with him against the foreign policy of 
the administration, but he was careful not 
to join the FoderalistvS, and quickly denied 
any leaning tliat way. The first fruit of 
lis faction was to bring forth Monroe as a 
candidate for President against Madison — 
a movement which ]>roved to be quite 
popular in Virginia, but which JefTerson 
flanked by bringing about a reconciliation 



between Monroe and Madison. The now 
usual Congressional caucus followed at 
Washington, and although tiic Virginia 
Legislature in its caucus proviously htdd 
had been unable to decide betweeiiMadi- 
son and Monroe, the Congressional i);)dy 
chose Madison by H'i to 11, the miu >rity 
being divided between Clinton and Mon- 
roe, though the latter could by that time 
hardly be considered ius a candidate. This 
action broke uj) Randolph's faction in 
Virginia, but left so nuicli bitterness be- 
hind it that a large portion attached them- 
selves to the Federalists. In the election 
which followed Madison received 122 elec- 
toral votes against 47 for C. ( '. Pinckiiey, 
of .South Carolina, and G for Ceo. Clinton 
of New York. 

Before Jefferson's administration closed 
he reconimended the passage of an act to 
prohibit the African slave trade after Jan- 
uary 1st, 1808, and it was passed accord- 
ingly. He had also rejected the form of a 
treaty received from the British minister 
Erskine, and did this without the formality 
of submitting it to the Senate — first, be- 
cause it contained no provision on the ob- 
jectionable practice of impressing our sea- 
men ; second, * because it was accompanied 
by a note from the British ministers, by 
which the British government reserved to 
itself the right of releasing itself from the 
stipulations in favor of neutral rights, if 
the United States submitted to the liriti^jh 
decree, or other invasion of those rights by 
France." This rejection of the treaty by 
Jefferson caused public excitement, and 
the Federalists sought to arouse the com- 
mercial community against his action, and 
cited the fact that his own trusted friends, 
Monroe and Pinckney had negotiated it. 
The President's party stood by him, and 
they agreed that submission to the Senate 
wa.s immaterial, as its advice could not 
bind him. This refusal to consider the 
treaty was the first step leading to the war 
of 1812, for embargoes followed, and r>ritain 
openly claimed the right to search Amer- 
ican vessels for her deserting seamen. In 
1807 this question was brought to issue 
by the desertion of five British seamen 
from the Halifax, and their enlistment on 
the U. S. frigate Chesapeake. Four sepa- 
rate demands were made for these men, 
but all of the commanders, knowing the 
firm attitude of .Tefferson's administration 
against the ])ra(tice, refused, as did the 
Secretary of State refuse a fifth demand 
on the part of the British minister. On 
the 23d of June following, while the 
Citesapeake was near the capes of Virginia, 
Capt. Humphreys of the British ship 7>€o- 
pard attempted to search her for deserters. 
Capt. Barron denied the right of search, 
but on being fired ij»lo, lowered his flag, 

*From the StatcsniHU'. Miinual, Vul. 1., b.v Edwin 
Willianu. 



18 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



Humphreys then took four men from the 
Chesapeake, three of whom had previously 
entered the British service, hut were 
Americans by birth, aud had been form- 
ally demanded by 'NV^ashiiigton. The act 
was a direct violation of the international 
law, for a nation's ship at sea like its ter- 
ritory is inviolable. The British govern- 
ment disavowed the act of its officer and 
oflered apology and reparation, which 
were accepted. This event, however, 
strengthened Jefferson's rejection of the 
Monroe-Piuckney treaty, and quickly stop- 
ped adverse political criticism at home. 
Foreign affiiirs remained, however, in a 
complicated state, owing to the wars be- 
tween England and the then successful 
Napoleon, but they in no wise shook the 
firm hold which Jefferson had upon the 
people, nor the prestige of his party. He 
stands in history as one of the best poli- 
ticians our land has ever seen, and then 
as now no one could successfully draw the 
line between the really able politician and 
the statesman. He was accepted as both. 
His administration closed on the 3d of 
March, 1809, when he expressed great 
gratification at being able to retire to pri- 
vate life. 

Mr. Madison succeeded at a time when 
the country, through fears of foreign aggres- 
sion and violence,"was exceedingly gloomy 
and despondent— a feeling not encouraged 
in the least by the statements of the Fed- 
eralists, some of whom then thought politi- 
cal criticism in hours of danger not un- 
patriotic. They described our agriculture 
as discouraged, our fisheries abandoned, 
our commerce restrained, our navy dis- 
mantled, our revenues destroyed at a time 
when war was at any moment probable 
with either France, England or Spain. 

Madison, representing as he did the same 
party, from the first resolved to follow the 
policy of Jefferson, a fact about which there 
was no misunderstanding. He desired to 
avert war as long as possible with England, 
and sought by skilful diplomacy to avert 
the dangers presented by both France and 
England in their attitude Avith neutrals. 
England had declared that a man who 
was once a subject always remained a 
subject, and on this plea based her deter- 
mination to im])ress again into her service 
all deserters from her navy. France, be- 
cause of refusal to accede to claims equally 
at war with our rights, had authorized the 
seizure of all American vessels entering 
the ports of France. In May, 1810, when 
the non-intercourse act had expired, Madi- 
son caused proposals to be made to bcjth 
belligerents, that if either would revoke its 
hostile edict, the non-intercourse act should 
be revived and enforced against the other 
nation. This act had Ijeen passeil l)y the 
tenth Congress as a substitute for the em- 
bargo. France quickly accepted Madison's 



proposal, and received the benefits of the 
act, and the direct result was to increase 
the growing hostility of England, From 
this time forward the negotiations had more 
the character of a diplomatic contest than 
an attemijt to maintain peace. Both coun- 
tries were upon their mettle, and early in 
1811, Mr. Pinckney, the American minister 
to Great Britain, was recalled, and a year 
later a formal declaration of war was made 
by the United States. 

Just prior to this the old issue, made by 
the Republicans against Hamilton's 
scheme for a National Bank, was revived 
by the fact that the charter of the bank 
ceased on the 4th of March, 1811, and an 
attempt was made to recharter it. A bill 
for this purpose was introduced into Con- 
gress, but on the 11th of January, 1811, it 
was indefinitely postponed in the House, 
by a vote of 65 to 64, while in the Senate 
it was rejected by the casting vote of the 
Vice-President, Geo. Clinton, on the 5th 
of February, 1811 — this notwithstanding 
its provisions had been framed or approved 
by Gallatin , the Secretary of the Treasury. 
The Federalists were all strong advocates 
of the measure, and it was so strong that 
it divided some of the Democrats who en- 
joyed a loose rein in the contest so far as 
the administration was concerned, the 
President not specially caring for political 
quarrels at a time when war was threatened 
with a powerful foreign nation. The views 
of the Federalists on this question descend- 
ed to the Whigs some years later, and this 
fact led to the charges that the Whigs 
were but Federalists in disguise. 

The eleventh Congress continued the 
large Democratic majority, as did the 
twelfth, which met on the 4th of Novem- 
ber, 1811, Henry Clay, then an ardent 
supporter of the policy of Madison, suc- 
ceeding to the House speakership. He had 
previously served two short sessions in the 
U. S. Senate, and had already acquired a 
high reputation as an able and fluent debat- 
er. He preferred the House, at that period 
of life, believing his powers better calcu- 
lated to win fame in the more popular rep- 
resentative hall. Calhoun was also in the 
House at this time, and already noted for 
the boldness of his- views and their asser- 
tion. 

In this Congress jealousies arose against 
the political power of Virginia, which had 
already named three of the four Presi- 
dents, each for two terms, and De Witt 
Clinton, the well-known Governor of New 
York, sought through these jealousies to 
create a division which would carry him 
into the Presidency. His efforts were for a 
time warmly seconded by several northern 
and southern states. A few months later 
the Legislature of New York formally 
opened the ball by nominating DeWitt 
Clinton for the Presidency. An address 



THE JEFFERSON DEMOCRATS. 



19 



wiis issiu'il by liis Ciii'inls, Aii^aist 17tli, ISl'i, 
wliiih lias siiK'i* bei-oiiK' known as tlu- ( 'lin- 
toniaii platform, iiiid his followors wi-ri' 
known as Cliiitoniiiii DcniocTats. Theiid- 
dri'ss c'ontaini'(i the th-st public ])roti'st 
against tho nomination oC I'ri'sidcnlial can- 
(lidatos by Conj^ressional (.■aurnsfs. TluTt' 
w;us likewise deelari'il opposition to that 
"otlieial n'^eney whieh preseribed tenets oC 
political faith." The ellbrts of jjartieular 
states to monopolize the principal oflices 
was denounced, iis was the continuance of 
public men for long periods in office. 

Madison was nominated for a second 
t<'rm by a Congressional caucus held at 
Wiushington, in -May, 1S12. John Langdon 
w:us nominated for Vice-President, but as 
he declined on account of age, Elbridge 
(terry of ^lassachusetts, took his place. 
In September of the same year a conren- 
tinn of the opposition, representing eleven 
states, was held in the city of New York, 
which nominated De Witt Clinton, with 
Jared IngersoU for Vice-President. This 
was the first national convention, ])artisan 
in character, and the Federalists have the 
credit of originating and carrying out the 
idea. The election resulted in the success 
of Madison, who received 128 electoral 
votes to Si) for Clinton. 

Though factious strife had been some- 
what rife, le^s attention was paid to poli- 
tii's than to the approaching war. There 
were new Democratic leaders in the lower 
House, and none were more prominent 
than Clay of Kentucky, Calhoun, Cheves 
and Lowndes, all of South Carolina. The 
policy of Jell'erson in reducing the army 
and navy was now greatly deplored, and 
the defenceless condition in which it left 
the country was the partial cause, at least a 
stated cause of the factious feuds which fol- 
lowed. Madison sought to change this 
policy, and he did it at the earnest solici- 
tation of Clay, Calhoun and Lowndes, who 
were the recognized leaders of the war 
party. They had early determined that 
Madison should be directly identified 
with them, and before his second nomina- 
tion had won him over to their more de- 
cided views in favor of war with fjngland. 
He had held back, hoping that diplomacy 
might avert a contest, but when once con- 
vinced that war was inevitable and even 
desirable under the circumstances, his 
official utterances were bold and free. In 
the June following the caucus which re- 
nominated him, he declared in a message 
that our flag was continually insulted on 
the high seas; that the right of searching 
American vessels for British seamen was 
still in practice, and that thousands of 
American citizens had in this way been 
impressed in service on foreign ships ; that 
peacful effortxs at adjustment of the diffi- 
culties had proved abortive, and that the 
British ministry and British emissaries 



had actually been intriguing for the diw- 
mendurmcnt of tlie L'nitjii. 

The act <lcclaring war was apjiroved by 
• he President on the L'^th of June, 1812,. 
and is remarkably short and c((mprehen- 
sive. It was drawn by the attorney-general 
of the I'nited States, William Pinckney, 
and is in the wonis following: — 

"yl« art (Icr/aiini/ W(tr brtirreii the United 
Kini/doiii (if Great liritain and Ireland, and 
the dependencies thereoj] and the United 
Slates of Anierira and their territories. 

" lie it enacted, »tc. That war be, and 
the same is hereby declared to exist be- 
tween the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, 
and the United States of America, and their 
territories; and that the President of the 
Unitetl States is hereby autiiorized to use 
the whole land and naval force of the 
United States to carry the same into effect, 
and to issue to private armed vessels of the 
I'nited States commissions, or letters of 
marque and general rej)risal, in such form 
as he shall think proper, and under the seal 
of the United States, against the vessels, 
goods, and effects, of the government of 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland and the subjects thereof." 

This was a soul-stirring message, but it 
did not rally all the people as it should 
have done. Political jealousies were very 
great, and the frequent defeats of the Fed- 
eralists, while they tended to greatly reduce 
their numbers and weaken their power, 
seemed to strengthen their animosity, and 
they could see nothing good in any act of 
the administration. They held, especially 
in the New England states, that the war had 
been declared by a political party simply, 
and not by the nation, though nearly all of 
the Middle, and all of the Southern and 
^Ve^tern States, warmly supported it. 
Clay estimated that nine-tenths of the peo- 
ple were in favor of the war, and under the 
inspiration of his eloquence and the strong 
state papers of Madison, they doubtless 
wQTe at first. Throughout they felt their 
political strength, and they just as heartily 
returned the bitterness manifestetl by those 
of the Federalists who opjiosed the war, 
branding them a.s enemies of the republic, 
and monarchists who preferred the reign of 
Britain. 

Four Federalist representatives in Con- 
gress went so far as to issue an address, 
opposing the war, the way in which it had 
been declared, and denouncing it as unjust. 
Some of the New England states refused 
the order of the President to support it 
with their militia, and Ma.ssachusetts sent 
j)eace memorials to Congress. 

A peace party wa.s formed with a view to 
array the religious sentiment of the coun- 
try again.st the war, and societies with sim- 
ilar objects were organized by the more 
radical of the Federalists. To such an ex- 



20 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



treme was this opposition carried, that 
some of the citizens of New London, Conn., 
made a practice of giving information to 
the enemy, l)y means of blue lights, of the 
departure of American vessels. 



The Hartford Convention. 

This opposition finally culminated in the 
assembling of a convention at Hartford, at 
which delegates were present from all of the 
New Enghxnd states. They sat for three 
weeks with closed doors, and issued an ad- 
dress which will be found in this volume 
in the book devoted to political platforms. 
It was charged by the Democrats that the 
real object of the convention was to nego- 
tiate a separate treaty of peace, on behalf 
of New England, with Great Britain, but 
this charge was as warmly denied. The 
exact truth has not since been discovered, 
the fears of the participants of threatened 
trials for treason, closing their mouths, if 
their professions were false. The treaty of 
Ghent, which was concluded on December 
14th, 1814, prevented other action by the 
Hartford convention than that stated. It 
had assembled nine days before the treaty, 
which is as follows : 



Treaty of Ghent. 

This treaty was negotiated by the Right 
Honorable James Lord Gambier, Henry 
Goulburn, Esq., and William Adams, Esq., 
on the part of Great Britain, and John 
Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry 
Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gal- 
latin, on behalf of the LTnited States. 

The treaty can be found on p. 218, vol. 
8, of Little & Brown's Statutes at Large. 
The first article provided for the restora- 
tion of all archives, records, or property 
taken by either party from the other dur- 
ing the war. This article expressly pro- 
vides for the restoration of " slaves or other 
private property." The second article pro- 
vided for the cessation of hostilities and 
limitation of time of capture. The third 
article provided for the restoration of 
prisoners of war. 

The fourtli article defined the boundary 
establislied by the treaty of 1783, and pro- 
vided for commissioners to mark the same. 

The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth 
articles established rules to govern the pro- 
ceedings of the commissioners. 

The ninth article bound the United 
States and His Britannic Majesty to end 
all hostilities with Indian tribes, with whom 
they w(>re then resj)ectively at war. 

The tenth article reads as follows: — 

" Whereas the traffic in slaves is irrecon- 
cilable with the principles of humanity 
and justice ; and, whereas, both His ]Ma- 



jesty and the United States are desirous of 
continuing their efforts to promote its entire 
abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the 
contracting parties shall use their best en- 
deavors to accomplish so desirable an ob- 
ject." 

The eleventh and last article provides for 
binding etFect of the treaty, upon the ex- 
change of ratifications. 

The position of New England in the war 
is explained somewhat by her exposed po- 
sition. Such of the militia as served en- 
dured great hardships, and they were al- 
most constantly called from their homes to 
meet new dangers. Distrusting their loy- 
alty, the general government had with- 
held all supplies from the militia of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut for the year 1814, 
and these States were forced to bear the 
burden of supportingthem, at the same time 
contributing their quota of taxes to the 
general government — hardships, by the 
way, not greater than those borne by Penn- 
sylvania and Ohio in the late war for the 
Union, nor half as hard as those borne by 
the border States at the same time. True, 
the coast towns of Massachusetts were sub- 
jected to constant assault from the British 
navy, and the people of these felt that they 
were defenceless. It was on their petition 
that the legislature of Massachusetts final- 
ly, by a vote of 226 to 67, adopted the report 
favoring the calling of the Hartford Con- 
vention. A circular was then addressed to 
the Governors of the other States, with a 
request that it be laid before their legisla- 
tures, inviting them to appoint delegates, 
and stating that the object was to deliber- 
ate upon the dangers to which the eastern 
section was exposed, " and to devise, if 
practicable, means of security and defence 
which might be consistent with the preser- 
vation of their resources from total ruin, 
and not repugnant to their ohligaUons as 
members of the Union.'''' The italicized por- 
tion shows that there was at least then no 
design of forming a separate treaty, or of 
promoting disunion. The legislatures of 
Connecticut and Rhode Island endorsed 
the call and sent delegates. Those of New 
Hampshire and Vermont did not, but de- 
legates were sent by local conventions. 
These delegates, it is hardly necessary to 
remark, were all members of the Federal 
party, and their suspected designs and ac- 
tion made the " Hartford Convention " a 
bye-word and reproach in the mouths of 
Democratic orators for years thereafter. It 
gave to the Democrats, as did the entire 
history of the war, the prestige of superior 
{)atriotism, and they ])rofited by it as long 
iis the memory of the war of 1812 was 
fresh. Indeed, directly after the war, all 
men seemed to keep in constant view the 
reluctance of the Federalists to support the 
war, and their almost open hostility to it 
in New England. Peace brought pros- 



TllK CONGKESSION AL CAUCUS. 



21 



])erity and uU-iity, but not oblivion ol" tbe 
old political issue-s, and this was tlu' bi-- 
{jinninj? of the end of the Federal party. 
ItA decay thereafter wa-s rapid and con- 
stant. 

The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth Con- 
fjres.ses had continued Democratic. The 
fourteenth betran Dec. 4, IS!'), with the 
Democratic majority in the House increased 
to 3U. Clay iiad taken part in nej^otiatinjx 
the treaty, and on his return was attain 
elected to the House, and was for the third 
time electetl speaker. Though G.') Feder- 
alists had been elected, but 10 were given 
to Federal candidates for speaker, this 
party now showing a strong, and under the 
circumstances, a very natural desire to 
rub out party lines. The internal taxes 
and the postage rates were reduced. 



The Protective TarllT. 

President Madison, in his message, had 
urged upon Congress a revision of the 
tariff, and pursuant to his recommendation 
what was at the time called a protective 
tariff was passed. Even Calhoun then 
supported it, while Clay proclaimed that 
protection must no longer be secondary to 
revenue, but of prinuiry importance. The 
rates fixed, however, were insufficient, and 
many American manufactures were soon 
frustrated by excessive importations of for- 
eign manufactures. The position of Cal- 
houn and Lowndes, well known leaders 
from South Carolina, is explained by the 
fact that just then the proposal of a pro- 
tective tar itf was popular in the south, in 
view of the liea\'y duties upon raw cotton 
which England then imposed. The Feder- 
alists in weakness changed their old posi- 
tion when they found the Democrats advo- 
cating a tariff, and the latter quoted and 
published quite extensively Alexander 
Hamilton's early report in favor of it. 
Webster, in the House at the time and a 
leading Federalist, was against the bill. 
The parties had exchanged positions on 
the question. 

Peace brought with it another exchange 
of positions. President Madison, although 
he had vetoed a bill to establish a National 
Bank in 181.'3, was now (in 1816) anxious 
for the establishment of such an institution. 
Clay had also changed his views, and 
claimed that the experiences of the war 
showed the necessity for a national curren- 
cy. The bill met with strong opposition 
from a few Democrats and nearly all of the 
Federalists (the latter having changed po- 
sition on the question since 1811), but it 
passed and was signed by the President. 

A bill to promote internal improvements, 
advocated by Clay, was at first fiiv(jred by 
Madison, but his mind changed and he ve- 
toed the measure — the first of its kind 
passed by Congress. 



The Democratic. meniberH of (^)ngre^>8, 
before the adjournment of Uil- first session, 
held a caucus for the nomination of can- 
didates to succeed Madison and (Jerry. 
It w;ls understood that the retiring officers 
and their confidential friends favored 
.lames Monroe of Virginia. Their wi>lies 
were carrie<l out, but not witiiout a strug- 
gle, \Vm. 11. Crawfonl of (leorgi:* receiv- 
ing .'>4 votes against (>!'> for Monroe. Tiie 
Democrats opposed to Virginia's domina- 
tion in the j)olitics of the country, made a 
.second effort, and directed it against Monroe 
in the caucus. Aaron Burr denounced 
him as an improper and incoinj)etent can- 
didate, and joined in the jirotestthen made 
again.st any nomination by a C'(Migressioiuil 
caucus; he succeeding in getting nineteen 
Democrats to stay out of the caucus. Later 
he advised renewed attempts to break 
ilown the Congressional caucus system, and 
before the nomination favored Andrew 
Jackson as a means to that end. Daniel 
B. Tompkins was nominated by the Demo- 
crats for Vice-President. The Federalists 
named Rufus King of New York, but in 
the election which followed he received 
but 24 out of 217 electoral votes. The 
Federalists divided their votes for Vice- 
President. 

Monroe was inaugurated on the 14th of 
March, 1817, the oath being administered 
by Chief Justice Marshall. The inaugural 
address was so liberal in its tone that it 
seemed to give satisfaction to men of all 
shades of political opinion. The questions 
which had arisen dtiring the war no longer 
had any practical significance, while the 
people were anxious to give the disturbing 
ones which ante-dated at least a season of 
rest. Two great and opposing policies had. 
previously obtained, and singularly enough 
each seemed exactly adapted to the times 
when they were triumphant The Fed- 
eral power had been asserted in a govern- 
ment which had gathered renewed strength 
during what was under the circumstances 
a great and perilous war, and the exi- 
gencies of that war in many instances 
compelled the Republicans or Democrats, 
or the Democratic-Republicans as some 
still called them, to concede points which 
had theretofore been in sharp dispute, and 
they did it with that facility which only 
Americans can command in emergencies: 
yet as a party they kept firm hold of the 
desire to enlarge the scope of liberty in it.s 
application to the citizens, and just here 
kept their original landmark. 

It is not singular then that the adminis- 
tration of jMonroe opened what h:vs ever 
since been known in politics as the " Era 
of Good PVeling." Party differences ra- 
pidly subsided, and political serenity was 
the order of the day. Monroe ma<le a tour 
of the States, with the direct object of in- 
specting fortifications and means of de- 



22 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



fence, and in this way spread the good 
feeling, without seeming to have any such 
©bject. He was everywliere favorably 
greeted by the people, and received by 
delegations which in many instances \yere 
specially made up of all shades of opinion. 

The Cabinet was composed of men of 
rare political distinction, even in that day 
of great men. It was probably easier to 
be great then than now, just as it is easier 
to be a big political hero in the little State 
of Delaware than it is in the big States of 
New York or Pennsylvania. Yet these 
men were universally accepted as great 
without regard to their localities. All were 
Republicans or Democrats, with John 
Quincy Adams as Secretary of State, Wm. 
H. Crawford (Monroe's competitor for the 
nomination) as Secretary of the Treasury, 
John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, 
William Wirt as Attorney General. All 
of these united with the President in the 
general desire to call a halt upon the 
political asperities which were then recog- 
nized as a public evil. On one occasion, 
during his tour, the citizens of Keunebunk 
and its vicinity, in Maine, having in their 
address alluded to the prospects of a politi- 
cal union among the people in support of 
the administration, the President said in 
reply : 

" You are pleased to express a confident 
hope that a spirit of mutual conciliation 
may be one of the blessings which may re- 
sult from my administration. This in- 
deed would be an eminent blessing, and I 
pray it may be realized. Nothing but 
union is waiting to make us a great people. 
The present time affords the happiest 
presage that this union is fast consumma- 
ting. It cannot be otherwise ; I daily see 
greater proofs of it. The further I ad- 
vance in my progress in the country, the 
more I perceive that we are all Americans 
— that we compose but one family — that 
our republican institutions Avill be sup- 
ported and perpetuated by the united zeal 
and patriotism of all. Nothing could 
give me greater satisfaction than to behold 
a perfect union among ourselves — a union 
which is necessary to restore to social in- 
tercourse its former charms, and to render 
our happiness, as a nation, unmixed and 
complete. To ])romote this desirable re- 
sult requires no compromise of principle, 
and I promise to give it my continued at- 
tention, and my best endeavors." 

Even General Jackson, since held up to 
public view by historians as the most 
austere and " stalwart " of all politicians, 
caught the sweet infection of peace, and 
thus advised President Monroe:— 

"Now is tlie time to exterminate that 
monster, called party spirit. By select- 
ing [for cal)inet officers] characters most 
conspicuous for their probity, virtue, 
capacity, and firmness, without- regard to 



party, you will go far to, if not entirely, 
eradicate those feelings, which, on former 
occasions, threw so many obstacles in the 
way of government. The chief magis- 
trate of a great and powerful nation should 
never indulge in party feelings. His con- 
duct should be liberal and disinterested ; 
always bearing in mind, that he acts for the 
whole and not a part of the community." 

This advice had been given with a view 
to influence the appointment of a mixed 
political Cabinet, but while Monroe pro- 
fessed to believe that a free government 
could exist without political parties, he 
nevertheless sought to bring all of the peo- 
ple into one political fold, and that the 
Democratic. Yet he certainly and plainly 
sought to allay factions in his own party, 
and with this view selected Crawford for 
the Treasury — the gentleman who had 
been so warmly suj^ported in the nomina- 
ting struggle by the Clintonians and by all 
who objected to the predominating in- 
fluence of Virginia in national politics. 

Monroe, like his immediate predecessor, 
accepted and acted upon the doctrines of 
the new school of Republicans as rei)re- 
sented by Clay and Calhoun, both of whom 
still favored a tarift', while Clay had be- 
come a warm advocate of a national sys- 
tem of internal improvements. These two 
statesmen thus early differed on some 
questions, but they were justly regarded as 
the leading friends and advisers of the ad- 
ministration, for to both still clung the 
patriotic recollections of the war which 
they had so warmly advocated and sup- 
ported, and the issue of which attested 
their wisdom. Clay preferred to be called 
a Republican ; Calhoun preferred to be 
called a Democrat, and just then the terms 
were so often exchanged and mingled that 
history is at fault in the exact designation, 
while tradition is colored by the bias of 
subsequent events and lives. 

Monroe's first inaugural leaned toward 
Clay's scheme of internal improvements, 
but questioned its constitutionality. Clay 
was next to Jefferson the most original of 
all our statesmen and politicians. He was 
prolific in measures, and almost resistless 
in their advocacy. From a political stand- 
point he Avas the most direct author of the 
war of 1812, for his advocacy mainly 
brought it to the issue of arms, which 
through him and CaUioun were substituted 
for diplomacy. And Calhoun then stood 
in broader view before the country than 
since. His sectional pride and bias had 
been rarely aroused, and like Clay he 
seemed to act for the country as an en- 
tirety. Subsequent sectional issues changed 
the views held of him by the people of 
both the North and South. 

We have said that Monroe leaned 

toward internal improvements, but he 

I thought Congress was not clothed by the 



THE. MUNRUK DOCTRINE. 



23 



Constitution with the power to iiutliorize 
nieusures supporting it, iiiid when the op- 
portunity was presented (Muy 4, IH22) he 
vetoed the bill " tor the preservation and 
repair of the Cuinherlatul road," and ae- 
coinpanied the veto with a most elaborate 
message in wliieh he diseussed the eonsti- 
tutional aspcets of the question. A plain 
majority of the friends of the administra- 
tion, under tlie leadership of Clay, sup- 
jiorted the theory of internal im])rove- 
ments from the time the administration 
began, but were reluetant to permit atlivi- 
sion of the party on the (jui'stion. 

Mississippi and Illinois were admitted 
to the l^nion during the "Era of (rood 
Feeling," witiiout serious politieal disturb- 
sinee, while Alabama was authorized to form 
a state eonstitution and government, and 
Arkansas was authorized as a separate 
territorial government from ])art ot Mis- 
souri. In ISli) President Monroe made a 
tour through the Southern States to ex- 
amine their defenses and see and get ae- 
quainted with the i)eoi)le. From the first 
inauguration of ^lonroe up to 1819 ]>arty 
lines ean hardly be said to have existed, 
but in the sixteenth session of Congress, 
whieh continued until May, 1820, new 
questions of national interest arose, pro- 
minent among whieh were additional pro- 
teetive duties for our nianufaetures ; inter- 
nal improvements by the government ; 
aeknowlodgments of the independenee of 
the South Amerieau States. 



Tlic Moiu-oe Doctrine. 

Upon tne question of reeognizing the in- 
dependenee of the South American States, 
the President made a record which has 
ever since been quoted and flenominated 
" The Monroe Doctrine." It is embodied 
in the following a])stract of his seventh 
annual message, under date of Dec. 2d, 
1828: 

" It was stated, at the commencement of 
the liust session, that a great eflfbrt was then 
making in Spain and Portugal to improve 
the condition of the people of those coun- 
trie-<, and that it appeared to be conduct- 
ed with extraordinary moderation. It 
•need scarcely be remarked tliat the result 
has been, so far, very different from what 
was then anticipated. Of events in that 
quarter of the globe, with which we have 
so much intercourse, and from which we 
derive our origin, we have always been 
anxious and interested spectators. The 
citizens of the United States cherish 
sentiment.s the most friendly in favor of the 
liberty and happiness of their fellow men 
on that side ot the Atlantic. In the wars 
of the European powers, in matters relat- 
ing to themselves, we have never taken any 
part, nor does it comport with our policy 



to flo so. It is only when rights are in- 
vaded or seriously menaced, tliat we re- 
sent injuries, or make preparation for our 
dcHense. With the moveiniiits in this 
hemisphere we are of nect-ssity more im- 
mediately connected, and by causes which 
must be obvious to all en]ight«iic(| uiid 
imi)artial observers. The political system 
of the allied powers is essentially different 
in this respect from that oi' America. This 
dillerence i>roceeds from that which existn 
in their res])eetive governments. And to 
the defense of our own, which hiis been 
achieved by the loss of so nnich blood and 
treasure, and nuitured by the wisdom of 
their most enlightened citizens, and under 
which we have enjoyed unexampled felici- 
ty, this whole nation is devoted. We owe 
it, therefore, to candor, and to the amica- 
ble relations existing between the United 
States and those powers, to declare, that 
we should consider any attempt on their 
l)art to extend their system to any portion 
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our 
peace and safety. With the existing colo- 
nies or dependencies of any Euroj)ean 
power we have not interfered, and shall 
not interfere. But with the governments 
who have declared their independence, and 
maintained it, and whose independence we 
have, on great consideration, and on just 
principles, acknowledged, we could not 
view any interi)osition for the purpose of 
oi)pressing them, or controlling in any 
other manner their destiny, by any Euro- 
pean power, in any other light than as the 
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 
toward the United States. In the war 
between those new governments and Spain, 
we declared our neutrality at the time of 
(heir recognition, and to this we have ad- 
hered, and shall continue to adhere, pro- 
vided no change shall occur which, in the 
judgment of the com])etent authorities of 
this government, shall make a corres- 
jionding change on the part of the United 
States indispensable to their security. 

The late events in Spain and Portugal 
show that Europe is still unsettled. Of 
this important fact no stronger proof can 
be adduced, than that the allied powers 
shf)uld have thought it proper, on a ]irin- 
ciple satisfactory to themselves, to have 
interposed by force in the internal con- 
cerns of Spain. To what extent such in- 
terposition may be carried, on the same 
principle, is a question to which all inde- 
pendent ])owers, whose governments differ 
from theirs, are interested ; even those most 
remote, and surely none more so than the 
United States. Our policy in regard to 
Europe, which was adopted at an early 
stage of the wars which have so long agi- 
tated that quarter of the globe, neverthe- 
less remains the same, which is, not to in- 
terfere in the internal concerns of any 
of its power- ; to consider the government, 



24 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



de facto, as the legitimate government for 
us: to cultivate friendly relations with it, 
and to preserve those relations by a frank, 
firm, and manly policy ; meeting, in all 
instances, the just claims of every power, 
submitting to injuries from none. But in 
regard to these continents, circumstances 
are eminently and consj)icuously different. 
It is impossible that the allied powers 
should extend their political system to any 
portion ot either continent without endan- 
gering our peace and happiness ; nor can 
any one believe, that our southern breth- 
ren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of 
their own accord. It is equally impossible, 
therefore, that we should behold such 
interposition, in any form, with indiffer- 
ence. If Ave look to the comparative 
strength and resources of Spain and those 
new governments, and their distance from 
each other, it must be obvious that she can 
never subdue them. It is still the true 
policy of the United States to leave the 
parties to themselves, in the hope that 
other powers will pursue the same course." 
The second election of Monroe, in 1820, 
was accomplished without a contest. Out 
of 231 electoral votes, but one was cast 
against him, and that for John Quincy 
Adams. Mr. Tompkins, the candidate for 
Vice-President, was only a little less for- 
tunate, there being 14 scattering votes 
against him. Neither party, if indeed 
there was a Federalist party left made any 
nominations. 



The Missouri Compromise. 

The second session of the 17th Con- 
gress opened on the 4th day of March, 
1820, with .Tames Monroe at the head of 
the Executive Department of the Govern- 
ment, and the Democratic party in the 
majority in both branches of the Federal 
Legislature. The Cabinet at that time 
was composed of the most brilliant minds 
of the country, indeed as most justly re- 
marked by Senator Thomas H. Benton in 
his published review of the events of that 
period, it would be difficult to find in any 
government, in any country, at any time, 
more talent and experience, more dignity 
and decorum, more purity of private life, a 
larger mass of information, and more ad- 
diction to business, than was comprised in 
the list of celel^rated names then consti- 
tuting the executive department of the 
government. The legislative department 
was equally impressive. The exciting and 
agitating question then pending before 
Congress was on the admission of the 
State of ^Missouri into the Federal Union, 
the subject of the issue being the attempted 
tacking on of conditions restricting sla- 
very within her limits. She was admitted 
without conditions under the so-called 
compromise, which abolished it in certain 



portions of the then province of Louisiana. 
In this controversy, the compromise was 
sustained and carried entirely by the Dem- 
ocratic Senators and members from the 
Southern and slave-holding States aided 
and sanctioned by the Executive, and it 
was opposed by fifteen Senators from non- 
slave-holding States, who represented the 
opposite side on the political questions of 
the day. It passed the House by a close vote 
of 86 to 82. It has been seriously ques- 
tioned since whether this act was constitu- 
tional. The real struggle was political, and 
for the balance of power. For a while it 
threatened the total overthrow of all po- 
litical parties upon principle, and the sub- 
stitution of geographical parties discrimi- 
nated by the slave line, and thus destroy- 
ing the proper action of the Federal gov- 
ernment, and leading to a separation of 
the States. It was a federal movement, ac- 
cruing to the benefit of that party, and at 
first carried all the Northern democracy in 
its current, giving the supremacy to their 
adversaries. When this effect was per- 
ceived, democrats from the northern non 
slave-holding States took early opportu- 
nity to prevent their own overthrow, by 
voting for the admission of the States on 
any terms, and thus prevent the eventual 
separation of the States in the establish- 
ment of geographical parties divided by a 
slavery and anti-slavery line. 

The year 1820 marked a period of finan- 
cial distress in the country, which soon 
became that of the government. The army 
was reduced, and the general expenses of 
the departments cut down, despite which 
measures of economy the Congress deemed 
it necessary to authorize the President to 
contract for a loan of five million dollars. 
Distress was the cry of the day ; relief the 
general demand, the chief demand com- 
ing Irom debtors to the Government for 
public lands purchased under the then 
credit system, this debt at that time ag- 
gregating twenty-three millions of dollars. 
The banks failed, money vanished, instal- 
ments were coming due which could not 
be met ; and the opening of Congress in 
November, 1820, was saluted by the arrival 
of memorials from all the new States pray- 
ing for the relief to the purchaser of the 
public lands. The President referred to it 
in his annual message of that year, and 
Congress passed a measure of relief by 
changing the system to cash sales instead 
of credit, reducing the price of the lands, 
and allowing present debtors to apply pay- 
ments already made to portions of the 
land purchased, relinquishing the remain- 
der. Applications were made at that 
time for the establishment of the pre- 
emptive system, but without effect ; the 
new States continued to press the question 
and finally prevailed, so that now the pre- 
emptive principle has become a fixed pail 



THE TARIFF — AMERICAN SYSTEM. 



25 



of our IuikI sy.-iti'in, pt-rmaiu'iitly incorpo- 
rated witli it, ami to tbt- e<iual ucivautuge 
of tiie settler and tlu' j^overnnu'iit. 

The session oflS20-L'l, is reniarlcahle as 
being tiie first at wliicli any proposition 
wius made in Congress lor tlie oeiupation 
and settlement of our territory on the 
Columbia river— the only part then owned 
by the Uniteil States on the I'aeific coast. 
It was made by Dr. Floyd, a re{)re.sentsv- 
tive from Virginia, who argued that the 
establishment of a eivilized power on the 
American coast of the I'acitic could not 
fail to produce great and wonderful bene- 
fits not only to our own country, but to 
the people of Eastern Asia, China and 
Japan on the opposite side of the Pacific 
Ocean, and that the valley of the Colum- 
bia might become the granary of China 
and Japan. This movement suggested to 
Senator Benton, to move, for the first time 
publicly in the United States, a resolution 
to send ministers to the Oriental States. 

At this time treaties with Mexico and 
Spain were ratified, by which the United 
States acquired Florida and ceded Texas ; 
these treaties, together with the Missouri 
compromise — a measure contemporaneous 
with them — (.».xtinguislied slave soil in all 
the United States territory west of the 
Mississippi, except in that portion which 
was to constitute the State of Arkansas ; 
and, including the extinction in Texas 
conse(iuent upon its cession to a non-slave- 
holding ])ower, constituted the largest ter- 
ritorial abolition of slavery that was ever 
up to that period effected by any political 
power of any nation. 

The outside view of the slave question in 
the United States, at this time, is that the 
exten-;ion of slavery was then arrested, 
circumscribed, and confined within narrow 
territorial limits, while free States were 
permitted an almost unlimited expansion. 

In 1822 a law passed Congress abolish- 
ing the Indian factory system, which had 
been established during Washington's ad- 
ministration, in 1796, under which the 
(rovernnient acted as a factor or agent for 
the sale of supplies to the Indians and the 
purchase of furs from them ; this branch of 
the service then belonged to the depart- 
ment of the Secretary of War. The abuses 
discovered in it led to the discontinuance 
of that system. 

The Presidential election of 1824 was 
approaching, the candidates were in the 
field, their respective friends active and 
busy, and popular topics for the canvass in 
earnest requisition. Congress was full of 
projects for different objects of internal 
improvement, mainly in roads and canals, 
and the friends of each candidate exertetl 
themselves in rivalry of each other, under 
the supposition that their opinions would 
Btand for those of their principals. An act 
for the i)reservation of the Cumberland 



Road, which pstssed both houses of CongrtwH, 
met with a veto from President Monroe, 
accompanied by a state paper in e.xposi- 
tio" ot his opinions upon the whole sub- 
ject of Federal interference in matters of 
inter state commerce and roads and canals, 
lie discus.sed the mciusure in all its bear- 
ings, and i)lainly showed it to be uncon- 
stitiuionai. After stating the question, he 
examined it under every head (»f constitu- 
tional derivation under which its a<lvo- 
cates claimed the power, and fouml it to 
be granted by no one of them and virtually 
prohibited by some of them. This was 
then and hius since been considered to be 
the most elaborate and thoroughly con- 
sidered opinion upon the general question 
which has ever been delivered by any 
American statesman. This great state pa- 
per, delivered at a time when internal im- 
provement by the federal government had 
become an issue in the canvii.'^s for the 
Presidency and was ardently advocated by 
three of the candidates and (jualified by 
two others, had an immense current in its 
power, carrying with it many of the old 
strict constructionists. 

The revision of the tariff, with a view to 
the protection of home industry, and to the 
establishment of what was then called 
" The American System," was one of the 
large subjects before Congress at the ses- 
sion of 1828-24, and was the regular com- 
mencement of the heated debates on that 
question which afterwards ripened into a. 
serious difficulty between the federal gov- 
ernment and some of the Southern States. 
The presidential election being then de- 
j)ending, the subject became tinctured with 
party politics, in which so far as that in- 
gredient was concerned, and was not con- 
trolled by other considerations, members 
divided pretty much on the line which al- 
ways divided them on a question of con- 
structive powers. The protection of do- 
mestic industry not being among the pow- 
ers granted, was looked for in the inciden- 
tal ; and denied by the strict construction- 
ists to be a substantive term, to be exer- 
cised for the direct purpose of protection ; 
but admitted by all at that time and ever 
since the first tariff act of 1789, to be an 
incident to the revenue raising power, and 
an incident to be regarded in the exercise 
of that power. Revenue the oliject, pro- 
tection the incident, had been the rule in 
the earlier tariffs ; now that rule was sought 
to be reversed, and to make protection the 
object of tlie law, and revenue the inci- 
dent. j\Ir. Henry Clay was the leader in 
the proposed revision and the champion of 
the American system ; he was ably sup- 
ported in the House by many able and 
eftcctive speakers ; who based their argu- 
ment on the general distress then alleged to 
b(! prevalent in the country. Mr. Daniel 
Webster was the leading speaker on the 



26 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



other side, and disputed the universality 
of the distress which had been described ; 
and contested the propriety ofhigli or pro- 
hibitory duties, in the present active and 
intelligent state of the world, to stimulate 
industry and manufacturing enterprise. 

The bill was curried by a close vote in 
both Houses. Though brought forward 
avowedly for the protection of domestic 
manufactures, it was not entirely supported 
on that ground ; an increase of revenue 
being the motive with some, the public 
debt then being nearly ninety millions. 
An increased protection to the products of 
several States, as lead in Missouri and Illi- 
nois, hemp in Kentucky, iron in Pennsyl- 
vania, wool in Ohio and New York, com- 
manded many votes for the bill ; and t:he 
impending presidential election had its in- 
fluence in its lavor. 

Two of the candidates, Messrs. Adams 
and Clay, voted for and avowedly supported 
General Jackson, who voted for the bill, 
was for it, as tending to give a home sup- 
ply of the articles necessary in time of war, 
and as raising revenue to pay the public 
debt ; Mr. Crawford was opposed to it, and 
Mr. Calhoun had withdrawn as a Presiden- 
tial candidate. The Southern planting 
States were dissatisfied, believing that the 
new burdens upon imports which it im- 
posed, fell upon the producers of the ex- 
ports, and tended to enrich one section of 
the Union at the expense of another. 
The attack and support of the bill took 
much of a sectional aspect ; Virginia, the 
two Carolinas, Georgia, and some others, 
being unanimous against it. Pennsylva- 
nia, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky being 
unanimous for it. Massachusetts, which 
up to this time had no small influence in 
commerce, voted, with all, except one 
member, against it. With this sectional 
aspect, a tariff for protection, also began to 
assume a political aspect, being taken un- 
der the care of the ])arty, afterwards de- 
nominated as Whig. The bill was ap- 
proved by President Monroe; a proof that 
that careful and strict constructionist of 
the constitution did not consider it as de- 
prived of its revenue character by the de- 
gree of protection which it extended. 

A subject which at the present time is 
exciting much criticism, viz: proposed 
amendments to the constitution relative to 
the election of President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, had its origin in movements in that 
direction taken by leading Democrats dur- 
ing the campaign of 1S24. The electoral 
college has never been since the early elec- 
tions, an independent body free to select 
a President and Vice-President; though 
in theory they have been vested with such 
powers, in practice they have no such prac- 
tical power over the elections, and have 
had none since their institution. In every 
ca»e the elector has been an instrument, 



bound to obey a particular impulsion, and 
disobedience to which would be attended 
with infamy, and with every penalty which 
public indignation could inflict. From the 
beginning they have stood pledged to vote 
for the candidate indicated by the public 
will ; and have proved not only to be use- 
less, but an inconvenient intervention be- 
tween the people and the object of their 
choice. Mr. McDuffie in the House of 
Representatives and Mr. Benton in the 
Senate, proposed amendments ; the mode 
of taking the direct vote to be in districts, 
and the persons receiving the greatest 
number of votes for President or Vice- 
President in any district, to count one vote 
for such office respectively which is noth- 
ing but substituting the candidates them- 
selves for their electoral representatives. 

In the election of 1824 four candidates 
were before the people for the office of 
President, General Jackson, John Quincy 
Adams, William H. Crawford and Henry 
Clay. None of them received a majority 
of the 261 electoral votes, and the election 
devolved upon the House of Representa- 
tives. John C. Calhoun had a majority of 
the electoral votes for the office of Vice- 
President, and was elected. Mr. Adams 
was elected President by the House of 
Representatives, althougli General Jack- 
son was the choice of the people, having 
received the greatest number of votes at 
the general election. The election of Mr. 
Adams was perfectly constitutional, and as 
such fully submitted to by the people ; but 
it was a violation of the demos krateo prin- 
ciple; and that violation was equally re- 
buked. All the representatives who voted 
against the will of their constituents, lost 
their favor, and disappeared from public 
life. The representation in the House of 
Representatives was largely changed at 
the first general election, and presented a 
full opposition to the ncAV President. Mr. 
Adams himself was injured by it, and at 
the ensuing presidential election was beat- 
en by General Jackson more than two to 
one. 

Mr. Clay, who took the lead in the 
House for Mr. Adams, and afterwards took 
upon himself the mission of reconciling the 
people to his election in a series of public 
s])eeches, was himself cripjiled in the 
effort, lost his jilace in the democratic par- 
ty, and joined the Whigs (then called the 
national rei)ublicans). The democratic 
])rinciple was victor over the theory of the 
Constitution, and beneficial results ensued. 
It vindicated the people in their right and 
their power. It re-established parties 
upon the basis of principle, and drew anew 
party lines, then almost obli-terated under 
the fusion of parties during the "era of 
good feeling," and the efforts of leading 
men to make personal parties for them- 
selves. It showed the conservative power 



TENURE OF OFFICE— ELIGIBILITY 



27 



of our goverment to lie in tlu' people, more 
than ill its lunstitutetl lUitliorities. It 
Hhowed that they were eapiil)le of exercis- 
ing the function of self-government, aiul 
histly, it assumed the supremacy of the de- 
mocracy for a longtime, and until lost by 
causes to be referred to hereafter. Tiie 
Presidential election of lS24is remarkable 
under another aspect — its results cautioneil 
all puhlic men against fnlure attempts to 
govern presidential elections in the House 
of Representatives; and it put an end to 
the practice of caucus lunninations for the 
I'residency by mcmliers of Congress. This 
mode of concentrating public opinion be- 
gan to be practiced as the eminent nu'u of 
the Revolution, to whom ijublic opinion 
awarded a preference, were passing away, 
and when new men, of mi)re equal preten- 
sions, were coming upon the stage. It was 
tried several times with success and general 
approbation, because public sentiment was 
followed — not led — by the caucus. It was 
attempted in 1S24 and failed ; all the op- 
ponents of Mr. Crawford, by their joint 
ellbrts, succeeded, and justly in the fact 
though not in the motive, in remlering 
these Congress caucus nominations odious 
to the people, and broke them down. 
They were dropped, and a different mode 
adopted — that of party nominations by 
conventions of delegates from the States. 

The administration of Mr. Adams com- 
menced with his inaugural address, in 
which the chief topic was that of internal 
national improvement by the federal gov- 
ernnaent. This declared policy of the ad- 
ministration furnished a ground of opposi- 
tion against Mr. Adams, and went to the 
reconstruction of parties on the old line of 
strict, or hititudinous, construction of the 
Constitution. It was clear from the begin- 
ning that the new administration was to 
have a settled and strong opposition, and 
that founded in principles of government 
— the same principles, under different 
forms, which had discriminated jjarties at 
the commencement of the federal govern- 
ment. Men of the old school — survivors 
of the contest of the Adams and Jefferson 
times, with some exceptions, divided ac- 
cordingly—the federalists going for Mr. 
.Adams, the republicans against him, witli 
the mass of the younger generation. The 
Senate by a decided iiuijority, and the 
House by a strong minority, were opposed 
to the policy of the new President. 

In 1826 occurred the famous debates in 
the Senate and the House, on the proposed 
Congress of American States, to contract 
alliances to guard against ami prevent the 
establishment of any future European co- 
lony within its liorders. The mission 
though sanctioned wa,s never acted upon 
or carried out. It was authorized by verv 
nearly a party vote, the democracv as a 
party being against it The Presideiit, Mr. 



Adams, stated the objects of tiie Congress 
to be aa follows: "An agreement between 
all the parties represented at tiie meeting, 
that each will guard, by its own means, 
against the establishment of any future 
Kurooean colony within its own borders, 
may be advisable. This was, more than 
two years since, announced by my prede- 
cessor to the world, as a j>rinciple result- 
ing from the emancijtation of both the 
.\merican continents. It v„ay \,e .so de- 
veloped to the new southern nations, that 
they may feel it as an essential appendage 
to their independence." 

Mr. Adams had been a meml)er of Mr. 
Monroe's cal)inet, filling the department 
from which the doctrine would emanate. 
The enunciation by him as above of this 
"Monroe Doctrine," as it is called, is very 
different from what it has of late been sup- 
posed to be, as binding the United Statea 
to guard all the territory of the New World 
from European colonization. The mes- 
sage above quoted was written at a time 
when the doctrine as eimnciated by the 
former Presid(^nt through the then Secre- 
tary was Iresh in the mind of the latter, 
and when he himself in a communication 
to the American Senate was laying it down 
for the adoption of all the American na- 
tions in a general congress of their depu- 
ties. According to President Adams, this 
"Monroe Doctrine" (according to which it 
has been of late believed that the United 
States were to stand guard over the two 
Americas, and repulse all intrusive colo- 
nists from their shores), was entirely con- 
fined to our own borders; that it was only 
proposed to get the other States of the New 
NVorld to agree that, each for itself, and by 
its own means, should guard its own terri- 
tories ; and, consequently, that the United 
States, so far from extending gratuitous 
protection to the territories of other States, 
would neither give, nor receive, aid in any 
such enterprise, but that each should use 
its own means, within its own borders, for 
its own exemption from European colonial 
intrusion. 

No question in its day excited more in- 
temperate discussion, excitement, and feel- 
ing between the Executive and the Senate, 
and none died out so quickly, than this, 
relative to the jirojjosed congress of Ameri- 
can nations. The chief advantage to be 
derived from its retrospect — and it is a real 
one — is a view of the firmness with which 
the minority maintained the old policy of 
the United States, to avoid entangling al- 
liances and interference with the affairs of 
other nations ; and the exposition, by one 
so competent as Mr. Adams, of the true 
scope and meaning of the Monroe doc- 
trine. 

At the se,ssion of 1825-26 attempt waa 
again made to procure an amendment to 
the Constitution, 'ii relation to the mod» 



28 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of election of President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, so as to do away with all intermedi- 
ate agencies, and give the election to the 
direct vote of the ^Jeople. In the Senate 
the matter was referred to a committee who 
reported amendments dispensing with 
electors, providing for districts equal in 
number to the whole number of Senators 
and Representatives to which the State 
was entitled in Congress, and obviating all 
excuses for caucuses and conventions to 
concentrate public opinion by providing 
that in the event of no one receiving a ma- 
jority of the whole number of district votes 
cast, that a second election should be held 
limited to the two persons receiving the 
highest number of votes; and in case of an 
equal division of votes on the second elec- 
tion then the House of Representatives 
shall choose one of them for President, as 
is prescribed by the Constitution. The 
idea being that the first election, if not re- 
sulting in any candidate receiving a ma- 
jority, should stand for a popular nomina- 
tion — a nomination by the people them- 
selves, out of which the election is almost 
sure to be made on the second trial. The 
same plan was suggested for choosing a 
Vice-President, except that the Senate was 
to finally elect, in case of failure to choose 
at first and second elections. The amend- 
ments did not receive the requisite support 
of two-thirds of either the Senate or the 
House. This movement was not of a par- 
tisan character ; it was equally supported 
and opposed respectively by Senators and 
Representatives of both parties. Substan- 
tially the same plan was recommended by 
President] Jackson in his first annual mes- 
sage to Congress, December 8, 1829. 

It is interesting to note that at this Ses- 
sion of 1825 and '26, attempt was made by 
the Democrats to pass a tenure of office 
bill, as applicable to government em- 
ployees and office-holders ; it provided 
that in all nominations made by the 
President to the Senate, to fill vacancies 
occasioned by an exercise of the Presi- 
dent's power to remove from office, the 
fact of the removal shall be stated to the 
Senate at the same time that the nomina- 
tion is made, with a statement of the rea- 
sons for Avhich such officer may have been 
removed." It was also sought at the same 
time to amend the Constitution to prohibit 
the appointment of any member of Con- 
gress to any federal office of trust or profit, 
during the period for which he was elec- 
ted ; the design being to make the mem- 
bers wholly independent of the Executive, 
and not subservient to the latter, and in- 
capable of receiving favors in the form of 
bestowals of official patronage. 

The tariff of 1828 is an era in our politi- 
cal legislation; from it the doctrine of 
"nullification" originated, and from tliat 
date began a serious division between the 



North and the South. This tariflP law was 
projected in the interest of the woolen 
manufacturers, but ended by including all 
manufacturing interests. The passage oi 
this measure was brought about not because 
it was favored by a majority, but because 
of political exigencies. In the then ap- 
I^roaching presidential election, Mr. 
Adams, who was in favor of the " Ameri- 
can System," supported by Mr. Clay (his 
Secretary of State) was opposed by General 
Jackson. This tariff" was made an admin- 
istration measure, and became an issue in 
the canvass. The New England States, 
which had formerly favored free trade, on 
account of their commercial interests, 
changed their policy, and, led by Mr. 
Webster, became advocates of the protec- 
tive system. The question of protective 
tariff" had now not only become political, 
but sectional. The Southern States as a 
section, were arrayed against the system, 
though prior to 1816 had favored it, not 
merely as an incident to revenue, but as a 
substantive object. In fact these tariff" 
bills, each exceeding the other in its de- 
gree of protection, had become a regular 
appendage of our presidential elections — 
carrying round in every cycle of four years, 
with that returning event ; starting in 1816 
and followed up in 1820-24, and now in 
1828, with successive , augmentations of 
duties ; the last being often pushed as a 
party measure, and with the visible pur- 
pose of influencing the presidential elec- 
tion. General Jackson was elected, hav- 
ing received 178 electoral votes to 83 re- 
ceived by John Quincy Adams. IVIr. 
Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, who was 
on the ticket with Mr. Adams, was de- 
feated for the office of Vice-President, and 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was 
elected to that office. 

The election of General Jackson was a 
triumph of democratic principle, and an 
assertion of the people's right to govern 
themselves. That principle had been vio- 
lated in the presidential election in the 
House of Representatives in the session of 
1824-25; and the sanction, or rebuke, of 
that violation was a leading question in the 
whole canvass. It was also a triumph 
over the high protective policy, and the 
federal internal improvement policy, and 
the latitudinous construction of the Con- 
stitution ; and of the democracy over the 
federalists, then called national republi- 
cans ; and was the re-establishment of par- 
ties on principle, according to the land- 
marks of the early years of the govern- 
ment. For althoiigli Mr. Adams had re- 
ceived confidence and office from Mr. 
Madison and Mr. Monroe, and had classed 
with the democratic party during the " era 
of good feeling," yet he had previously 
been federal ; and on the re-establishment 
of old party lines which began to take place 



NULLIFICATION— DEMOCRATS AND FEDKUALS. 



29 



after tlie election of Mr. Aclaiiirt in the 
House of Representatives, his nllinities 
and policy became those of his former 
party ; unci as a party, with many indivi- 
dual exceptions, they became his suppor- 
ters and his streiif^th. (teneral Jackson, 
on the contrary, had always been demo- 
cratic, so classinir when he was a Senator 
in Congress under the administration of 
the tirst Mr. Adam-; ; and when party lines 
wcremoststraiiijhtly drawn, and upon prin- 
ciple, and assu'di now receiving thesupport 
of men and States which took this political 
position at that time, and maintained it for 
years afterwards ; among the latter, notably 
the States of Virginia and Pennsylvania. 

The short session of 1829-.')0 was ren- 
dered famous by the long and earnest de- 
bates in the wSenate on the doctrine of nul- 
lification, as it was then called. It started 
by a resolutiim of inquiry introduced by 
Mr. Foot of Connecticut; it was united 
with a proposition to limit the sales of the 
public lands to those then in the market — 
to suspend the surveys of the public lauds 
— and to abolish the office of Surveyor- 
General. The effect of such a resolution, 
if sanctioned upon inquiry and carried into 
legislative effect, would have been to check 
emigration to the new States in the West, 
and to check the growth and settlement of 
these States and Territories. It was warmly 
opposed by Western members. The de- 
bate spread and took an acrimonious turn, 
and sectional, imputing to the quarter of 
the Union from which it came an old and 
early policy to check the growth of the 
West at the outset by proposing to limit 
the sale of the Western lands, by selling 
no tract in advance until all in the rear 
was sold out; and during the debate Mr. 
Webster referred to the famous ordinance 
of 1787 for the government of the north- 
western territory, and especially the anti- 
.slavery clause which it contained. 

Closely connected with this subject to 
which Mr. Webster's remarks, during the 
debate, related, was another which excited 
.some warm discussion^the topic of slavery 
— and the effect of its existence or non- 
existence in different States. Kentucky 
and Ohio were taken for examples, and 
the superior improvement and popula- 
tion of Ohio were attributed to its exemp- 
tion from the evils of slavery. This wa-s 
an excitable subject, and the more so be- 
cause the wounds of the Missouri contro- 
versy in which the North was the undis- 
puted aggressor, were still tender. Mr. 
Hayne from South Carolina answered with 
warmth and resented as a reflection upon 
the Slave States this disadvantageous com- 
parison. Mr. Benton of Missouri followed 
on the same side, and in the course of his 
remarks said, " I regard with admiration, 
that is to say, with wonder, the sublime 
moralitv of those who cannot bear the ab- 



stract contemi)lation of slavery, at the dis- 
tance of five humlnrd or a thousand miles 
rttf.'j This allusion to the Mi.ssouri con- 
troversy, and invective against the free 
Slates for their part in it, by Messrs. 
Hayne and Benton, brought a reply from 
Mr. Webster, showing what their conduct 
had been at the first introduction of the 
slavery topic in the Congress of the United 
States, and that they totally refused to in- 
terfere between master and slave in any 
way whatever, liut the to]iic which be- 
came the leading feature of the whole de- 
bate, and gave it an interest which cannot 
die, was that of nullification — the assumed 
right of a State to anmil an act of Congress 
—then first broached in the Senate — and 
in the discussion of which Mr. Webster 
and Mr. Hayne were the champion 
speakers on opposite sides — the latter 
voicing the sentiments of the Vice-Presi- 
dent, iVIr. Calhoun. This turn in the de- 
bate was brought about, by Mr. Hayne 
having made allusion to the course of New 
England during the war of 1812, and espe- 
cially to the assemblage known as the 
Hartford Convention, and to which designs 
unfriendly to the Union had been at- 
tributed. This gave Mr. Webster an op- 
portunity to retaliate, and he referred to 
the public meetings which had just then 
taken place in South Carolina on the sub- 
ject of the tariff, and at which resolves 
were passed, and propositions adopted sig- 
nificant of resisistance to the act; and con- 
sequently of disloyalty to the Union. He 
drew Mr. Hayne into their defence and 
into an avowal of what has since obtained 
the current name of " XuUificatioii." He 
said, " I understand the honorable gentle- 
man from South Carolina to maintain, that 
it is a right of the State Legislature to inter- 
fere, whenever, in their judgment, this 
government transcends its constitutional 
limits, and to arrest the operation of its 
laws, * * * * that the States may law- 
fully decide for themselves, and each State 
for itself, whether, in a given case, the act 
of the general government transcends its 
powers, * * * * that if the exigency 
of the case, in the opinion of any State 
government require it, such State gov- 
ernment may, by its own sovereign au- 
thority, annul an act of the general •gov- 
ernment, which it deems j>lainly and pal- 
pably unconstitutional." Mr. Hayne was 
evidently unprepared to admit, or fully 
denv, the propositions as so laid down, but 
contented himself with stating the words 
of the Virginia Resolution of 1798, as fol- 
lows: "That this assembly doth explicitly 
and peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government as result- 
ing from the compact, to which the States 
are parties, a.s limited by the plain sense 
and intention of the instrument constituting 
that compact, as no farther valid than they 



30 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



are authorized by the grants enumerated 
in that compact, and that, in case of a de- 
liberate, palpable and dangerous exercise 
of other powers, not granted by the said 
compact, the States who are parties thereto 
have the right, and are in duty bound, to 
interpose, for arresting the progress of the 
evil, and for maintaining, within their re- 
spective limits, the authorities, rights, and 
liberties appertaining to them." 

This resoUition came to be understood 
by Mr. Hayne and others on that side of 
the debate, in the same sense that Mr. 
Webster stated, as above, he understood 
the gentleman from the South to interi)ret 
it. On the otiier side of the question, he 
argued that the doctrine had no foundation 
either in the Constitution, or on the Vir- 
ginia resolutions — that the Constitution 
makes the federal government act upon 
citizens within the States, and not upon 
the States themselves, as in the old con- 
federation : that within their Constitution- 
al limits the laws of Congress were supreme 
— and that it was treasonable to resist 
them with force : and that the question of 
their constitutionality was to be decided 
by the Supreme Court : with respect to the 
Virginia resolutions, on which Mr. Hayne 
relied, Mr. Webster disputed the interpre- 
tation put upon them — claimed for them 
an innocent and justifiable meaning — and 
exempted Mr. Madison from the suspicion 
of having framed a resolution asserting the 
right of a State legislature to annul an Act 
of Congress, and thereby putting it in the 
power of one State to destroy a form of 
government which he had just labored so 
hard to establish. 

Mr. Hayne on his part gave (as the prac- 
tical part of his doctrine) the pledge of for- 
cible resistance to any attempt to enforce 
unconstitutional laws. He said, " The 
gentleman has called upon us to carry out 
our scheme practically. Now, sir, if I am 
correct in my view of this matter, then it 
follows, of course, that the right of a State 
being established, the federal government 
is bound to acquiesce in a solemn decision 
of a State, acting in its sovereign capacity, 
at least so far as to make an appeal to the 
people for an amenthnent to the Constitu- 
tion. This solemn decision of a State binds 
the federal government, under the highest 
constitutional obligation, not to resort to 
any means of coercion against the citizens 
of the dissenting State. * * * Suppose 
Congre.s8 should pass an agrarian law, or a 
law emancipating our slaves, or should 
commit any other gross violation of our 
constitutional rights, will any gentlemen 
contend that the decision of every branch 
of the federal government, in favor of such 
laws, could prevent the States from de- 
claring them null and void, and [)rotecting 
their citizens from their operation? * * 
Let me assure the gentlemen that, when- 



ever any attempt shall be made from any 
quarter, to enforce unconstitutional laws, 
clearly violating our essential rights, our 
leaders (whoever they may be) will not be 
found reading black letter from the musty 
pages of old law books. They will look to 
the Constitution, and when called upon by 
the sovereign authority of the State, to 
preserve and protect the rights secured to 
them by the charter of their liberties, they 
will succeed in defending them, or ' perish 
in the last ditch.' " 

These words of Mr. Hayne seem almost 
prophetic in view of the events of thirty 
years later. No one then believed in any- 
thing serious in the new interpretation 
given to the Virginia resolutions — nor in 
anything practical from nullification — nor 
in forcible resistance to the tariff laws from 
South Carolina — nor in any scheme of dis- 
union. 

Mr. Webster's closing reply was a fine 
piece of rhetoric, delivered in an elaborate 
and artistic style, and in an apparent spirit 
of deep seriousness. He concluded thus — 
" When my eyes shall be turned to behold, 
for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I 
not see him shining on the broken and dis- 
figured fragments of a once glorious 
Union ; on States dissevered, discordant, 
belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. 
Let their last feeble and lingering glance, 
rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the 
Republic, now known and honored through- 
out the earth, still full high advanced, its 
arms and trophies streaming in their ori- 
ginal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, 
nor a single star obscured, bearing for its 
motto no such miserable interrogatory as, 
What is all this worth? nor those other 
words of delusion and folly. Liberty first 
and Union afterwards ; but everywhere, 
spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing in all its ample folds, as they float 
over the sea and over the land, and in 
every wind under the whole heavens, thAt 
other sentiment, dear to every true Ameri- 
can heart — Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable ! " 

President Jackson in his first annual 
message to Congress called attention to the 
fact of expiration in 1836 of the charter 
of incorporation granted by the Federal 
government to a moneyed institution called 
The Bank of the United States, which w^as 
originally designed to assist the govern- 
ment in establishing and maintaining a 
uniform and sound currency. He seriously 
doubted the constitutionality and expedi- 
ency of the law creating the bank, and 
was opposed to a renewal of the charter. 
His view of the matter was that if such an 
institution was deemed a necessity it should 
be made a national one, in the sense of 
being founded on the credit of the govern- 
ment and its revenues, and not a corpora- 



THE UNITED STATES I'.A.XK, 



3t 



tion independent from and not a part of 
the jjovernint'nt. The Honse of Kcjire- 
Bentative.s wius strongly in favor of the re- 
newal of the charter, and several of its 
committees made elahorate, ample" and 
arfrumentative reports upon the subject. 
These rejiorts were the suhjeet of news- 
paper and pamphli't pul)licatioii ; an<l 
lauded lor their power and exi'rllcnce, and 
triumphant refutation of all the PrtsidiMit's 
opinions. Thus was the " war of the Hank" 
commenced at once in I'ongress, and in the 
public press; and oj)eidy at the instance 
of the l?ank itself, which, forgetting its 
position as an institution of tlie govern- 
ment, for the convenience of the govern- 
ment, set itself up as a j)ower, and strug- 
gled for continued existence, by demand 
for renewal of its charter. It allied itself 
at the same time to the political power 
opposed to the President, joined in all their 
schemes of protective tariff, and national 
internal improvement, and became the 
head of the American system. Its moneyed 
and political power, numerous interested 
atliliations, and control over other banks 
and fiscal institutions, was truly great and 
extensive, and a power which was exer- 
cised and made to l)e felt during the strug- 
gle to such a degree tliat it threatened a 
danger to the country and the government 
almost amounting to a national calamity. 

The subject of renewal of the charter 
was agitated at every succeeding session 
of Congress down to 1836, and many able 
speeches made for and against it. 

In the month of December, 1831, the 
National Reiniblicans, as the party was 
then called which afterward took the name 
of "whig," held its convention in Balti- 
more, and nominated candidates for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, to be voted for 
at the election in the autumn of the ensu- 
ing year. Henry Clay was the candidate 
for the office of President, and John Ser- 
geant for that of Vice-President, The 
platform or address to the people presented 
the party issues which were to be settled 
at the ensuing election, the chief subjects 
being the tariff, internal improvement, re- 
moval of the Cherokee Indians, and the 
renewal of the United tStates Bank charter. 
Thus the bank question was fully presented 
as an issue in the election by that part of 
its friends who classed politically against 
President .Jackson. But it had also Demo- 
cratic friends without whose aid the re- 
charter could not be got through Congress, 
and they labored assiduously for it. The 
first Bank of the United States, chartered 
in 1791, was a federal measure, favored by 
General Hamilton, opposed by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, Mr. Madison, and the' Republican 
party; and became a great landmark of 
party, not merely for the bank itself, but 
iOT the latitudinarian construction of the 
constitution in which it was founded, and 



the i)recedent it established that Congress 
might in its discretion do what it jdeitsodj 
under the plea of being " tircasari/'' to 
carry into elfect some granted power. The 
non-renewal of th(j charter in lKll,was 
the act of the Republi<'an jiarty, tlien in 
possession of the government, and taking 
the opjiortuiiity to terminate, upon its own 
limitation, the existence of an institution 
whose creation they hail not been able to 
prevent. The charter ol' tin; second bank, 
in 1810, was the act of the Re})ublican 
I)arty, and to aid them in the administra- 
tion of the government, and, as such, was 
opposed by the Feileral party — not seeming 
then to understand that, by its instincts, a 
great moneyed corporation was in sym- 
pathy with their own party, and would 
soon be with it in action — which the bank 
soon was — and' now struggled for a con- 
tinuation of its existence under the lead 
of those who had oiijiosed its creation and 
against the party which effected it. Mr. 
Webster was a Federal leader on botU 
occasions — against the charter in 181»i; 
for the re-charter in 1832. The bill passed 
the Senate afl:er a long and arduous con- 
test; and afterwards passed the House, 
quickly and with little or no contest at all. 
It was sent to the President,- and vetoed 
by him July 10, 1832 ; the message stating 
his objections being an elaborate review 
of the subject ; the veto being based nuiinly 
on the unconstitutionality of the measure. 
The veto was sustained. Following this 
the President after the adjournment re- 
moved from the bank the government 
deposits, and referred to that fact in his 
next annual message on the second day of 
December, 1833, at the opening of the first 
session of the twenty-third Congress. Ac- 
companying it was the report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Roger B. 
Taney, afterw^ards Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, giv- 
ing the reasons of the government for the 
withdrawal of the public funds. Long and 
bitter was the contest between the Presi- 
dent on the one side and the Bank and its 
supporters in the Senate on the other side. 
The conduct of the Bank produced dis- 
tress throughout the country, and was so 
intended to coerce the President. Distress 
petitions flooded Congress, and the Senate 
even passed resolutions of censure of the 
President. The latter, however, held firm 
in his position. A committee of investi- 
gation was appointed by the House of 
Representatives to inquire into the CiUises 
of the commercial emoarrassment and the 
public distress complained of in the 
numerous distress memf)rials presented to 
the two Houses during the session; and 
whether the Bank had been instrumental, 
through its management of money, in pro- 
ducing the distress and embarrassment of 
which so much complaint was made ; to 



32 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



inquire whether the charter of the Bank 
had been violated, and what corruptions 
and abuses, if any, existed in its manage- 
ment ; and to inquire whether the Bank 
had used its corporate power or money to 
control the press, to interpose in politics, 
or to influence elections. The committee 
were granted ample powers for the execu- 
tion of these inquiries. It was treated 
Avith disdain and contempt by the Bank 
management ; 'refused access to the books 
and i)apers, and the directors and president 
refused to be sworn and testily. The 
committee at the next session made report 
of their proceedings, and asked for war- 
rants to be issued against the managers to 
bring them before the Bar of the House to 
answer for contempt ; but the friends of 
the Bank in the House were able to check 
the proceedings and prevent action being 
taken. In the Senate, the President was 
sought to be punished by a declination by 
that body to confirm the President's 
nomination of the four government direc- 
tors of the Bank, who had served the 
previous year ; and their re-nomination 
after that rejection again met with a similar 
fate. In like manner his re-nomination of 
Roger B. Taney to be Secretary of the 
Treasury was rejected, for the action of 
the latter in his support of the President 
and the removal of the public deposits. 
The Bank had lost much ground in the 
public estimation by resisting the investi- 
gation ordered and attempted by the House 
of Representatives, and in consequence the 
Finance Committee of the Senate made an 
investigation, with so weak an attemjitto 
varnish over the affairs and acts of the 
corporation that the odious appellation of 
" white-washing committee " was fastened 
upon it. The downfall of the Bank 
speedily followed ; it soon afterwards be- 
came a total financial wreck, and its assets 
and property were seized on executions. 
With its financial failure it vanished from 
public view, and public interest in it and 
concern with it died out. 

About the beginning of March, 1881, a 
pamphlet was issued in Washington, by 
Mr. John C. Calhoun, the Vice-President, 
and addressed to the people of the United 
States, explaining the cause of a difference 
which had taken place between himself 
and the President, General Jackson, in- 
stigated as the pamphlet alleged, by ]\Ir. 
Van Burcn, and intended to make trouble 
between the first and second officers of the 
government, and to effect the political 
destruction ofliimself (Mr. Calhoun) for the 
benefit of the contriver of the quarrel, the 
then Secretary of State, and indicated as a 
candidate for the presidential succession 
upon the termination of Jackson's term. 
The differences grew out of certain charges 
against General Jackson respecting his con- 
duct during the Seminole war which oc- 



curred in the administration of President 
Monroe. The President justified himself in 
published correspondence, but the inevita- 
ble result followed — a rupture between the 
President and Vice-President — which was 
quickly followed by a breaking up and 
reconstructing the Cabinet. Some of 
its members classed as the political friends 
of Mr. Calhoun, and could hardly be ex- 
pected to remain as ministers to the Presi- 
dent. Mr. Van Buren resigned ; a new 
Cabinet was appointed and confirmed. 
This change in the Cabinet made a great 
figure in the party politics of the day, and 
filled all the opposition newspapers, and 
had many sinister reasons assigned to it — 
all to the prejudice of General Jackson and 
Mr. Van Buren. 

It is interesting to note here that during 
the administration of President Jackson, 
— in the year 1833, — the Congress of the 
United States, as the consequence of the 
earnest efforts in that behalf, of Col. R. M. 
Johnson, of Kentucky, aided by the re- 
commendation and .support of the Presi- 
dent, passed the first laws, abolishing im- 
prisonment for debt, under process from 
the Courts of the United States: the only 
extent to which an act of Congress could 
go, by force of its enactments ; but by force 
of example and influence, has led to the 
cessation of the practice of imprisoning 
debtors, in all, or nearly all, of the States 
and Territories of the Union ; and without 
the evil consequences which had been 
dreaded from the loss of this remedy over 
the person. The act was a total abolition of 
the practice, leaving in full force all the re- 
medies against fraudulent evasions of debt. 
The American system, and especially its 
prominent feature of a high protective 
tariff was put in issue, in the Presidential 
canvass of 1832; and the friends of that 
system labored diligently in Congress in 
presenting its best points to the greatest 
advantage ; and staking its fate upon the 
issue of the election. It was lost; not only 
by the result of the main contest, but by 
that of the congressional election which 
took place simultaneously with it. All the 
States dissatisfied with that system, were 
satisfied with the view of its speedy and 
regular extinction, under the legislation of 
the approaching session of Congress, ex- 
cei)ting only South Carolina. She lias 
held aloof from the Presidential contest, 
and cast her electoral votes for persons 
who were not candidates — doing nothing 
to aid the election of General Jackson, 
with whom her interests were apparently 
identified. On the 24th November, 1832, 
two weeks after the election which de- 
cided the fate of the tariff, that State 
issued an " Ordinance to nullifS' certain 
acts of the Congress of the United 
States, purporting to be laws laying 
I duties and imposts on the importation 



THE PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL MESSAGE, 



a3 



of foreign conimoditios." It dechirocl that 
.lie Congress liad cxceeilod its constitu- 
tionul powers in imposing liigii and ex- 
cossivu duties on the theory of "protec- 
tion," had unjustly discriminated in favor 
of one chuss or oniploynient, at the expense 
and to the injury and i)[)pression of other 
chusses and individuals; tiiat said laws 
were in consequence not binding on the 
State and its citizens; and declaring its 
right and jjurpose to enact laws to j)revent 
the cnforccnieiit and arrest the operation 
of said acts and part.s of the acts of the 
Congress of the United States within the 
limits of that State after the first day of 
Fehruiry following. This ordinance phiced 
the Slate in the attitude of forcible resist- 
ance to the laws of the United States, to 
take effect on the lirst day of February 
next ensuing — a date prior to the meeting 
of the next Congress, which the country 
naturally expected would take some action 
in reference to the tariff laws complained 
of. The ordinance further provided that 
if, in the meantime, any attempt was made 
by the federal government to enforce the 
obnoxious laws, except through the tribu- 
nals, all the officers of which were sworn 
against them, the fact of such attempt was 
U> terminate the continuance of Soutn Car- 
olina in the Union — to absolve her from 
all connection with the federal government 
— and to establish her as a sei)arate govern- 
ment, wholly unconnected with the United 
States or any State. The ordinance of 
nullification was certified by the Governor 
of South Carolina to the President of the 
United States, and reached him in Decem- 
ber of the same year; in consequence of 
which he immediately issued a proclama- 
tion, exhorting the people of South Caro- 
lina to obey the laws of Congress; point- 
ing out and explaining the illegality of 
the procedure; stating clearly and distinct- 
ly his firm determination to enforce the 
laws xs became him as Executive, even by 
resort to force if necessary. As a state 
paper, it is important as it contains the 
views of General Jackson regarding the 
nature and character of our federal gov- 
ernment, expressed in the following lan- 
guage: "The people of the United States 
formed the constitution, acting through 
the State Legislatures in making the com- 
])act, to meet and discuss its ]>rovisions, 
and actiu'j; in separate conventions when 
they ratified those provisions; but, the 
terms used in the constitution show it to 
be a government in which the people of all 
the States collectively are represented. 
We are one people in Ihe choice of Presi- 
dent and Vice-President. Here the States 
have no other agency than to direct the 
mode in which the votes ^hall be given. 
* * The peoj)le, then, and not the 
States, are represented in the executive 
branch. * * * In the House 



of ItcprescntativcH the membem are all 
representatives of the United States, not 
representatives of the particular States 
from which they come. They are paid by 
the United States, not by the State, nor 
are they accountable to it for any act dona 
in the performance of their legislative 
functions. ***** 

The constitution of the United States, 
ihen, forms a governmt'iit, not a league; 
and whether it be formed by n comj)act 
between tiie States, or in any other man- 
ner, it,s character is the .same. It is a gov- 
ernment in which all the j)eople are repre- 
sented, which operates directly on the 
people individually, not upon the States — ■ 
they retained all the power they did not 
grant. Ikit each State, having expressly 
parted with so many powers as to consti- 
tute, jointly with tlie other States, a single 
nation, cannot, from that period, p<jssess 
any right to secede, because such secession 
does not break a league, but destroys the 
unity of the nation, and any injury to that 
unity, is not only a breach which could 
result from the contravention of a com- 
pact, but it is an offence against the whole 
Union. To say that any State may at 
pleasure secede from the Union, is to say 
that the United States are not a nation ; 
because it would be a solecism to contend 
that any part of a nation might dissolve 
its connection with the other parts, to their 
injury or ruin, without committing any 
offence." 

Without calling on Congress for extra- 
ordinary powers, the President in his 
annual message, merely adverted to the 
attitude of the State, and proceeded to 
meet the exigency by the exercise of the 
[)owers he already possessed. The pro- 
ceedings in South Carolina not ceasing, 
and taking daily a more aggravated form 
in the organization of troops, the collec- 
tion of arms and of munitions of war, and 
in declarations hostile to the Union, lie 
found it necessary early in January to re- 
[)ort the facts to Congress in a special 
message, and ask for extraordinary powers. 
Bills for the reduction of the tariff were 
early in the Session introduced into both 
houses, while at the same time the Presi- 
dent, though not relaxing his eff)rts to- 
wards a peaceful settlement of the difh- 
culty, made steady preparations for enforc- 
ing the law. The result of the bills offered 
in the two Houses of Congress, was the 
passage of Mr. Clay's " compromise " bill 
on the 12th of February 1S,S;^, which radi- 
cally changed the whole tariff system. 

The President in his mes.sage on the 
South Carolina jiroceedings had recom- 
mended to Congress the revival of some 
acts, heretofore in force, to enable him to 
execute the laws in that State ; and the 
Senate's committee on the judiciary had 
reported a bill accordingly early iu the 



34 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



session. It was immediately assuiled by 
several members as violent and unconsti- 
tutional, tending to civil war, and de- 
nounced as " the bloody bill" — the "force 
bill," &c. The bill was vindicated in the 
Senate, by its author, who showed that it 
contained no novel principle; was sub- 
stantially a revival of laws previously in 
force ; with the authority superadded to 
remove the office of customs from one 
building or place to another in case of 
need. The bill was vehemently opposed, 
and every effort made to render it odious 
to the people, and even extend the odium 
to the President, and to every person 
urging or aiding in its passage. Mr. 
Webster justly rebuked all this vitupera- 
tion, and justified the bill, both for the 
equity of its provisions, and the necessity 
for enacting them. Pie said, that an un- 
lawful comhination threatened the integ- 
rity of the Union; that the crisis called 
for a mild, temperate, forbearing but un- 
flexibly firm execution of the laws ; and 
finally, that public opinion sets with an 
irresistible force in favor of the Union, in 
favor of the measures recommended by 
the President, and against the new doc- 
trines which threatened the dissolution of 
the Union. The support which Mr. Web- 
ster gave to these measures was the regular 
result of the principles which he laid 
down in his first speeches against nullifi- 
cation in the debate with Mr. Hayne, and 
he could not have done less without being 
derelict to his own principles then avowed. 
He supported with transcendent ability, 
the cause of the constitution and of the 
country, in the person of a President to 
whom he was politically opposed, Avhose 
gratitude and admiration he earned for his 
patriotic endeavors. The country, without 
distinction of party, felt the same ; and 
the universality of the feeling was one of 
the grateful instances of popular applause 
and justice when great talents are seen 
exerting themselves for the good of the 
country. He was the colossal figure on 
the political stage during that eventful 
time; and his labors, splendid in their 
day, survive for the benefit of distant 
posterity. 

During the discussion over there-charter 
of the Bank of the United States, which 
as before mentioned, occupied the atten- 
tion of Congress for several years, the 
country suffered from a money panic, and a 
general financial dei)ression and distress 
was generally prevalent. In 1834 a mea- 
sure was introduced into the House, for 
equalizing the value of gold and silver, 
and legalizint: the tender of foreign coin, 
of both metals. The good effects of the 
bill were immediately seen. Gold began 
to flow into the country through all the 
channels of commerce, foreign and domes- 
tic ; the mint was busy ; and specie pay- 



ment, which had been suspended in the 
country for thirty years, was resumed, and 
gold and silver became the currency of the 
land ; inspiring confidence in all the pur- 
suits of industry. 

As indicative of the position of the de- 
mocratic party at that date, on the subject 
of the kind of money authorized by the 
Constitution, Mr. Benton's speech in the 
Senate is of interest. He said : "In the 
first place, he was one of those who be- 
lieved that the government of the United 
States was intended to be a hard money 
government; that it was the intention and 
the declaration of the Constitution of the 
United States, that the federal currency 
should consist of gold and silver, and that 
there is no power in Congress to issue, or 
to authorize any company of individuals 
to issue, any species of federal paper cur- 
rency whatsoever. Every clause in the 
Constitution (said Mr. B.) which bears 
upon the subject of money — every early 
statute of Congress which interprets the 
meaning of these clauses — and every his- 
toric recollection which refers to them, go 
hand in hand in giving to that instrument 
the meaning which this proposition ascribes 
to it. The power granted to Congress to 
coin money is an authority to stamp me- 
tallic money, and is not an authority for 
emitting slips of jjaper containing promises 
to pay money. The authority granted to 
Congress to regulate the value of coin, is 
an authority to regulate the value of the 
metallic money, not of paper. The prohi- 
bition upon the States against making 
anything but gold and silver a legal ten- 
der, is a moral prohibition, founded in vir- 
tue and honesty, and is just as binding 
upon the Federal Government as upon the 
State Governments ; and that without a 
written prohibition ; for the difference in 
the nature of the two governments is such, 
that the States may do all things which 
they are not forbid to do ; and the Federal 
Government can do nothing which it is 
not authorized by the Constitution to do. 
The framers of the Constitution (said Mr. 
B.) created a hard money government. 
They intended the new government to re- 
cognize nothing for money but gold and 
silver ; and every word admitted into the 
Constitution, upon the subject of money, 
defines and establishes that sacred inten- 
tion. 

Legislative enactment came quickly to 
the aid of constitutional intention and 
historic recollection. The fifth statute 
passed at the first session of the first Con- 
gress that ever sat under the present Con- 
stitution was fiill and explicit on this head. 
It declared, " that the fees and duties pay- 
able to the federal government shall be 
received in gold and silver coin only." It 
was under General Hamilton, as Secretary 
of the Treasury, in 1791, that the policy 



THE INCEPTION dK T II i: S 1. A V E i: V (,• U EST K; N. 



35 



of the }:;()Vt'rnim'tit umU'rwont :i chiingo. 
In the lut c(inslitu;iiig llit- Hank of thi- 
United States, he brought forward his ce- 
lebrated plan for the support of tlie public 
credit — that plan which unfolded the en- 
tire scheme of the paper system and imme- 
diately developed the great political line 
between the federalists and the republi- 
cans. The establishment of a national 
bank was the leading and i)redomiiuuit 
feature of that ])lan; and the original re- 
port of the secretary, in favor of establish- 
ing the bank, contained this fatal and de- 
plorable recommendation : "The bills and 
notes of the bank, originally made payable, 
or which shall have become payable, on 
demand, in gold and silver coin, shall be 
receivable in all payments to the United 
States." From the moment of the adop- 
tion of this policy, the moneyed character 
of the government stood changed and re- 
versed. Federal bank notes took the place 
of hard money; and the whole edifice of 
the government slid, at once, from the solid 
rock of gold and silver money, on which 
its framers had placed it, into the troubled 
and tempestuous ocean of paper currency. 

The first session of the 35th Congress 
opened December 1835. Mr. James K. 
Polk was elected Speaker of the House by 
a large majority over Mr. John Bell, the 
previous Speaker ; the former being sup- 
ported by the administration party, and 
the latter having become identified with 
those who, on siding with ]\Ir. Hugh L. 
White 11.S a candidate for the presidency, 
were considered as having divided from 
the democratic party. The chief subject 
of the President's message was the rela- 
tions of our country with France relative 
to the continued non-payment of the stip- 
ulated indemnity provided for in the treaty 
of 1831 for French spoliations of Ameri- 
can shipping. The obligation to pay was 
admitted, and the money even voted for 
that purpose ; but offense was taken at the 
President's message, and payment refused 
until an apology should be made. The 
President commented on this in his mes- 
sage, and the Senate had under consider- 
ation measures authorizing reprisals on 
French shipping. At this point Great 
Britain offered her services as mediator be- 
tween the nations, and as a result the in- 
demnity was shortly afterwards paid. 

Agitation of the slavery question in the 
United States really began about this 
time. Evil-disposed persons had largely 
circulated through the Southern states, 
pamphlets and circulars tending to stir up 
strife and insurrection ; and this had be- 
come so intolerable that it was referred to 
by the President in his message. Congress 
at the session of 183*> was flooded with pe- 
titions and memorials urging federal inter- 
ference to abolish slavery in the States ; 
beginning with the petition of the Society 



of Friends of Philadelphia, urging the 
abolition of slaviTV in the District of Co- 
lumbia. These j)etitions were referred to 
('ommittecs after an acrimonious debate 
as to whether they should be rect;ived or 
not. The position of the government at 
that time is embodied in the following 
resolution which was adopteilin the House 
of Kei)resentatives ;is early as J 71)0, and 
substantially rc-aflirmed in 1S.'{(;, as fol- 
lows : '"That Congress have no authority 
to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, 
f)r in the treatment of them within any of 
the States ; it remaining with the several 
States to provide any regulations tiherein 
which humanity and true policy may re- 
quire." 

In the Summer preceding the Presi- 
dential election of 1836, a measure was in- 
troduced into Congress, which became very 
nearly a party measure, and which in its 
results proved disastrous to the Democrat- 
ic j)arty in after years. It was a plan for 
distributing the public land money among 
the States either in the shape of credit 
distribution, or in the disguise of a deposit 
of surplus revenue ; and this for the pur- 
pose of enhancing the value of the State 
stocks held by the United States Bank, 
which institution, aided by the party which 
it favored, led by Mr. Clay, was the prime 
mover in the plan. That gentleman was 
the author of the scheme, and great cal- 
culations were made by the party whieh 
favored the distribution upon its effect in 
adding to their popularity. The Bill passed 
the Senate in its original form, but met 
with less favor in the House where it was 
found necessary. To effectuate substan- 
tially the same end, a Senate Bill was in- 
troduced to regulate the keeping of the 
public money in the deposit banks, and 
this was turned into distribution of the 
surplus public moneys with the States, in 
proportion to their representation in Con- 
gress, to be returned when Congress should 
call for it ; and this was called a deposit 
with the States, and the faith of the States 
pledged for a return of the money. It 
was stigmatized by its opponents in Con- 
gress, as a distribution in disguise — as a 
deposit never to be reclaimed ; a^ a mis- 
erable evasion of the Constitution ; as an 
attempt to debauch the people with their 
own money ; as plundering instead of de- 
fending the country. The Bill passed both 
houses, mainly by the efforts of a half 
dozen aspirants to the Presidency, who 
sought to thus increase their popularitjr. 
They were doomed to disappointment in 
this respect. Politically, it was no advan- 
tage to its numerous and emulous support- 
ers, and of no disservice to its few deter- 
mined opponents. It was a most unfortu- 
nate act, a plain evasion of the Constitu- 
tion for a bad purpose ; and it soon gave a 
sad overthrow to the democracy and disap- 



36 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



pointed every calculation made upon it. 
To the States it was no advantage, raising 
expectations which were not fulfilled, and 
«pon which many of them acted as reali- 
ties. The Bill was signed by the Presi- 
dent, but it is simple justice to him to say 
that he did it with a repugnance of feel- 
ing, and a recoil of judgment, which it re- 
■quired great ellorts of his friends to over- 
come, and with a regret for it afterwards 
•which he often and imblicly expressed. In 
a party point of view, the passage of this 
measure was the commencement of calam- 
ities, being an efficient cause in that gen- 
eral suspension of specie payments, which 
quickly occurred, and brought so nuich 
embarrassment on the Van Buren admin- 
istration, ending in the great democratic 
defeat of 1840. 

The presidential election of 1836 re- 
sulted in the choice of tlie democratic can- 
didate, Mr. Van Buren, who was elected 
by 170 electoral votes ; his opjjonent. Gene- 
ral Harrison, receiving seventy-three elec- 
toral votes. Scattering votes were given 
for Mr. Webster, Mr. Mangum, and Mr. 
Hugh L. White, the last named represent- 
ing a fragment of the democracy who, in a 
spirit of disaffection, attempted to divide 
the democratic party and defeat Mr. Van 
Buren. At the opening of the second ses- 
sion of the twenty-fourth Congress, Decem- 
ber, 1836, President Jackson delivered his 
last annual message, under circumstances 
exceedingly gratifying to him. The power- 
ful opposition in Congress had been broken 
down, and he had the satisfaction of seeing 
full majorities of ardent and tried friends 
in each House. The country was in peace 
and friendship with all the world ; all ex- 
citing questions quieted at home; industry 
in all its branches prosperous, and the 
revenue abundant. And as a happy 
sequence of this state of affairs, the Senate 
on the 16th of March, 1837, expunged 
from the Journal the resolution, adopted 
three years previously, censuring the Presi- 
dent for ordering the removal of the de- 
posits of public money in the United States 
Bank. He retired from the presidency 
with high honors, and died eight years 
afterwards at his home, the celebrated 
" Hermitage," in Tennessee, in full posses- 
sion of all his faculties, and strong to the 
la.st in the ruling passion of his soul — love 
of country. 

The 4th of March, 1837, ushered in an- 
other Democratic administration — the be- 
ginning of the term of Martin Van Buren 
as President of the United States. In his 
inaugural address he commented on the 
prosperous condition of the country, and 
declared it to l)e his policy to strictly abide 
by tho (Constitution as written — no latitu- 
dinarian constructions permitted, or doubt- 
ful powers assumed; that liis political 
chart shi;uld be the doctrines of the demo- 



cratic school, as understood at the original 
formation of parties. 

The President, however, was scarcely 
settled in his new office when a financial 
panic struck the country with irresistible 
force. A general suspension of the banks, 
a depreciated currency, and insolvency of 
the federal treasury were at hand. The 
public money had been placed in the cus- 
tody of the local banks, and the notes of all 
these banks, and of all others in the coun- 
try, were received in payment of public 
dues. On the 10th of "May, 1837, the 
banks throughout the country suspended 
specie payments. The stoppage of tlie de- 
posit banks was the stoppage of the Trea- 
sury. Non-payment by the government 
was an excuse for non-payment by others. 
The suspension was now complete ; and it 
was evident, and as good as admitted by 
those who had made it, that it was the 
effect of contrivance on the part of politi- 
cians and the so-called Bank of the United 
States (which, after the expiration of its 
national charter, had become a State cor- 
poration chartered by the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania in January, 1836) for the 
purpose of restoring themselves to power. 
The whole proceeding became clear to 
those who could see nothing while it was 
in progress. Even those of the democratic 
party whose votes had helped to do the 
mischief, could now see that the attempt to 
deposit forty millions with the States was 
destruction to the deposit banks ; that the 
repeal of President Jackson's order, known 
as the " specie circular " — requiring pay- 
ment for public lands to be in coin — was to 
fill the treasury with paper money, to be 
found useless when wanted ; that distress 
was purposely created to throw blame of 
it upon the party in power ; that the 
promptitude with which the Bank of the 
United States had been brought forward 
as a remedy for the distress, showed that it 
had been held in reserve for that purpose ; 
and the delight with which the whig party 
saluted the general calamity, showed that 
they considered it their own passport to 
power. Financial embarrassment and 
general stagnation of business diminished 
the current receipts from lands and 
customs, and actually cau.sed an absolute 
deficit in the public treasury. In conse- 
quence, the President found it an inexora- 
ble necessity to issue his proclamation con- 
vening Congress in extra session. 

The first session of the twenty-fifth Con- 
gress met in extra session, at the call of 
the President, on the first Monday of Sep- 
tember, 1837. The message was a review 
of the events and causes which had brought 
about the panic ; a defense of the policy of 
the " specie circular," and a reconmienda- 
tion to break off all connection witli any 
bank of i.ssue in any form; looking to the 
estaldishment of an Independent Treasury, 



DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS. 



37 



and that the Govornmcnt provide for the 
deficit in the tre:i.siiry l)y the issue of 
treasury notes and Ity witliholdiiig the de- 
posit due to the States uikKt the act then 
in force. The message and its reconi- 
men(hitioi)s were vioh'ntly iissailed botii in 
the Senate and House by able and effec- 
tive speakers, notably by Messrs. Clay and 
Webster, ami also by Mr. Caleb Cushing, 
of Massachusetts, who made a formal ami 
elaborate reply to the whole document 
under thirty-two distinct heads, and recit- 
ing therein all the points of accusation 
against the democratic policy from the be- 
ginning of the government down to that 
day. The result was that the measures 
proposed by the Executive were in sub- 
stance enacted ; and their passage marks 
an era in our financial history — making a 
total and complete separation of Bank and 
State, and firmly establishing the principle 
that the government revenues should be 
receivable in coin only. 

The measures of consequence discussed 
and adopted at this session, were the 
graduation of price of public lands under 
the pre-emption system, which was adopt- 
ed ; the bill to create an independent 
Trea-sury, wliich passed the Senate, but 
failed in the House ; and the question of 
the re-charter of the district banks, the 
proportion for reserve, and the establish- 
ment of such institutions on a specie basis. 
The slavery question was again agitated in 
consequence of petitions from citizens and 
societies in the Northern States, and a 
memorial from the General Assembly of 
Vermont, praying for the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia and 
territories, and for the exclusion of future 
slave states from the Union. These peti- 
tions and memorials were disposed of^ ad- 
versely ; and Mr. Calhoun, representing 
the ultra-Southern interest, in several able 
speeches, approved of the Missouri com- 
promise, he urged and obtained of the 
Senate several resolutions declaring that 
the federal government had no power to 
interfere with slavery in the States ; and 
that it would be inexpedient and impolitic 
to interfere, abolish or control it in the 
District of Columbia and the territories. 
These movements for and against slavery 
in the session of 1887-38 deserve to be no- 
ticed, as of disturbing effect at the time, 
and as having acquired new importance 
from subsequent events. 

The first session of the twenty-sixth 
Congress opened December, 1839. The 
organization of the House was delayed by 
a closely and earnestly contested election 
from the State of New Jersey. Five De- 
mocrats claiming seats as against an equal 
number of Whigs. Neither set was admit- 
ted until after the election of Speaker, 
which resulted in the choice of Robert M. 
T. Hunter, of Virginia, the Whig candi- 



' date, who was elected by the full Whig 
vote with the aid of a few democrats — 
friends of Mr. Calhoun, who had for seve- 
ral previous sessions been actinir with the 
Whigs on several occa-sions. The House 
excluding the five contested seats from 
New .Jersey, was really Democratic; hav- 
ing 122 members, and tiie Whigs 113 mem- 
bers. The contest for tlieSpeaKership was 
long and arduous, neither j)arty adhering 
to its original caucus candidate. Twenty 
scattering votes, eleven of whom were 
classed as Whigs, and nine as Democrata, 
prevented a choice on the earlier ballots, 
and it wius really Mr. Callumn's Democrat- 
ic friends uniting with a solid Whig vote 
on the final ballot that gained that jjarty 
the election. The issue involved was a 
vital party question as involving the or- 
ganization of the House. The chief mea- 
sure, of public importance, adopted at this 
session of Congress was an act to provide 
for the collection, safe-keeping, and dis- 
bursing of the public money. It practi- 
cally revolutionized the system previously 
in force, and wjis a complete and eflectual 
separation of the federal treasury and the 
Government, from the banks and moneyed 
corporations of the States. It was violent- 
ly opposed by the Whig members, led by 
Mr. Clay, and supported by Mr. Cushing, 
but was finally passed in both Houses by a 
close vote. 

At this time, and in the House of Re- 
presentatives, was exhibited for the first 
time in the history of Congress, the pre- 
sent practice of members "pairing off," as 
it is called ; that is to say, two members of 
opposite political parties, or of opposite 
views on any particular subject, agreeing 
to absent themselves from the duties of the 
House, for the time being. The practice 
was condemned on the floor of the House 
by Mr. John Quincy Adams, who intro- 
duced a resolution: "That the practice, 
first openly avowed at the present session 
of Congress, of pairing off, involves, on 
the part of the members resorting to it, 
the violation of the Constitution of the 
United States, of an express rule of this 
House, and of the duties of both parties in 
the transaction, to their immediate consti- 
tuents, to this House, and to their coun- 
try." This resolution was placed in the 
calendar to take its turn, but not bein^ 
reached during the session, was not voted 
on. That w;is the first instance of this 
justly condemned practice, fifty years after 
the establishment of the Government; but 
since then it has become common, even in- 
veterate, and is now carried to great lengths. 

The last session of the twenty-sixth Con- 
gress was barren of measures, and neces- 
sarily so, as being the last of our adminis- 
tration superseded by the popular voice, 
and soon to expire ; and therefore restric- 
ted by a sense <>f jiropriety, during the 



38 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



brief remainder of its existence, to the de- 
■tails of business and the routine of .service. 
The cause of this was the result of the 
presidential election of 1840. The .same 
candidates who fought the battle of 1836 
were again in the field. Mr. Van Buren 
wa.s the Democratic candidate. His ad- 
ministration had been satisfactory to his 
party, and his nomination for a second 
term was commended by the party in the 
different States in appointing their dele- 
gates ; so that the proceedings of the con- 
vention which nominated him were en- 
tirely harmonious and formal in their na- 
ture. Mr. Richard M. Johnson, the ac- 
tual Vice-President, was also nominated 
for Vice-President. 

On the Whig ticket, General William 
Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was the candi- 
date for President, and Mr. John Tyler, of 
Virginia, for Vice-President. The lead- 
ing statesmen of the Whig party were 
again put aside, to make way for a milita- 
ry man, prompted by the example in the 
nomination of General Jackson, the men 
who managed presidential elections be- 
lieving then as now that military renown 
was a passport to popularity and rendered 
a candidate more sure of election. Availa- 
bility — for the purjjose — was the only abili- 
ty asked frjr. Mr. Clay, the most promi- 
nent Whig in the country, and the ac- 
knowledged head of the party, was not 
deemed available; and though Mr. Clay 
was a candidate before the convention, the 
proceedings were so regulated that his 
nomination was referred to a committee, 
ingeniously devised and directed for the 
afterwards avowed purpose of preventing 
his nomination and securing that of Gene- 
ral Harrison ; and of producing the intend- 
ed result without showing the design, and 
without leaving a trace behind to show 
what was done. The scheme (a modifica- 
tion of which has since been applied to 
subsequent national conventions, and out 
of which many bitter dissensions have again 
and again arisen) is embodied and was 
executed in and by means of the following 
resolution adopted by the convention : 
" Ordered, That the delegates from each 
State be requested to assemble as a delega- 
tion, and appoint a committee, not exceed- 
ing three in inimber, to receive the views 
and opinions of such delegation, and com- 
municate the same to the assembled com- 
mittes of all the delegations, to be by them 
respectively reported to their principals ; 
ami that thereupon the delegates from 
each State be re(|uestcd to asseinble as a 
delegation, and ballot for candidates for 
the offices of President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, and having done so, to commit the 
ballot designating the votCs of each candi- 
date, and by whom given, to its commit- 
tee, and thereupon all the committees 
shall assemble and compare the several 



ballots, and report the result of the same 
to their several delegations, together with 
such facts as may bear upon the nomina- 
tion ; and said delegation shall forthwith 
re-assemble and ballot again for candidates 
for the above offices, and again commit 
the result to the above committees, and if 
it shall appear that a majority of the bal- 
lots are for any one man for candidate for 
President, said committee shall report the 
result to the convention for its considera- 
tion ; but if there shall be no such majori- 
ty, then the delegation shall repeat the 
balloting until such a majority shall be 
obtained, and then report the same to the 
convention for its consideration. That the 
vote of a majority of each delegation shall 
be reported as the vote of that State ; and 
each State rei)resented here shall vote its 
full electoral vote by such delegation in 
the committee." This was a sum in poli- 
tical algebra, whose quotient was known, 
but the quantity unknown except to those 
who planned it ; and the result was — for 
General Scott, 16 votes ; for Mr. Clay, 90 
votes; for General Harrison, 148 votes. 
And as the law of the convention imjilied- 
ly requires the absorption of all minorities, 
the 106 votes were swallowed up by the 
148 votes and made to count for General 
Harrison, presenting him as the unani- 
mity candidate of the convention, and the 
defeated candidates and all their friends 
bound to join in his support. And in this 
way the election of 1840 was effected — a 
process certainly not within the purview 
of those framcrs of the constitution who 
supposed they were giving to the nation 
the choice of its own chief magistrate. 

The contest before the peoi^le was a 
long and bitter one, the severest ever 
known in the country, up to that time, and 
scarcely equalled since. The whole Whig 
party and the large league of susperided 
banks, headed by the Bank of the United 
States making its last struggle for a new 
national charter in the effort to elect a 
President friendly to it, were arrayed 
against the Democrats, whose hard-money 
policy and independent treasury schemes, 
met with little favor in the then depressed 
condition of the country. Meetings were 
held in every State, county and town ; the 
people thoroughly aroused; and evei'j 
argument made in favor of the respective 
candidates and parties, which could pos- 
sibly have any effect u])on the voters. The 
canvass was a thorough one, and the elec- 
tion was carried for the ^\'hig candidates, 
who received 234 electoral votes coming 
from 19 States. The remaining 60 electo- 
ral votes of the other 9 States, were given 
to the Democratic candidate ; though the 
popular vote was not so unevenly divided ; 
the actual figures being 1,275,611 for the 
Whig ticket, against 1,135,761 for the 
Democratic ticket. It was a complete rout 



WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS— 111 K HOUR RULE. 



39 



of the Dcmocnitic party, but without thr 
moral elVi'ct of victory. 

On jNIarch 4, 1841, was inaugurated as 
President, (len'l Wni. H. Harrison, the 
first Chief Majristrate olecte<l by tlie Wliitr 
party, and the first President wlio was jiot 
a Democrat, since tiie installation of (ien'l 
Jackson, March 4, lS2i>. J lis term was a 
short one. He issued a call for a special 
session of Congress to convene the 31st of 
May following, to consider the condition 
of the revenue and finances of the country, 
but did not live to meet it. Taken ill 
with a fatal malaily during the last days of 
Marcli, lie died on the 4th of ApriHollow- 
ing, having been in office just one month. 
He w;us succeeded by the Vice-President, 
John Tyler. Then, for the first time in 
our history a.s a government, the person 
elected to the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States, by the happening of a con- 
tingency provided for in the constitution, 
had devolved upon him the Presidential 
office. 

The twenty -seventh Congress opened in 
extra session at the call of the late Presi- 
dent, >[ay 31, 1841. A Whig member- 
Mr. White of Kentucky — was elected 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
The Whigs had a majority of forty-seven 
in the House and of seven in the Senate, 
and with the President and Cabinet of the 
same political party presented a harmony 
of a.spect frequently wanting during the 
three previous administrations. The first 
measure of the new dominant party was 
the repeal of the independent treasury act 
passed at the pi-evious session ; and the 
next in order were bills to establish a sys- 
tem of bankruptt-y, and for distribution of 
public land revenue. The former was 
more than a bankrupt law; it was practi- 
cally an insolvent law for the abolition of 
debts at the will of the debtor. It applied 
to all persons in debt, allowed them to 
institute the proceedings in the district 
where the petitioner resided, allowed con- 
structive notices to creditors in newspapers 
— declared the abolition of the debt where 
effects were surrendered and fraud not 
proved ; and gave exclusive jurisdiction to 
the federal courts, at the will of the debtor. 
It was framed upon the model of the Eng- 
lish insolvent debtors' act of George the 
Fourth, and embodied most of the i)ro- 
visions of that act, but substituting a re- 
lease from the debt instead of a release 
from imprisonment. The bill passed by a 
close vote in both Houses. 

The land revenue distribiition bill of 
this session had its origin in the fact that 
the States and corporations owed about two 
hundred millions to cre(litf)rs in Europe. 
These debts were in stocks, much dei)re- 
ciateil by the failure in many instances to 
pay the accruing interest — in some in- 
ttances failure to provide for the principal. 



Thi'C ( redilors, becoming unea.sy, wished 
the federal government to assume their 
dtbts. The suggestion was made as early 
as 1838, renewe(l in IS.'!!l, und in 1810 be- 
came a regular (piestion mixed up with the 
Presidential electior of that year, and 
oi)enly engaging the active exertions of 
foreigners. Direct assumption was not 
urged ; indirect i)y giving the public land 
revenue to the States was tiie mode i)ur- 
sued, and the one recommended in tiie 
message of President Tyler. Mr. Calhoun 
spf)ke against the measure with more than 
usual force and clearness, claiming that it 
was unconstitutional and without warrant. 
Mr. Benton on tiie same side called it a 
scjuandering of the public {)atrimony, and 
pointed out its inexpediency in the de- 
])leted state of the treasury, apart from its 
other objectionable features. It passed by 
a [larty vote. 

This session is remarkable for the insti- 
tution of the hour rule in the House of 
Representatives — a very great limitation 
upon the freedom of debate. It was a 
Whig measure, adopted to ])revent delay 
in the enactment of pending bills. It was 
a rigorous limitation, frequently acting as 
a bar to profitable debate anil checking 
members in speeches which really impart 
information valuable to the House and the 
country. No doubt the license of debate 
has been frequently abused in Congress, as 
in all other deliberative assemblies, but the 
incessant use of the previous question, 
which cuts off' all debate, added to the 
hour rule which limits a speech to sixty 
minutes (constantly reduced by interrup- 
tions) frequently results in the transaction 
of business in ignorance of what they are 
about by those who are doing it. 

The rule worked so well in the House, 
for the purpose for which it was devised — 
made the majority absolute master of the 
body — that Mr. Clay undertook to have 
the same rule adopted in the Senate ; but 
the determined opposition to it, both by 
his political opponents and friends, led to 
the abandonment of the attempt in that 
chamber. 

Much discussion took place at this ses- 
sion, over the bill offered in the House of 
Re})resentatives, for the relief of the widow 
of the late President — General Harrison — 
approjtriating one year's salary. It was 
strenuously opposed by the Democratic 
meml)ers, as unconstitutional, on account 
of its ])rinciple, as creating a private pen- 
sion list, and as a dangerous precedent. 
Many able speeches were made against the 
bill,i)oth in the Senate and House; among 
others, the following extract from the 
speech of an able Senator contains some 
interesting factn. He said : '' Look at the 
case of ^Ir. .lefferson, a man than whom 
no one that ever existed on God's earth 
were the human familv more indebted to. 



40 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



His furniture and his estate were sold to 
satisfy liis creditors. His posterity was 
driven from house and home, and his bones 
now lay in soil owned by a stranger. His 
family are scattered : some of his descend- 
ants are married in foreign lands. Look 
at Monroe — the able, the patriotic Monroe, 
whose services were revohitionary, whose 
blood was spilt in the war of Independence, 
whose life was worn out in civil service, 
and whose estate has been sold for debt, 
his family scattered, and his daughter 
buried in a foreign land. Look at Madi- 
son, the model of every virtue, public or 
private, and he would only mention in 
connection with this subject, his love of 
order, his economy, and his systematic 
regularity in all his habits of business. 
He, when his term of eight years had ex- 
pired, sent a letter to a gentleman (a son 
of whom is now on this floor) [Mr. Pres- 
ton], enclosing a note of five thousand 
dollars, which he requested him to en- 
dorse, and raise the money in Virginia, so 
as to enable him to leave this city, and re- 
turn to his modest retreat — his patrimonial 
inheritance — in that State. General Jack- 
son drew upon the consignee of his cot- 
ton crop in New Orleans for six thousand 
dollars to enable him to leave the seat 
of government without leaving creditors 
behind him. These were honored leaders 
of the republican party. They had all 
been Presidents. They had made great 
sacrifices, and left the presidency deeply 
embarrassed ; and yet the republican party 
who had the power and the strongest dis- 
position to relieve their necessities, felt 
they had no right to do so by appropri- 
ating money from the public Treasury. 
Democracy would not do this. It was 
left for the era of federal rule and federal 
supremacy — who are now rushing the 
country with steam power into all the 
abuses and corruptions of a monarchy, 
with its pensioned aristocracy — and to en- 
tail upon the country a civil pension list." 

There was an impatient majority in the 
House in favor of the passage of the bill. 
The circumstances were averse to delibera- 
tion — a victorious party, come into poAver 
after a heated election, seeing their elected 
candidate dying on the threshold of his 
administration, poor and beloved : it was a 
case lor feeling more tlian of judgment, es- 
pecially with the political friends of the 
deceased — but few of whom could follow 
the counsels of the head against the impul- 
sions of the heart. 

The bill passed, and was approved ; and 
as predicted, it established a precedent 
which has since been followed in every 
similar ca.se. 

The subject of naval pensions received 
more than usual consideration at this ses- 
sion. The question arose on the discussion 
of the appropriation bill for that purpose. 



A differenvL' about a navy — on the point 
of how much and what kind — had always 
been a point of difference between the two 
great political parties of the Union, which, 
under whatsoever names, are always the 
same, each preserving its identity in prin- 
ciples and policy, but here the two parties 
divided upon an abuse which no one could 
deny or defend. A navy pension fund had 
been established under the act of 1832, 
which was a just and proper law, but on 
the 3d of March, 1837, an act was passed 
entitled " An act for the more equitable 
distribution of the Navy Pension Fund." 
That act provided : I. That Invalid naval 
pensions should commence and date back 
to the time of receiving the inability, in- 
stead of completing the proof. II. It ex- 
tended the pensions for death to all cases 
of death, whether incurred in the line of 
duty or not. III. It extended the widow's 
pensions for life, when five years had been 
the law both in the army and navy. IV. 
It adopted the English system of pension- 
ing children of deceased marines, until 
they attained their majority. 

The effect of this law was to absorb and 
bankrupt the navy pension fund, a meri- 
torious fund created out of the government 
share of prize money, relinquished for that 
purpose, and to throw the pensions, 
arrears as well as current and future, upon 
the public treasury, where it was never in- 
tended they were to be. It was to repeal 
this act, that an amendment was intro- 
duced at this session on the bringing for- 
ward of the annual appropriation bill for 
navy pensions, and long and earnest were 
the debates upon it. The amendment was 
lost, the Senate dividing on party lines, 
the Whigs against and the Democrats for 
the amendment. The subject is instruc- 
tive, as then was practically ratified and re- 
enacted the pernicious practice authorized 
by the act of 1837, of granting pensions to 
date from the time of injury and not 
from the time of proof; and has grown up 
to such proi^ortions in recent years that 
the last act of Congress appropriating 
money for arrears of pensions, provided 
for the payment of such an enormous sum 
of money that it would have appalled the 
original projectors of the act of 1837 could 
they have seen to what their system has 
led. 

Again, at this session, the object of tlie 
tariff occupied the attention of Congress. 
The compromise act, as it was called, of 
1833, which was composed of two parts — 
one to last nine years, for the benefit of 
manufactures ; the other to last for ever, 
for the benefit of the planting and con- 
suming intere.'^t — was passed, as herein- 
before stated, in pursuance of an agree- 
ment between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun 
and tlieir respective friends, at the time 
the former was urging the necessity for ft 



THE NATIONAL BANK lULL. 



41 



continuance of hiirh tiirifF for prntoctinn 
and revenue, and tlie hitter was nreseiitiiif^ 
and justifying before Congress tne nullifi- 
cation ordinance adopted by ibe Legisla- 
ture of South Carolina. To Mr. Clay anil 
Mr. Calhoun it was a political necessity, 
one to get riil of a stinubling-block (which 
protective tarilVhad become) ; the other to 
ascape a personal peril which his nullify- 
ing ordinance had brought upon him, and 
with both, it was a piece of policy, to 
enable them to combine against Mr. Van 
Buren, by i)ostj)oning their own conten- 
tion ; and a device on the part of its 
author (Mr. Clayton, of Delaware) and 
Mr. Clay to preserve the protective system. 
It provided tor a reduction of a certain i)er 
centage each year, on the duties for the 
en.suing nine years, until the revenue was 
reduced to 20 per cent, ad valorem on all 
articles imported into the country. In 
consequence the revenue was so reduced 
that in the last year, there was little more 
than half what the exigencies of the 
govornment required, and different modes, 
by loans and otherwise, were suggested to 
meet the deficiency. The Secretary of the 
Treasury had declared the necessity of 
loans and taxes to carry on the govern- 
ment ; a loan bill for twelve millions had 
been passed ; a tariff bill to raise fourteen 
millions was depending ; and the chairman 
of the Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. 
Millard Fillmore, defended its necessity in 
an able speech. His bill proposed twenty 
per cent, additional to the existing duty 
on certain specified articles, sufficient to 
make up the amount wanted. This en- 
croachment on a measure so much 
vaunted when passed, and which had been 
kept inviolate while operating in favor of 
one of the parties to it, naturally excited 
complaint and opposition from the other, 
and Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, in a speech 
against the new bill, said: " In referring 
to the compromise act, the true character- 
istics of that act which recommended it 
strongly to him, were that it contemplated 
that duties were to be levied for revenue 
only, and in the next place to the amount 
only necessary to the supply of the economi- 
cal wantd of the government. He begged 
leave to call the attention of the committee 
to the principle recognized as the lan- 
guage of the compromise, a i)rinciple which 
ought to be recognized in all time to come 
by every department of the government. 
It is, that duties to be raised for revenue 
are to be raised to such an amount only as 
is necessary for an economical administra- ' 
tion of the government Some incidental 
protection must necessarily be given, and 
he, for one, coming from an anti-tariff por- ; 
tion of the countrv, would not object to ■ 
it." • , 

The bill went to the Senate where it 
foxind Mr Clay and Mr. Calhoun in posi- 1 



tions very difl'irent from what they occu- 
pied when till! eompromise act w;us paH.sed 
— then united, now divided — then concur- 
rent, now antagonistic, and the antago- 
nism general, upon all measures, was to be 
special up<jn this one. Their connection 
with the subject made it liieir funetion 
to lead off in its consideration ; and their 
antagonist positions j)roniised sharp en- 
counters, which (lid not fail to come. Mr. 
Clay said that he " observed thiit the 
Senator from South Carolina biused his 
abstractions on the theories of books on 
English authorities, and on the arguments 
urged in favor of free trade by a certain 
party in the liritish Parliament. Now he, 
(Mr. Clay,) and his friends would not ad- 
mit of these authorities being entitled to 
as much weight as the universal practice 
of nations, which in all parts of the world 
was found to be in favor of protecting home 
manufactures to an extent sufficient to 
keep them in a flourishing condition. 
This was the whole difference. The Sena- 
tor was in favor of book theory and ab- 
stractions: he (Mr. Clay) and his friends, 
were in favor of the universal practice of 
nations, and the wholesome and necessary 
protection of domestic manufactures." 

Mr. Calhoun in reply, referring to his 
allusion to the success in the late election 
of the tory party in England, said : " The 
interests, objects, and aims of the tory 
party there and the whig party here, are 
identical. The identity of the two parties 
is remarkable. The tory party are the 
patrons of corporate monopolies ; and are 
not you ? They are advocates of a high 
tarifi"; and ore not you ? They are support- 
ers of a national bank ; and are not you f 
They are for corn-laws — laws oppressive 
to the masses of the people, and favorable 
to their own power; and arc not youT 
Witness this bill. * * * The success 
of that party in England, and of the whig 
party here, is the success of the great 
money power, which concentrates the in- 
terests of the two parties, and identifies 
their principles." 

The bill was passed by a large majority, 
upon the general ground that the govern- 
ment must have revenue. 

The chief measure of the session, and the 
great object of the whig party — the one for 
which it had labored for ten years — was 
for the re-charter of a national bank. 
Without this all other measures would be 
deemed to be incomplete, and the victori- 
ous election itself but little better than a 
defeat. The President, while a member of 
the Democratic party, had been opposed 
to the United States Bank ; and to over- 
come any objections he might have the 
bill was carefully prepared, and studiously 
contrived to avoid the President's objec- 
tions, and save his consistency — a point 
upon which he was exceedingly sensitive. 



42 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



The democratic members resisted strenu- 
ously, in order to make the measure odious, 
but successful resistance was impossible. 
It passed both houses by a close vote; and 
contrary to all expectation the President 
disapproved the act, but with such expres- 
sions of readiness to approve another bill 
which should be free from the objections 
which he named, as still to keep his party 
together, and to prevent the resignation of 
his cabinet. In his veto message the 
President fell back upon his early opinions 
against the con.stitutionality of a national 
bank, so often and so publicly expressed. 

The veto caused consternation among 
the whig members ; and Mr. Clay openly 
gave expression to his dissatisfaction, in 
the debate on the veto message, in terms 
to assert that President Tyler had violated 
his faith to the whig party, and had been 
led off from them by new associations. 
He said: "And why should not President 
Tyler have suffered the bill to become a 
law without his signature? Without 
meaning the slightest possible disrespect to 
him (nothing is further from my heart than 
the exhibition of any such feeling towards 
that distinguished citizen, long my per- 
sonal friend), it cannot be forgotten that he 
came into his present office under peculiar 
circumstances. The people did not foresee 
the contingency which has happened. 
They voted for him as Vice President. 
They did not, therefore, scrutinize his 
opinions with the care which they i)robably 
ought to have done, and would have done, 
if they could have looked into futurity. If 
the present state of the fact could have 
been anticipated — if at Harrisburg, or at 
the polls, it had been foreseen that General 
Harrison would die in one short month 
after the commencement of his administra- 
tion ; so that Vice President Tyler would 
be elevated to the presidential chair ; that 
a bill passed by decisive majorities of the 
first whig Congress, chartering a national 
bank, would be presented for his sanction ; 
and that he would veto the bill, do I 
hazard anything when I express the con- 
viction that he would not have received a 
solitary vote in the nominating convention, 
nor one solitary electoral vote in any State 
in the Union ? " 

The vote was taken on the bill over 
again, as required by the constitution, and 
so far from receiving a two-thirds vote, it 
received only a bare majority, and was re- 
turned to the House with a message stating 
his objections to it, where it gave rise to 
some violent speaking, more directed to 
the personal conduct of the President than 
to the objections to the bill stated in his 
message. The veto was sustained ; and so 
ended the second attempt to resuscitate the 
old United States Bank under a new name. 
This second movement to establish the 
bank has a secret history. It almost caused 



the establishment of a new party, with Mr. 
Tyler as its head ; earnest efforts having 
been made in that behalf by many promi- 
nent Whigs and Democrats. The entire 
cabinet, Avith the exception of Mr. Webster, 
resigned within a few days after the second 
veto. It was a natural thing for them to 
do, and was not unexpected. Indeed Mr. 
Webster had resolved to tender hisresigna- 
tion also, but on reconsideration determined 
to remain and publish his reasons there- 
for in a letter to the National Intelligencer, 
in the following words : 

" Lest any misapprehension should ex- 
ist, as to the reasons which led me to differ 
from the course pursued by my late col- 
leagues, I wish to say that I remain in my 
place, first, because I have seen no sufficient 
reasons for the dissolution of the late Cabi- 
net, by the voluntary act of its own mem- 
bers. I am perfectly persuaded of the ab- 
solute necessity of an institution, under the 
authority of Congress, to aid revenue and 
financial operations, and to give the country 
the blessings of a good currency and cheap 
exchanges. Notwithstanding what has 
passed, I have confidence that the Presi- 
dent will co-operate with the legislature in 
overcoming all difficulties in the attain- 
ment of these objects ; and it is to the 
union of the Whig party — by which I 
mean the whole party, the Whig President, 
the Whig Congress, and the Whig people — 
that I look for a realization of our wishes. 
I can look nowhere else. In the second 
place if I had seen reasons to resign my 
office, I should not have done so, without 
giving the President reasonable notice, and 
affording him time to select the hands to 
which he should confide the delicate and 
important afl^airs now pending in this de- 
partment." 

The conduct of the President in the 
matter of the vetoes of the two bank bills 
produced revolt against him in the party ; 
and the Whigs of the two Houses of Con- 
gress held several formal meetings to con- 
sider what they should do in the new con- 
dition of affairs. An address to the people 
of the United States was resolved upon. 
The rejection of the bank bill gave great 
vexation to one side, and equal exultation 
to the other. The subject was not per- 
mitted to rest, however ; a national bank 
was the life — the vital principle — of the 
Whig party, without which it could not 
live as a party; it was the power which 
was to give them power and the political 
and financial control of the Union. A 
second attempt was made, four days after 
the veto, to accomplish the end by amend- 
ments to a bill relating to the currency, 
which had l)een introduced early in the 
session. Mr. Sargeant of Pennsylvania, 
moved to strike out all after the enacting 
clause, and insert his amendments, which 
were substantially the same as the vetoed 



THE SECOND BANK BILL. 



43 



bill, except changing the amount of capi- 
tal and prohibitingdiscoimts on notes other 
tlian bills of excliange. The bill was 
pushed to a vote with astonishing raj)idity, 
and passed by a decided niajority. In the 
Senate the bill went to a select coniniittee 
which reported it back without alteration, 
as had been foreseen, the counnittee consist- 
ing entirely of frienda of the measure; aud 
there was a majority for it on final passage. 
Concurred in by the Senate without alter- 
ation, it was returned to the House, and 
thence referreil to the President for his 
approval or disapproval. It was di.sap- 
proved and it was promulgated in language 
intended to mean a repudiation of tlie 
President, a permanent separation of the 
Whig party from him, and to wash their 
hands of all accountability for his acts. 
An opening paragraph of the addre.ss set 
forth that, for twelve years the Whigs had 
carried on a contest for the regulation of 
the currency, the equalization of exchanges, 
the economical administration of the finan- 
ces, and the advancement of industry — all 
to be accomplished by means of a national 
bank — declaring these objects to be mis- 
understood by no one and the bank itself 
held to be .•secured in the Presidential elec- 
tion, and its establishment the main object 
of the extra session. The address then 
proceeds to state how these plans were 
frustrated : 

" It is with profound and poignant regret 
that we find ourselves called upon to in- 
voke your attention to this point. Upon 
the great and leading measui'e touching 
this question, our anxious endeavors to 
respond to the earnest prayers of the 
nation have been frustrated by an act as 
unlooked for as it is to be lamented. We 
grieve to say to you that by the exercise of 
that power in the constitution which has 
ever been regarded with suspicion, and 
often with odium, by the people— a power 
which we had hoped was never to be ex- 
hibited on this subject, by a Whig Presi- 
dent — we have been defeated in two at- 
tempts to create a fiscal agent, which the 
wants of the country had demonstrated to 
as, in the most absolute form of proof to 
be eminently necessary and proper in the 
present emergency. Twice have we with 
the utmost diligence and deliberation 
matured a plan for the collection, safe- 
kcei)ing and disbursing of the public 
moneys tli rough the agency of a corpora- 
tion adapted to that end, and twice hiis it 
been our fate to encounter the opposition 
of the President, through the ajiplication 
of the veto power. * * * "We are con- 
strained to say that we find no ground to 
justify us in the conviction that the veto 
of the President has been interposed on 
this question solely upon conscientious and 
well-considered opinions of con.«titutional 
•cruple as to his duty in the case presented. 



On the contrary, too many proofs have been 
forced upon our ol)servation to leave us 
free I'roni the appreiicnsion liiat the Presi- 
dent has permitted himself to he i)eguiled 
into an opinion that by this exhil)ition of 
his prerogative he miirlit be able to divert 
the policy of his administration into a 
channel which should lead to new political 
combinations, and accomplish results which 
nuist overthrow the present divisions of 
party in the country ; and finally produce 
a state of things which those who elected 
him, at least, have never contemplated. 
* * * * * * 

In this state of things, the Whigs ^Nnll 
naturally look with anxiety to the future, 
and inquire what are the actual relations 
between the President and those who 
brought him into power ; and what, in 
the opinion of their friends in Congress, 
should be their course hereafter. * * * 
The President by his withdrawal of confi- 
dence from his real friends in Congress 
and from the membei-s of his cabinet ; by 
his bestowal of it upon others notwith- 
standing their notorious opposition to lead- 
ing measures of his administrations has 
voluntarily separated himself irom those 
by whose exertions and suffrage he was 
elevated to that office through whii-h he 
has reached his present exalted station. 
* * * * The consequence is, that those 
who brought the President into power can 
be no longer, in any manner or degree, 
justly held responsible or blamed for the 
administration of the executive branch of 
the government ; and the President and 
his advisers should be exclusively here- 
after deemed accountable. * * * The 
conduct of the President has occasioned 
bitter mortification and deep regret. Shall 
the party, therefore, yielding to sentiments 
of despair, abandon its duty, and submit 
to defeat and disgrace ? Far from suffer- 
ing such dishonorable consequences, the 
very disappointment which it has unfor- 
tunately experienced should serve only to 
redouble its exertions, and to inspire it 
with fresh courage to persevere with a 
spirit unsubdued and a resolution unshak- 
en, until the prosperity of the country is 
fully re-established, and its liberties firmly 
secured against all danger from the abuses, 
encroachments or usurpations of the ex- 
ecutive department of the government.'' 

This was the manifesto, so far as it con- 
cerns the repudiation of President Tyler, 
which Whig members of Congress put 
forth: it was answered (under the name of 
an address to his constituents) by Mr. 
Cushing, in a counter special plea — coun- 
ter to it on all points — especially on the 
main question of which i)arty the Presi- 
dent was to belong to ; the manifesto 
of the Whigs assigning him to the de- 
mocracy — the address of Mr. Cushing, 
claiming him for the Whigs. It was es- 



44 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



pecially severe on Mr. Clay, as setting up 
a caucus dictatorship to coerce the Presi- 
dent; and cliarged that the address em- 
anated from this caucus, and did not embody 
or represent the sentiments of all Whig 
leaders ; and referred to IMr. Webster's let- 
ter, and his remaining in the cabinet as 
proof of this. But it was without avail 
against the concurrent statements of the 
retiring senators, and the confirmatory 
statements of many members of Congress. 
The Whig party recoiled from the Presi- 
dent, and instead of the unity predicted by 
Mr. Webster, there was diversity and wide- 
spread dissension. The Whig party re- 
mained with Mr. Clay ; Mr. Webster re- 
tired, ]\Ir. Cushing was sent on a foreign 
mission, and the President, seeking to en- 
ter the democratic ranks, was refused by 
them, and left to seek consolation in pri- 
vacy, for his political errors and omissions. 

The extra session, called by President 
Harrison, held under Mr. Tyler, domi- 
nated by Mr. Clay, commenced May 31, 
and ended Sept. 13, 1841 — and was replete 
with disappointed calculations, and nearly 
barren of permanent results. The pur- 
poses for which it was called into being, 
failed. The first annual message of Presi- 
dent Tyler, at the opening of the regular 
session in December, 1841, coming in so 
soon after the termination of the extra ses- 
sion, was brief and meagre of topics, with 
few points of interest. 

In the month of March, 1842, Mr. Henry 
Clay resigned his place in the Senate, and 
delivered a valedictory address to that 
body. He had intended this step upon 
the close of the previous presidential cam- 
paign, but had postponed it to take per- 
sonal charge of the several measures which 
would be brought before Congress at the 
special session — the calling of which he 
foresaw would be necessary. He resigned 
not on account of age, or infirmity, or dis- 
inclination for public life ; but out of dis- 
gust — profound and inextinguishable. He 
had been basely defeated for the Presi- 
dential nomination, against the wishes of 
the Whig party, of which he was the ac- 
knowledged head — he had seen his leading 
mea.surcs vetoed by the President whom 
his party had elected — the downfall of the 
Bank for which he had so often pledged 
himself — and the insolent attacks of the 
petty adherents of the administration in 
the two Houses : all these causes acting on 
his proud and lofty spirit, induced this 
withdrawal from public life for which he 
was so well fitted. 

The address opened with a retrospect of 
his early entrance into the Senate, and a 
grand encomium upon its powers and dig- 
nity as he had found it, and left it. Mem- 
ory went back to that early year, 180(5, 
when just past thirty years of age, he en- 
tered the United States Senate, and com- 



menced his high career — a wide and lumi- 
nous horizon before him, and will and 
talent to fill it. He said : " From the year 
180G, the period of my entering upon this 
noble theatre of my public service, with 
but short intervals, down to the present 
time, I have been engaged in the service 
of my country. Of the nature and value 
of those services which I may have ren- 
dered during my long career of public life, 
it does not become me to speak. History, 
if she deigns to notice me, and posterity — 
if a recollection of any humble service 
which I may have rendered, shall be 
transmitted to posterity — will be the best, 
truest, and most impartial judges; and to- 
them I defer for a decision upon their 
value. But, upon one subject, I may be 
allowed to speak. As to my public acts 
and public conduct, they are for the judg- 
ment of my fellow citizens ; but my private 
motives of action — that which prompted 
me to take the part which I may have 
done, upon great measures during their 
progress in the national councils, can be 
known only to the Great Searcher of the 
human heart and myself; and I trust I 
shall be pardoned for repeating again a 
declaration which I made thirty years ago :. 
that whatever error I may have committed 
— and doubtless I have committed many 
during my public service — I may appeal 
to the Divine Searcher of hearts for the 
truth of the declaration which I now make, 
with pride and confidence, that I have 
been actuated by no personal motives — 
that I have sought no personal aggrandize- 
ment—no promotion from the advocacy of 
those various measures on which I have 
been called to act — that I have had an 
eye, a single eye, a heart, a single heart, 
ever devoted to what appeared to be the 
best interests of the country." 

Mr. Clay led a great party, and for a 
long time, whether he dictated to it or not, 
and kept it well bound together, without 
the usual means of forming and leading 
parties. It was surprising that, without 
power and patronage, he was able so long 
and so undividedly to keep so great a party 
together, and lead it so unresistingly. He 
had great talents, but not equal to some 
whom he led. He had eloquence — superior 
in popular effect, but not equal in high 
oratory to that of some others. But his 
temperament was fervid, his will w'as 
strong, and his courage daring ; and these 
(lualities, added to his talents, gave him 
the lead and supremacy in his party, where 
he was always dominant. The farewell 
address made a deep impression upon the 
Senators present ; and after its close, Mr. 
Preston brought the ceremony to a conclu- 
sion, by moving an adjournment, which 
was agreed to. 

Again at tliis session was the subject of 
the tariff" considered, but this time, as a 



WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS. 



45 



matter of absolute necessity, to provide a 
revenue. Never before were the eotlers 
and the credit of the trea-sury at so low an 
ebi). A deficit of fourteen millions in the 
treasury — a total inability to borrow, 
either at home or abroad, the anumnt of 
the loan of twelve millions authorized the 
year before — the treasury notes bi-low par, 
jmd the revenues from imports inadequate 
and decreiLsin^. 

The compromise act of 18.38 in reducing 
the duties gradually through nine years, 
to a fixed low rate ; the act of 1837 in dis- 
tributing the surplus revenue ; and the 
continual and continued distribution of 
the land revenue, had brought about this 
condition of things. The remedy was 
sought in a bill increasing the taritf, and 
BUspending the land revenue distribution. 
Two such bills were passed in a single 
month, and both vetoed by the President. 
It was now near the end of yVugust. Con- 
gress had been in session for an unpre- 
cedentedly longtime. Adjournment could 
not he deferred, and could not take place 
without providing for the Treasury. The 
compromise act and the land distribution 
were the stumbling-blocks: it was resolved 
to sacrifice them together ; and a bill was 
introduced raising the duties above the 
fixed rate of twenty per cent., and that 
breach of the mutual assurance in relation 
to the compromise, immediately in terms 
of the assurance, suspended the land 
revenue distribution — to continue it sus- 
pended while duties above the comj:)romise 
limit continued to be levied. And as that 
h:u5 been the case ever since, the distribu- 
tion of the land revenue has been sus- 
pended ever since. The bill was passed, 
and approved by the President, and Con- 
gress thereupon adjourned. 

The subject of the navy was also under 
consideration at this session. The naval 
policy of the United States was a question 
of party division from the origin ot parties 
in the early years of the government — the 
federal party favoring a strong and 
splendid na\y, the Republican a moderate 
establishment, adapted to the purposes of 
defense more than of offense. And this 
line of division has continued. Under the 
Whig regime the policy for a great na^'^' 
developed itself. The Secretary of the 
Navy recommended a large increase of 
ships, seamen and officers, involving a 
heavy expense, though the government 
was not in a condition to warrant any such 
expenditure, and no emergency required 
an increase in that branch of the public 
service. The vote was taken upon the in- 
crease proposed by the Secretary of the 
Navy, and recommended by the President; 
and it was carried, the yeas and nays being 
well defined by the party line. 

The first session of the twenty-eighth 
Congress, whieh convened December 1843, 



exhibited in its political complexion, se- 
rious losses in the Whig following. The 
Democratic candidate for Speaker (tf the 
House of Representatives, was elected over 
the Whig candidate — the vote standing 
128 to r)9. Thus an .adverse majority of 
more than two to one was the result to tiie 
Whig party at the first election after the 
extra session of 1S41. The President's 
message referred to the treaty which had 
lately been concluded with (Ireat Britain 
relative to the northwestern territory ex- 
tending to the CoiuMiliia river, including 
Oregon and settling the boundary lines ; 
and also to a })ending treaty with Texas 
for her annexation to the United States; 
and concluded with a recommendation 
for the establishment of a paper currency 
to be issued and controlled by the Federal 
government. 

For more than a year before the meeting 
of the Democratic Presidential Conven- 
tion in Baltimore, in May 1844, it was 
evident to leading Democrats that Martin 
Van Buren was the choice of the party. 
To overcome this popular current and 
turn the tide in favor of Mr. Calhoun, who 
desired the nomination, resort was had to 
the pending question of the annexation 
of Texas. Mr. Van Buren was known to 
be against it, and Mr. Calhoun for it. To 
gain time, the meeting of the convention 
was postponed from December previous, 
which had been the usual time for holding 
such elections, until the following May. 
The convention met, and consisted of two 
hundred and sixty-six delegates, a decided 
majority of whom were for Mr. Van Buren, 
and cast their votes accordingly on the first 
ballot. But a chairman had been selected, 
who was adverse to his nomination ; and 
aided by a rule adopted by the convention, 
which required a concurrence of two-thirds 
to effect a nomination, the opponents of 
Mr. Van Buren were able to accomplish 
his defeat. Mr. Calhoun had, before the 
meeting of the convention, made known 
his determination, in a public address, nc^ 
to suffer his name to go before that as- 
semblage as a candidate for the presidency, 
and stated his reasons for so doing, which 
were founded mainly on the manner in 
which the convention was constituted ; his 
objections being to the mode of choosing 
delegates, and the manner of their giving 
in their votes — he contending for district 
elections, and the delegates to vote indi- 
vidually. South Carolina was not repre- 
sented in the convention. After the first 
ballot Mr. Van Buren's vote sensibly de- 
creased, until finally, Mr. James K. Polk, 
who was a candidate for the Vice Presi- 
dency, was brought forward and nominated 
unanimously for the chief office. Mr. 
Geo. M. Dallas was chosen as his colleague 
' for the Vice Presidency. The nomination 
i of these gentlemen, neither of whom had 



46 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



been mentioned until late in the proceed- 
ings of the convention, tor the offices for 
Avhich they were finally nominated, was a 
genuine surprise to the country. No 
voice in favor of it had been heard ; and 
no visible sign in the political hoi'izon had 
announced it. 

The Whig convention nominated Henry 
Clay, for President ; and Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen for Vice-President. 

The main issues in the election which 
ensued, were mainly the party ones of 
Whig and Democrat, modified by the 
tariff and Texas questions. It resulted in 
the choice of the Democratic candidates, 
who received 170 electoral votes as against 
105 for their opponents; the popular 
majority for the Democrats being 238,284, 
in a total vote of 2,834,108. Mr. Clay re- 
ceived a larger popular vote than had been 
given at the previous election for the 
Whig candidate, sho^\nng that he would 
have been elected had he then been the 
nominee of his party ; though the popular 
vote at this election was largely increased 
over that of 1840. It is conceded thafthe 
36 electoral votes of New York State gave 
the election to Mr. Polk. It was carried 
by a bare majority ; due entirely to the 
Gubernatorial candidacy of Mr. Silas 
Wright, who had been mentioned for the 
vice-presidential nomination in connection 
with Mr. Van Buren, but who declined it 
after the sacrifice of his fi-iend and col- 
league; and resigning his seat in the 
Senate, became a candidate for Governor 
of New York. The election being held at 
the same time as that for president, his 
name and popularity brought to the presi- 
dential ticket more than enough votes to 
make the majority that gave the electoral 
vote of the State to the Democrats. 

President Tyler's annual and last mes- 
sage to Congress, in December 1844, con- 
tained, (as did that of the previous year) 
an elaborate ]>aragraph on the subject of 
Texas and Mexico ; the idea being the 
annexation of the former to the Union, and 
the assumption of her causes of grievance 
against the latter ; and a treaty was pend- 
ing to accomplish these objects. The 
scheme for the annexation of Texas was 
framed with a double aspect — one looking 
to the then pending presidential election, 
the other to the separation of the Southern 
States ; and as soon as the rejection of the 
treaty was foreseen, and the nominating 
convention had acted, the disunion aspect 
manifested itself over many of the South- 
ern States— beginning with South Carolina. 
Before the end of IMay, a great meeting 
took place at Ashley, in that State, to 
combine the slave States in a convention 
to unite the Southern States to Texas, if 
Texas should not be received into the 
Union ; and to invite the President to 
convene Congress to arrange the terms of 



the dissolution of the Union if the rejec- 
tion of the annexation should be perse- 
vered in. Responsive resolutions were 
adopted in several States, and meetings 
held. The opposition manifested, brought 
the movement to a stand, and suppressed 
the disunion scheme for the time being — 
only to lie in wait for future occasions. 
But it was not before the people only that 
this scheme for a Southern convention 
with a view to the secession of the slave 
States was a matter of discussion ; it was 
the subject of debate in the Senate ; and 
there it was further disclosed that the 
design of the secessionists was to extend 
the new Southern republic to the Califor- 
nias. 

The treaty of annexation was supported 
by all the power of the administration, 
but failed ; and it was rejected by the 
Senate by a two-thirds vote against it. 
Following this, a joint resolution was 
early brought into the House of Repre- 
sentatives for the admission of Texas as a 
State of the Union, by legislative action ; 
it passed the House by a fair majority, 
but met with opposition in the Senate un- 
less coupled with a proviso for negotia- 
tion and treaty, as a condition precedent. 
A bill authorizing the President and a 
commissioner to be api^ointed to agree 
upon the terms and conditions of said 
admission, the question of slaverj' within 
its limits, its debts, the fixing of bounda- 
ries, and the cession of territory, was 
coupled or united with the resolution ; and 
in this shape it was finally agreed to, and 
became a law, with the concurrence of the 
President, March 3, 1845. Texas was then 
in a state of war with Mexico, though 
at that precise point of time an armistice 
had been agreed upon, looking to a treaty 
of peace. The House resolution was for an 
unqualified admission of the State; the 
Senate amendment or bill was for negotia- 
tion ; and the bill actually passed would 
not have been concurred in except on the 
understanding that the incoming Presi- 
dent (whose term began March 4, 1845, 
and who Avas favorable to negotiation) 
would act under the bill, and appoint 
commissioners accordingly. 

Contrary to all expectation, the outgoing 
President, on the last day of his term, at 
the instigation of his Secretary of State, 
Mr. Calhoun, assumed the execution of 
the act providing for the admission of 
Texas — adopted the legislative clause — 
and sent out a special messenger with in- 
structions. The danger of this had been 
foreseen, and suggested in the Senate ; but 
close friends of Mr. Calhoun, speaking for 
the administration, and replying to the 
suggestion, indignantly denied it for them, 
and declared that they would not have the 
" audacity " to so violate the spirit and in- 
tent of the act, or so encroach upon the 



OREGON TREATY OF lH4r,. 



47 



rij^Iit-! of tlu- luw Pri'sident. Tlieso stato- 
niLMits from tlu- frit'iidM of tho Sei-rctary and 
rrcsideiit that tlie plan by nct^^oliatidii 
would be adopted, i|uieted the apprehen- 
sion of those Senators opposed to legislative 
annexation or a<lniission, and thus secured 
their votes, without whieh the bill would 
have failed of a majority. Thus was Texas 
incorporated into the Union. The legisla- 
tive proposition sent by Mr. Tyler was ac- 
cepted : Texas became incorporated with 
the United States, and in consetjuence the 
state of war was established between the 
United States and Mexico; it only being a 
question of time and chance when the 
armistice should end and hostilities begin. 
Although Mr. Calhoun was not in favor of 
war witli Mexico — he believing that a 
money payment would settle the diiVer- 
ences with that country — the admission 
of Texas into the Union under the legisla- 
tive annexation clause of the statute, was 
really his act and not that of the Presi- 
dent's; and he was, in consequence, after- 
wards openly charged in the Senate with 
being the real author of the war which 
followed. 

The administration of President Polk 
opened March 4, 1845 ; and on the same 
day, the Senate being convened for the 
purpose, the cabinet ministers were nomi- 
nated and confirmed. In December fol- 
lowing the 29th Congress was organized. 
The House of Representatives, being 
largely Democratic, elected the Speaker, 
by a vote of 120, against 70 for the Whig 
candidate. At this session the " Ameri- 
can "party — anew political organization 
— first made its appearance in the Na- 
tional councils, having elected six mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives, four 
from New York and two from Penn- 
sylvania. The President's first annual 
message had for its chief topic, the admis- 
sion of Texas, then accomplished, and the 
consequent dissatisfaction of Mexico ; and 
referring to the preparations on the part of 
the latter with the apparent intention of 
declaring war on the United States, either 
by an open declaration, or by invading 
Texas. The message also stated causes 
which would justify this government in 
taking the initiative in declaring war — 
mainly the non-compliance by Mexico 
with the terms of the treaty of indenmity 
of Anril 11, 1839, entered into between 
that State and this government relative to 
injuries to American citizens during the 
previous eight years. He also referred to 
the fact of a minister having been sent to 
Mexico to endeavor to bring about a settle- 
ment of the differences between the na- 
tions, without a resort to hostilities. The 
message concluded with a reference to the 
negotiations with Great Britain relative to 
the Oregon boundary ; a .s-tatement of the 
finances and the public debt, showing the 



latter to be slightly in excess of seventeen 
millions; and a recommendation for a re- 
vision of the taritf, with a view to revenue 
as the object, with protection to home in- 
dustry as the incident. 

At this session of Congress, the States of 
Florida and Iowa were admitted int<; the 
Union ; the former permitting slavery 
within its borders, the latter denying it. 
Long before this, the free and the .slave 
States were ecjual in number, and the jirac- 
tice had grown up — from a feeling of 
jealousy and policy to keep them evenly 
balanced — of ailmitting one State of each 
character at the same time. Numerically 
the free and the slave States were thus 
kept even : in political power a vast in- 
equality was going on — the increase of 
population being .so much greater in the 
northern than in the southern region. 

The Ashburton treaty of 1842 omitted to 
define the boundary line, and permitted, 
or rather did not prohibit, the joint occu- 
pation of Oregon by British and American 
settlers. This had been a subject of dis- 
pute for many years. The country on the 
ColumbiaRiver had been claimed by ho^h. 
Under previous treaties the American 
northern boundary extended "to the lati- 
tude of 49 degrees north of the equator, 
and along that i)arallel indefinitely to the 
west." Attempts were made in 1842 and 
continuing since to 1846, to settle this 
boundary line, by treaty with Great Britain. 
It had been assumed that we had a divid- 
ing line, made by previous treaty, along 
the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes from 
the sea to the Rocky mountains. The sub- 
ject so much absorbed public attention, 
that the Democratic National convention 
of 1844 in its platform of principles de- 
clared for that boundar}' line, or war as 
the consequence. It became known as the 
54— iO plank, and was a canon of political 
faith. The negotiations between the gov- 
ernments were resumed in August, 1844. 
The Secretary of State, Mr. Calhoun, pro- 
posed a line along the parallel of 49 de- 
grees of north latitude to the summit of 
the Rocky mountains and continuing that 
line thence to the Pacific Ocean ; and he 
made this proposition notwithstanding the 
fact that the Democratic party — to which he 
belonged — were then in a high state of 
exultation for the boundary of 54 degrees 
40 minutes, and the presidential canvass, 
on the Democratic side, wjis raging upon 
that cry. 

The Briti-sh Minister declined this pro- 
position in the part that carried the line 
to the ocean, but offered to continue it 
from the summit of the mountains to the 
Columbia River, a distance of some three 
hundred miles, and then follow the river 
to the ocean. This was declined by Mr. 
Calhoun. The President had declared in 
his inaugural address in favor of the 54r-i0 



48 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



line. He was in a dilemma ; to maintain 
that position meant war with Great Britain ; 
to recede from it seemed impossible. The 
proposition for the line of 49 degrees hav- 
ing been withdrawn by the American gov- 
ernment on its non-acceptance by the Brit- 
ish, had appc'jised the Democratic storm 
which had been raised against the Presi- 
dent. Congress had come together under 
the loud cry of war, in which Mr. Cass was 
the leader, but followed by the body of 
the deiuot-racy, and backed and cheered 
by the whole democratic newspaper press. 
Under the authority and order of Congress 
notice had been served on Great Britain 
which was to abrogate the joint occupation 
of the country by the citizens of the two 
powers. It was finally resolved by the 
British Government to propose the line of 
49 degrees, continuing to the ocean, as 
originally offered by Mr. Calhoun ; and 
though the President was favorable to its 
acceptance, he could not, consistently with 
his previous acts, accept and make a 
treaty, on that basis. The Senate, with 
whom lies the power, under the constitu- 
tion, of confirming or restricting all trea- 
ties, being favorable to it, without respect 
to party lines, resort was had, as in the 
early practice of the Government, to the 
President, asking the advice of the Senate 
upon the articles of a treaty before negoti- 
ation. A message was accordingly sent to 
the Senate, by the President, stating the 
jjroposition, and asking its advice, thus 
shifting the responsibility upon that body, 
and making the issue of peace or war de- 
pend upon its answer. The Senate advised 
the acceptance of the proposition, and the 
treaty was concluded. 

The conduct of the Whig Senators, 
without whose votes the advice would not 
have been given nor the treaty made, was 
patriotic in preferring their country to 
their party — in preventing a war with 
Great Britain — and saving the administra- 
tion from itself and its party friends. 

The second session of the 29th Congress 
was opened in December, 1847. The 
President's message was chiefly in relation 
to the war with Mexico, which had been 
declared by almost a unanimous vote in 
Congress. Mr. Calhoun spoke against the 
declaration in the Senate, but did not vote 
upon it. He was sincerely oi)posed to the 
■war, although his conduct had produced it. 
Had he remained in the cabinet, to do 
which he had not concealed his wish, he 
would, no doubt, have labored earnestly 
to have prevented it. Many members of 
Congress, of the same party with the ad- 
ministration, were extremely averse to the 
war, and had interviews with the President, 
to see if it was inevitable, before it was de- 
clared. Members were under the impression 
that the war could not last above three 
montha. 



The reason for these impressions was 
that an intrigue was laid, with the know- 
ledge of the Executive, for a peace, even 
before the war was declared, and a special 
agent dispatched to bring about a return 
to Mexico of its exiled President, General 
Santa Anna, and conclude a treaty of 
peace with him, on terms favorable to the 
IJnited States. And for this purpose Con- 
gfess granted an appropriation of three 
millions of dollars to be placed at the dis- 
posal of the President, for negotiating for 
a boundary which should give the United 
States additional territory. 

While this matter was pending in Con- 
gress, Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania intro- 
duced and moved a proviso, " that no part 
of the territory to be acquired should he 
open to the introdtiction oj' slaver-y." It was 
a proposition not necessary for the pur- 
pose of excluding slavery, as the only ter- 
ritory to be acquired was that of New 
Mexico and California, where slavery was 
already prohibited by the Mexican laws 
and constitution. The proviso was there- 
fore nugatory, and only served to bring on 
a slavery agitation in the United States. 
For this purpose it was seized upon by Mr. 
Calhoun and declared to be an outrage 
upon and menace to the slave-holding 
States. It occupied the attention of Con- 
gress for two sessions, and became the sub- 
ject of debate in the State Legislatures, 
several of which passed disunion resolu- 
tions. It became the watchword of party — 
the synonym of civil war, and the dissolu- 
tion of the Union. Neither party really 
had anything to fear or to hope from the 
adoption of the proviso — the soil was free, 
and the Democrats were not in a position 
to make slave territory of it, because it 
had just enunciated as one of its cardinal 
principles, that there was " 710 power in 
Congress to legislate upon slavery in Territo- 
ries." Never did two political parties con- 
tend more furiously about nothing. Close 
observers, who had" been watching the pro- 
gress of the slavery agitation since its 
inauguration in Congress in 1835, knew it 
to be the means of kee])ing up an agitation 
for the benefit of the political parties — the 
abolitionists on one side and the disunion- 
'ists or nuUifiers on the other — to accom- 
plish their own purposes. This was the 
celebrated Wilmot Proviso, which for so 
long a time convulsed the Union ; assisted 
in forcing the issue between the North and 
South on the slavery question, and almost 
caused a dissolution of the Union. The 
proviso was defeated ; that chance of the 
nullifiers to force the issue was lost; an- 
other had to be made, which was sjieedily 
done, bv the introduction into the Senate 
on the' 19th February, 1847, by Mr. Cal- 
houn of his new slavery resolutions, de- 
claring the Territories to be the common 
property of the several States; denying 



TREATY OF PEACE WITH MEXICO. 



49 



the risrht of Congress to prohibit Klnvcry 
in :i 'iVrritory, or to puss iiny law wliicli 
would have the effect to deprive the eiti- 
/.eiis of any slave State from eini<j;ratiu^' 
with his property (slaves) into sueli Terri- 
torv. The intruduetion of the resoliUioiis 
was j)refaeed i)y an elahoratt; speech by 
Mr. Calhoun, who demanded an immediate 
vote upon tiiem. They never came to a 
vote; they were evidently introduced for 
the mere purpose of carrying a (piestion to 
the slave Slates on which they could be 
formed into a unit against the free States ; 
and so began tlie agitation which finally 
led to tiie abrogation of the Missouri Com- 
promise line, and arrayed the Stiitesof one 
section again.^t those of the other. 

The Thirtieth Congress, which assem- 
bled for its first session in December, 1847, 
was found, so far as respects the House of 
llepresentatives, to be politically adverse 
to the administration. The Whigs were 
in the majorilv, and elected the Speaker; 
Robert C. Winthrop. of Mascjachusetts, 
being chosen. The Pre-;ident's message 
contained a full report of the ])rogress of 
the war with Mexico; the success of the 
American arms in that conflict; the vic- 
tory of Cerro Gordo, and the capture of 
the City of Mexico ; and that negotiations 
were then pending for a treaty of peace. 
The message concluded with a reference 
to the excellent results from the indepen- 
dent treasury system. 

The war with Mexico was ended by the 
signing of a treaty of peace, in February, 
1848, by the terms of which New Mexico 
and Upper California were ceded to the 
United States, and the lower Rio Grande, 
from its mouth to El Paso, taken for the 
boundary of Texas. For the territory thus 
acquired, the United States agreed to pay 
to Mexico the sum of fifteen million dol- 
lai-s, in five annual installraenta; ftnd be- 
sides that, assumed the claims of Ameri- 
can citizens against Mexico, limited to 
three and a quarter million dollars, out of 
and on account of which claims the war 
ostensibly originated. The victories achiev- 
ed by the American commanders. Generals 
Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, during 
that war, won for them national reputa- 
tions, by means of which they were brought 
prominently forward for thie Presidential 
succession. 

The question of the power of Congress to 
legislate on the subject of slavery in the 
Territories, was again raised, at this session, 
on the bill for the establishment of the 
Oregon territorial government. An amend- 
ment was offered to insert a provision for 
the extension of the Missouri compromise 
line U) the Pacific Ocean; which line thus 
extended wa.s intended by the amendment 
to be permanent, and to apply to all future 
territories established in the West. This 
amendment waa lost, but the bill was finally 



j)as.s('d with an amendment ineorporatin<» 
into it the anti-slavery clause of tlie ordi- 
nance of 1787. Mr. C.ilhoun, in tlie Sen- 
ate, declared that the exclusion of sluvtrry 
from any territory w;is a subversion of the 
Union; openly proclaimed tiie strife be- 
tween the North and South to be ended, 
and the sei)aration of the States accom- 
plished. His speech was an open invo.j;i- 
tion to disunion, and from tJiat time forth, 
the efforts were regular to obtain a meet- 
ing of the members from the slave SL;ites, 
to unite in a call for a convention of the 
slave States to redress themselves. He 
said: " The great strife betwien the North 
and the South is ended. The North is 
determined to exclude the property of the 
slaveholder, and, of course, the slaveholder 
himself, from its territory. On this j)oint 
there seems to be no division in the North. 
In the South, he regretted to say, there 
was some division of sentiment. The 
effect of this determination of the North 
was to convert all the Southern population 
into slaves; and he would never consent 
to entail that disgrace on his jiosterity. 
He denounced any Southern man who 
would not take the same course. Gentle- 
men were greatly mistaken if they sup- 
posed the Presidential question in the 
South would override this more important 
one. The separation of the North and the 
South is completed. The South has now 
a most solemn obligation to perform — to 
herself — to the constitution — to the Union. 
She is bound to come to a decision not to 
permit this to go on any further, but to 
show that, dearly as she prizes the Union, 
there are questions which she regards aa 
of greater importance than the Union. 
This is not a question of territorial govern- 
ment, but a question involving the con- 
tinuance of the Union." The President, 
in approving the Oregon bill, took occa- 
sion to send in a special message, point- 
ing out the danger to the Union from the 
progress of the slavery agitation, and urged 
an adherence to the principles of the ordi- 
nance of 1787 — the terms of the Missouri 
compromise of 1820 — as also that involved 
and declared in the Texas case in 1845, as 
the means of averting that danger. 

The Presidential election of 1848 was 
coming on. The Democratic convention 
met in Baltimore in May of that year; 
each State being represented in the con- 
vention by the number of delegates equal 
to the number of electoral votes it was en- 
titled to ; saving only New York, which 
sent two sets of delegates, and both were 
excluded. The delegates were, for the 
most part, members of Congress and oflSce- 
holders. The two-thirds rule, adopted by 
the previous convention, wjis again made 
a law of the convention. The main ques- 
tion which arose upon the formation of 
the platform for the campaign, wu3 th© 



60 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



doctrine advanced by the Southern mem- 
bers of non-interference with slavery in 
the States or in the Territories. The can- 
didates of the party were, Lewis Cass, of 
Michigan, for President, and General Wm. 
O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

The Whig convention, taking advan- 
tage of the popularity of Genl. Zachary 
Taylor, for his military achievements in 
the Mexican war, then just ended ; and 
his consequent availability as a candidate, 
nominated him for the Presidency, over Mr. 
Clay, Mr. Webster and General Scott, who 
were his competitors before the convention. 
Millard Fillmore was selected as the Vice- 
presidential candidate. 

A third convention was held, consisting 
of the disaffected Democrats from New 
York who had been excluded from the 
Baltimore convention. They met at Utica, 
New York, and nominated Martin Van 
Bnren for President, and Charles Francis 
Adams for Vice President. The princi- 
ples of its platform, were, that Congress 
should abolish slavery wherever it consti- 
tutionally had the power to do so — [which 
was intended to apply to the District of 
Columbia] — that it should not interfere 
with it in the slave States — and that it 
should prohibit it in the Territories. This 
party became known as " Free-soilers," 
froni their doctrines thus enumerated, and 
their party cry of " free-soil, free-speech, 
free-labor, free-men." The result of the 
election, as might have been foreseen, was 
to lose kew York State to the Baltimore 
candidate, and give it to the whigs, who 
were triumphant in the reception of 163 
electoral votes for their candidates, against 
127 for the democrats; and none for the 
free-soilers. 

The last message of President Polk, in 
December following, gave him the oppor- 
tunity to again urge upon Congress the 
necessity for some measure to quiet the 
slavery agitation, and he recommended 
the extension of the Missouri compromise 
line to the Pacific Ocean, passing through 
the new Territories of California and New 
Mexico, as a fair adjustment, to meet as 
far as possible the views of all parties. 
The President referred also to the state of 
the finances; the excellent condition of 
the public treasure; government loans, 
commanding a high premium ; gold and 
silver the establiahcd currency ; and the 
business interests of the country in a pros- 
perous condition. And this was the state 
of affairs, only one year after emergency 
from a foreign war. It would be unfair 
not to give credit to the President and to 
Senator Benton and others equally promi- 
nent and courageous, who at that time had 
to battle against the bank theory and 
national paper money currency, as strongly 
urged and advocated, and to prove even- 



tually that the money of the Constitution 
— gold and silver — was the only currency 
to ensure a successful financial working of 
the government, and prosperity to the peo- 
ple. 

The new President, General Zachary 
Taylor, was inaugurated March 4, 1849. 
The Senate being convened, as usual, in 
extra session, for the purpose, the Vice 
President elect, Millard Fillmore, was duly 
installed ; and the Whig cabinet officers 
nominated by the President, promptly 
confirmed.' An additional member of the 
Cabinet was appointed by this administra- 
tion to preside over the new " Home De- 
partment " since called the " Interior," 
created at the previous session of Con- 
gress. 

The following December Congress met 
in regular session — the 31st since the or- 
ganization of the federal government. 
The Senate consisted of sixty members, 
among whom were Mr. Webster, Mr. Cal- 
houn, and Mr. Clay, who had returned to 
public life. The House had 230 members ; 
and although the whigs had a small ma- 
jority, the House was so divided on the 
slavery question in its various phases, 
that the election for Speaker resulted in 
the choice of the Democratic candidate, 
Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, by a majority of 
three votes. The annual message of the 
President plainly showed that he compre- 
hended the dangers to the Union from a 
continuance of sectional feeling on the 
slavery question, and he averred his deter- 
mination to stand by the Union to the full 
extent of his obligations and powers. At 
the previous session Congress had spent 
six months in endeavoring to frame a sat- 
isfactory bill providing territorial govern- 
ments for California and New Mexico, 
and had adjourned finally without accom- 
plishing it, in consequence of inability to 
agree upon whether the Missouri compro- 
mise line should be carried to the ocean, 
or the territories be permitted to remain 
as they were — slavery prohibited under 
the laws of Mexico. Mr. Calhoun brought 
forward, in the debate, a new doctrine — 
extending the Constitution to the territory, 
and arguing tliat as that instrument recog- 
nized the existence of slavery, the settlers 
in such territory should be permitted to 
hold their slave property taken there, and 
be protected. Mr. Webster's answer to 
this was that the Constitution >vas made 
for States, not territories ; that it cannot 
operate anywhere, not even in the States 
for which it was made, without acts of 
Congress to enforce it. The proposed ex- 
tension of the constitution to territories, 
with a view to its transportation of slavery 
along with it, was futile and nugatory, 
without the act of Congress to vitalize 
slavery ixnder it. The early part of the 
year had witnessed ominou» movements — 



MR. CLAY'S COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 



51 



nif;:htly meetings of large numbers of mem- 
bers rroiii the Klave SUites, led by Mr. 
C.ilhouri, to consider the s(;ite of tilings 
between tlie Nortli and tlie South. Tlu-y 
appointed eomniitteed who prepared an 
addres.s to the people. It was in this eon- 
dition of things, that President Taylor ex- 
pressed his opinion, in his message, of the 
reiuudies re<|nired. t'alifornia, New 
Mexieo and Utah, had been left without 
governments. For California, he recom- 
mended that having a suOieient poi>ula- 
tion ami liaving framed a eonstitution, 
she be admitted as a State into the 
Union ; and f )r New Mexieo and Utah, 
without mixing the slavery question with 
their territorial governments, they be lef; 
to ri[)en into States, and settle the slavery 
question for themselves in their State con- 
stitutions. 

With a view to meet the wislies of all 
parties, and arrive at some defniite and 
permanent adjustment of the slavery ques- 
tion, Mr. Clay early in the session in- 
troduced compromise resolutions which 
were practically a tacking together of the 
several bills then on the calendar, provid- 
ing for the admission of California — the 
territorial government for Utah and New 
Mexico— the settlement of the Texas boun- 
dary — slavery in the District of Columbia 
— and for a fugitive slave law. It was 
seriously and earnestly opposed by many, 
as being a concession to the spirit of dis- 
union — a capitulation under threat of se- 
cession; and as likely to become the source 
of more contentions than it proposed to 
quiet. 

The resolutions were referred to a special 
committee, who promptly reported a bill 
embracing the comprehensive plan of com- 
promise which Mr. Clay proposed. Among 
the resolutions oftered, was the following : 
" Resolved, that as slavery does not exist 
by law and is not likely to be introduced 
into any of the territory acquired by the 
United States from the "Republic of Mexi- 
co, it is inexpedient for Congress to })ro- 
vide bv law either for its introduction int<i 
or exclusion from any part of the said ter- 
ritory ; and that appropriate territorial 
governments ought to be established by 
Congress in all of the said territory, and 
assigned as the boundaries of the jiroposed 
State of California, without the adoption 
of any restriction or condition on the sub- 
ic't of slavery." Mr. Jefferson Davis of 
Mississippi, objected that the measure gave 
nothing to the South in the settlement of 
the question ; and he required the exten- 
sion of the Missouri compromise line to 
the Pacific Ocean as the least that he 
would be willing to take, with the sjiccifie 
recognition of the right to hold slaves in 
the territory below that line; and that, be- 
fore such territories are admitted into the 
"Union as States, slaves may be taken there 



from any of tlie United States at the option 
of their owner. 

Mr. Clay in rejdy, said : " Coming from 
a slave State, us I do, 1 owe it to uiy.^elf, I 
owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to 
say that no earthly jjower could induce me 
to vote for a specilic measure lor tlie in- 
troduction of slavery where it had not he- 
fore existed, either south or north of that 
line. * * * If the citizens of those 
territories choose to estal)lish slavery, and 
if they come here with eon-titutions es- 
tablishing slavery, I am fur admitting 
them with such jirovisions in their consti- 
tutions; but then it will be their own 
work, and not ours, and their posterity 
will have to reproach them, and not us, for 
forming constitutions allowing the institu- 
tion of slavery to exist among them." 

Mr. Seward of New York, proposed a 
renewal of the Wilmot Proviso, in the fol- 
lowing resolution: "Neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude, otherwise than by ♦ 
conviction for crime, shall ever be allowed 
in either of said territories of Utah and 
New Mexico ; " but his resolution was re- 
jected in the Senate by a vote of 23 yeas to 
o8 na\-s. Following this, Mr. Calhoun 
had read for him in the Senate, by his 
friend James M. Mason of Virginia, hi-a 
last speech. It embodied the points cov- 
ered by the address to the people, pre- 
pared by him the previous year; the prob- 
ability of a dissolution of the Union, and 
presenting a case to justify it. The tenor 
of the speech is shown by the following ex- 
tracts from it: "I have. Senators, believed 
from the first, that the agitation of the sub- 
ject of slavery would, if not prevented by 
some timely and effective measure, end in 
disunion. Entertaining this opinion, I 
have, on all proper occasions, endeavored to 
call the attention of each of the two great 
parties which divide the country to adopt 
some measure to prevent so great a disas- 
ter, but without success. The agitation has 
been permitted to proceed, with almost no 
attempt to resist it, until it has reached a 
period when it can no longer be disguised 
or denied that the Union is in danger. 
You have had forced upon you the great- 
est and gravest question that can ever 
come under your consideration : How can 
the Union be preserved? ***** 
Instead of being weaker, all the elements 
in favor of agitation are stronger now than 
they were in 1S3"), when it first commenced, 
while all the elements of influence on tho 
part of the South are weaker. Unle-ss 
something decisive is done, I again ask 
what is to stop this agitation, before the 
great and final o])ject at which it aims — 
the .abolition of slavery in the States— is 
consummated ? Is it, then, not certain thai 
if something decisive is not now done to 
.arrest it, the South will be forced to choose 
between abolition and secession ? Indeed 



52 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



as events are now moving, it will not re- 
quire the Soutli to secede to dissolve the 
Uniou. * * " ''■■ If the agitation goes 
on, nothing will be left to hold the Stutes 
together except force." He answered the 
qire.stion, Hvro can the Union he saved ? 
with which his speech opened, by suggest- 
ing. " To i)rovide for the insertion of a 
provision in the constitution, by an amend- 
ment, which will restore to the South in 
substance tlie power she possessed of pro- 
tecting hcr.self, before the equilibrium be- 
tween the sections was destroyed by the 
action of the government." He did not 
state of wliat the amendment should con- 
sist, but latfn- 0!i, it was a.scertained from 
reliable sources that his idea was a dual 
executive — one President from the free, 
and one from the slave States, the consent 
of both of whom should be required to all 
acus of Congress before they become laws. 
This speech of Mr. Calhoun's, is import- 
ant as explaining many of his previous ac- 
tions; and as furnishing a guide to those 
who ten years afterwards attempted to 
carry out practically the suggestions 
thrown out by him, 

Mr. Clay's compromise bill was rejected. 
It was evident that no compromise of any 
kind whatever on the subject of slavery, 
under any one of its aspects separately, 
much less under all put together, could 
possibly be n^ade. There was no spirit of 
conces'icn manifested. The numerous 
measures put together in Mr. Clay's bill 
were di.sconnected and separated. Each 
measure received a separate and inde- 
pendent consideration, and with a result 
which showed the injustice of the at- 
tempted conjunction ; for no two of them 
were ^-assed Ity the same vote, even of the 
members of the committee Avhich had even 
unanimously reported favorably upon them 
as a whole. 

Mr. Calhoun died in the spring of 1850 ; 
before the separate bill for the admission 
of California was taken up. His death 
took place at Washington, he having 
reached the age of 68 years. A eulogy 
upon him was delivered in the Senate by 
his colleague, Mr. Butler, of South Caro- 
lina. Mr. Calhoun was the first great ad- 
vocate of the doctrine of secession. He 
was the author of the nullification doc- 
trine, and an advocate of the extreme doc- 
trine of States Rights. He was an elo- 
quent speaker — a man of strong intellect. 
His speeches were plain, strong, concise, 
sometimes impassioned, and always severe. 
Daniel Webster said of liim, that " he had 
the basis, the indispensable basis of all 
high characters, and tliat Avas unsp(jtted 
integrity, unimpeached lioncjr and char- 
acter ! " 

In .Tuly of this year an event took place 
which threw a gloom over the country. 
The President, General Taylor^ contracted a 



fever from exposure to the hot sun at a cele- 
bration of Independence Day, from which 
he died four days aiterwards. He was a 
man of irreproachable private character, 
undoubted j>atriotism, and established re- 
putation for judgment and firmness. His 
brief career showed no deficiency of poli- 
tical wisdom nor want of political training. 
His administration was beset with difiicul- 
ties, with momentous questions pending, 
and he met the crisis with firmness and 
determination, resolved to maintain the 
Federal Union at all hazards. His first 
and only annual message, the leading 
points of which have been stated, evinces 
a spirit to do what was right among all the 
States. His death was a public calamity. 
No man could have been more devoted to 
the Union nor more opposed to the slavery 
agitation ; and his position as a Southern 
man and a slaveholder — his military repu- 
tation, and his election by a majority of 
the people as well as of the States, would 
have given him a power in the settlement 
of the pending questions of the day which 
no President without these qualifications 
could have possessed. 

In accordance with the Constitution, the 
office of President thus devolved upon the 
Vice-President, Mr. Millard Fillmore, who 
was duly inaugurated July 10, 1850. The 
new cabinet, with Daniel Webster as Se- 
cretary of State, was duly appointed and 
confirmed by the Senate. 

The bill for the admission of California 
as a State in the Union, was called up in 
the Senate and sought to be amended by 
extending the Missouri Compromise line 
through it, to the Pacific Ocean, so as to 
authorize slavery in the State below that 
line. The amendment was introduced and 
pressed by Southern friends of the late- 
Mr. Calhoun, and made a test question. It 
was lost, and the bill passed by a two- 
third vote ; whereupon ten Southern Sena- 
tors offered a written protest, the conclud- 
ing clause of which was : *' We dissent 
from this bill, and solemnly protest against 
its passage, because in sanctioning mea- 
sures so contrary to former precedents, to 
obvious policy, to the spirit and intent of 
the constitution of the United States, for 
the purpose of excluding the slaveholding 
States from the territory thus to be erected 
into a State, this government in eflect de- 
clares that the exclusion of slavery from 
the territorj' of the United States is an ob- 
ject so high and important as to justify a 
disregard not only of all the principles of 
sound policy, but also of the constitution 
itself. Against this conclusion we must 
now and lor ever protest, as it is destruc- 
tive of the safety and liberties of those 
whose rights have been committed to our 
care, fatal to the peace and equality of the 
States which we represent, and must lead, 
if persisted in, to the dissolution of that 



RISE AND PUOGllESS OF ABOLITION PARTY. 



53 



confeleracy, in wliich the tlavcholdiii}; 
States have mcvlt souj^ht more tliaii 
oqtiiility, and in which they will not he 
content to remain with less." On objec- 
tion boin^c m!i(U', followed by debate, the 
Senate rol'iii'ed to receive tlie j)roU!.-.t, or 
permit it to be entered on the Jonrnal. 
The bill went to the House of Representa- 
tives, was readily passed, and promptly 
aj)[)roved by the President. Thus was 
virtually accomplished the abroi^ation of 
the Missouri compromise line; and the ex- 
tension or non-e.Kten:non of slavery was 
then made to form a foundation for future 
political parties. 

The year 18')() was prolific with disunion 
movements in the Southern States. The 
Senators who had joined with ]\Ir. (.'alhoun 
in tlio address to the people, in 184i>, 
united with their adherents in establishing; 
at Washington a newspaper entitled "The 
Southern Press," devoted to the agitation 
of the slavery question ; to presenting the 
advantages of disunion, and the organi- 
zation of a confederacy of Southern 
States to be called the "United States 
South." Its constant aim was to influence 
the South against the North, and advoca- 
ted concert of action by the States of tlie 
former section. It was aided in its efforts 
by newspapers j ublislied in the South, 
more especially in South Carolina and 
Mississippi. A disunion convention was 
actually lield, in Nashville, Tennessee, and 
invited the assembly of a Southern Con- 
gress. Two States. South Carolina and 
Mississippi responded to the appeal ; 
passed laws to carry it into effect, and the 
former went so far as to elect its quota of 
Representatives to the proposed new 
Southern Congress. These occurrences 
are referred to as showing the spirit that 
prevailed, and the extraordinary and un- 
justifiable means used by the leaders to 
mislead and exasperate the people. The 
assembling of a Southern " Congress " was 
a turning point in the progress of disunion. 
Georgia refused to join ; and her weight as 
a great Southern State was sufficient to cause 
the failure of the scheme. But the seeds 
of discord were sown, and had taken root, 
only to spring up at a future time when 
circumstances should be more favorable to 
the accomplishment of the object. 

Although the Congress of the United 
States had in 1790 and again in 1836 
formally declared the policy of the govern- 
ment to be non-interference with the States 
in respect to the matter of slavery within 
the limits of the respective States, "the sub- 
ject continued to be agitated in conse- 
quence of petitions to Coneress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, which 
w:us under the exclusive control of the fed- 
oral government; and of movements 
thr-uighout the United States to limit, and 
finally abolish it The subject fu-st made ita 



ai»i)eara'ic" in nation il politics in l.^IO.when 
a ]ireiidenlial ticket wa.s noiiiiuato'l liy a 
party tiieii forme(l favoring tIieaI»iition of 
slavery; it had a very sligho Collowii!;^ 
which was incre;u>e<l ten-fold at tho elec- 
tion of 1K44 when the same p;;rty aL'.un 
put a ticket in the field wilh James IJ, 
15irn(!y of Michigan, iis its candidate for 
the Presidency; who received G2,li') v )t,es. 
The efforts of the leaders of tiiat faction 
were continued, and persisted in to su< h 
an extent, that when in 1818 it nominaled 
a ticket with Gerritt Smith for Pre* dent, 
against the Democratic candidate, Martin 
Van Buren, the former received 2i)(5.i',2 
votes. In the i)rcsidcntial contest of Mi'yl 
the abolition party again no:nina(ed a 
ticket, with John P. Hale as its (landidatu 
for I'residcnt, and ])olled loJ/Jlii vti's. 
This large following was incre;wcJ fWnn 
time to time, until uniting with a new 
party then formed, called the Republican 
party, which latter adopted a platlbna en- 
dorsing the views and sentiment.^ of the 
abolitionists, the great and deci.sivo battle 
for the principles involved, was fought in 
the ensuing presidential contest of LSOG; 
when the candidate of the Republican 
party, John C. Fremont, supported by tlie 
entire al)olition party, polled l,.'Ui,S12 
votes. The first national platf^jrni of the 
Abolition party, upon which it went into 
the contest of 1840, favored the ab'^Iition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia and 
Territories; the inter-state slave trade, 
and a general opposition to slavery to the 
full extent of constitutional pawer. 

Following the discussion of t!io subject of 
slavery, in the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives, brought about by tho pri^^enta- 
tion of petitions and memorials, and the 
passage of the resolutions in ISSd rejecting 
such petitions, the question w;ia again 
raised by the presentation in the Ilou'-e, 
by Mr. Slade of Vermont, on the 20th 
December 1837, of two memorial praying 
the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and moving that they be re- 
ferred to a select committee. Great excite- 
ment prevailed in the chamber, and of the 
many attempts by the Southern members 
an adjournment was had. The next day a 
resolution was offered that thereafter "all 
such petitions and memorials touching thfi 
abolition of slavery should, when {)re- 
sented, be laid on the table ; which resolu- 
tion was adopted by a large vote. During 
the 24th Congress, the Senate pursued the 
course of laying on the table the motion to 
receive all abolition petition-s ; and both 
Houses during the 25th Congress continued 
the same course of conduct; when finally 
on the 2oth of January 1840, tlie House 
adopted bv a vote of 114 to 108, an amend- 
ment to the rnle-5, called tlie 2Ist Rule, 
which provided : — " that no petition, me- 
morial or resolution, or other paper, pray- 



54 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ing the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, or iiny state or territory, or 
the slave-trade between the States or ter- 
ritories of the United States, in which it 
now exists, sluiU be received by tliis 
House, or entertained in any way what- 
ever." This rule was afterwards, on the 
3d of December, 18-fi, rescinded by the 
House, on motion of Mr. J. Quincy Adams, 
by a vote of 1('8 to 80; and a motion to 
re-instate it, on the 1st of December 1845, 
was rejected by a vote of 84 to 121. 
Within live years afterwards — on the 17th 
September 1850, — the Congress of the 
United States enacted a law, which was ap- 
proved l)y the President, abolishing slavery 
in the District of Columbia. 

On the 25th of February, 1850, there 
was presented in the House of Representa- 
tives, two petitions from citizens of Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware, setting forth that 
slavery, and the constitution which per- 
mits it, violates the Divine law; is incon- 
sistent with republican principles ; that 
its existence has brought evil upon the 
country; and that no union can exist with 
States which tolerate that institution ; and 
asking that some plan be devised for the 
immediate, peaceful dissolution of the 
Union. The House refused to receive and 
consider the petitions ; as did also the 
Senate when the same petitions were pre- 
sented the same month. 

The presidential election of 1852 was the 
last campaign in which the Whig party 
appeared in National politics. It nomi- 
nated a ticket with General Winfield Scott 
as its candidate for President. His oppo- 
nent on the Democratic ticket was General 
Franklin Pierce. A third ticket was placed 
in the field by the Abolition party, with 
John P. Hale as its candidate for Presi- 
dent. The platform and declaration of 
principles of tlie Whig party was in sub- 
Btance a ratification and endorsement of 
the several measures embraced in Mr. 
Clay's compromise resolutions of the pre- 
vious session of Congress, before referred 
to; and the policy of a revenue for the 
economical administration of the govern- 
ment, to be derived mainly from duties on 
imports, and by these means to afford pro- 
tection to American industry. The main 
plank of the platform of the Abolition 
party (or Independent Democrats, as they 
were called) was for the non-extension and 
gradual extinction of slavery. The Demo- 
cratic party equally adhered to the com- 
promise measure. The election resulted 
in the choice of Franklin Pierce, by a 
popular voteof 1,(501,474, and 254 electoral 
votes, against a pojnilar agtrregate vote of 
1,542,40.'} (of which the abolitionists polled 
157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the 
Whig and Abolition candidates. Mr. 
Pierce was duly inaugurated as President, 
March 4, 1853. 



The first political parties in the United 
States, from the establishment of the fede- 
ral government and for many years aiter- 
wards, were denominated Federalists and 
Democrats, or Democratic Republicans. 
The former was an anti-alien party. The 
latter was made up to a large extent of 
naturalized foreigners ; refugees from Eng- 
land, Ireland and Scotland, driven from 
home for hostility to the government or for 
attachment to France. Naturally, aliens 
sought alliance with the Democratic party, 
which favored the war against Great 
Britain. The early party contests were 
based on the naturalization laws; the first 
of which, approved March 26, 1790, re- 
quired only two years' residence in this 
country ; a few years afterwards the time 
was extended to five years; and in 1798 
the Federalists taking advantage of the 
war fever against France, and then being 
in power, extended the time to Iburtcen 
years. (See Alien and Sedition Lnws of 
1798). Jefferson's election and Demo- 
cratic victory of 1800, brought the period 
back to five years in 1802, and re-inforced 
the Democratic party. The city of New 
York, especially, from time to time became 
filled with foreigners; thus naturalized; 
brought into the Democratic ranks; and 
crowded out native Federalists from con- 
trol of the city government, and to meet 
this condition of affairs, the first attempt 
at a Native American organization was 
made. Beginning in 1835 ; ending in 
failure in election of Mayor in 1837, it was 
revived in April, 1844, when the Native 
American organization carried New York 
city for its IMayoralty candidate by a good 
majority. The success of the movement 
there, caused it to spread to New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, it was 
desperately opposed by the Democratic, 
Irish and Roman Catholic element, and so 
furiously, that it resulted in riots, in which 
two Romish Churche.s were burned and 
destroyed. The adherents of the Ameri- 
can organization were not confined to 
Federalists or Whigs, but largely of native 
Democrats ; and the Whigs openly voted 
with Democratic Natives in order to secure 
their vote for Henry Clay for the Presi- 
dency ; but when in November, 1844, New 
York and Philadelphia both gave Native 
majorities, and so sapped tlie Whig vote, 
that both places gave majorities for the 
Democratic Presidential electors, the 
Whigs drew off. In 1845, at the April 
election in New York, the natives were 
defeated, and the new party disappeared 
there. As a result of the autumn election 
of 1844, the 29th Congress, which organ- 
ized in December, 1845, hnd six Native ; 
Representatives ; four from New York and 
two from I^Minsylvania. In the 30th Con- 
gress, Pennsylvania had one. Thereafter 
for some years, with the exception of a ^ 






TUE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 



'oi> 



small vote in Pennsylvania and New York, 
NativisHJ (lisapiieaied. An able writer of 
that day— Hon. A. II. II. Stuart, of Vir- 
ginia — publi.siu'd under the noiu-de-plunie 
ot' '■ Madison " several letters in vindieation 
of the .\nierican party (revived in ISo^,) in 
wliicii he said: "The vital prineipleof the 
American party is Amcricditisin — develop- 
ing^ itself in a deep-rooted attaelunent to 
onrowii t-ountry — it« eon-ititntion, it-s union, 
and its laws — to Anieriean nien,and /Ameri- 
can measures, and American interest-s — or, 
in other words, a fervent i)atriotism — 
whieh, rejeetiii;^ the transeendental phihin- 
thropy of abolitionists, and that kimlred 
batch of wild enthusiasts, who would seek 
to embroil us witli foreign countries, in 
rightin:^ the wnMigs of Ireland, or Hun- 
gary, or Cuba — would guard with vestal 
vigilance American institutions and Ameri- 
can interests against the baneful effects of 
foreign inlhience." 

About lS,'y2, when the question of slavery 
in the territories, and its extension or its 
abolition in the States, was agitated and 
causing sectional ditferences in the coun- 
try, many Whigs and Democrats forsook 
their parties, and took siiles on the ques- 
tions of the day. This was aggravated by 
the large number of alien naturalized citi- 
zens constantly added to the ranks of 
voters, who took sides with the Democrats 
and against the Whigs. Nativism then 
re-appeared, but in a new form — that of a 
secret fraternity. Its real n.ame and ob- 
ject;3 were not revealed — even to its mem- 
bers, until they reached a high degree in 
the order; and the answer of members on 
being questioned on these subjects was, " I 
don't know" — which gave it the popular 
name, by which it is yet known, of " Know- 
nothing." It,s moving causes were the 
growing power and designs of the Roman 
Catholic Church in America ; the sudden 
influx of aliens; and the greed and inca- 
pacity of naturalized citizens for office. 
Its cardinal principle was : "Americans 
must rule America"; and its countersign 
was the order of General Washington on a 
critical occasion during the war : " Put 
none but Americans on guard to-night." 
Its early nominations were not made pub- 
lie, but were made by select committees 
and conventions of delegates. At first 
these nominations were confined to selec- 
tions of the best Whig or best Democrat on 
the respec-tive tickets; and the choice not 
being made known, but quietly voted for 
by all the members of the order, the effect 
was only visil)le after election, and threw 
all calculation into chaos. For a while it 
was really the arbiter of elections. 

On February S, 1853, a bill passed the 
House of Representatives providing a ter- 
ritorial government for Nebraska, embrac- 
ing all of what is now Kansas and 
Nebniska. It w;xs silent on the subject of 



the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
The bill was tai)led in the Senate ; to bo 
revived at the following session. In tho 
Senate it was amended, on motion of Mr. 
Doug! art, to read : "That so much of tiio 
'Sth .section of an act approved March G, 
1.S20, (the Missouri comi)romise) * * » 
which, being inconsistent with the ])rinci- 
]iles of non-intervention liy Congress with 
slavi'ry in the Stales and Territorie-*, as 
rccogiiizc(l by the legislature of 1S.">(), com- 
monly called the Compiomise measures, is 
hereby declared inoperative and void ; it 
being the true intent and meaning of 
this act not to legislate slavery into any 
Territory or State, nor to exclmle it there- 
from, but to leave the people thereof per- 
fectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." It was further amended, 
on motion of Senator Clayton, to prohil)it 
"alien suffrage." In the House thi.s 
amendment was not agreed to ; and the 
bill finally passed without it, on the 25th 
May, 1854. 

So fiir as Nebraska was concerned, no 
excitement of any kind marked the initia- 
tion of her territorial existence. The 
persons who emigrated there seemed to 
regard the pursuits of business as of moro 
interest than the discussion of slavery. 
Kansas was less fortunate. Her territory 
became at once the battle-field of a fierce 
political conflict between the advocates of 
slavery, and the free soil men from the 
North who went there to resist the estab- 
lishment of that institution in the terri- 
tory. Differences arose between tho 
Legislature and the Governor, brought 
about by antagonisms between the Pro- 
slavery party and the Free State party ; 
and the condition of affairs in Kansas 
assumed so frightful a mien in January, 
1856, that the President sent a special 
message to Congress on the subject, 
January 24, 1856 ; followed by a Proclama- 
tion, February 11, 1856, "warning all un- 
lawful combinations (in the territory) to 
retire peaceably to their respective abodes, 
or he would use the power of the local 
militia, and the available forces of the 
United States to disperse them." 

Several applications were made to Con- 
gress for .several successive years, for the 
admission of Kansas as a state in the 
Union; upon the basis of three separate 
and distinct constitutions, all difTering a.s 
to the main questions at issue between tho 
contending factions. The name of Kansas 
was for some years synonymous with all 
that is lawless and anarchical. Elections 
became mere farces, and the oflicers thus 
fraudulently ])laced in power, used their 
authority only for their own or their 
l)arty's interest. The party op]>osed to 
slavery at length triumphed ; a ci-.isiitutioa 



66 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



excluding slrivery wn.s adopted in 1859, 
and Kansas was admitted into the Union 
January 29, ISGl. 

Under the fugitive slave law, which was 
passed by Congress at the session of 1850, 
a.s one of the (?oiTipromise measures, intro- 
duced by Mr. Cl;iy, a long and exciting 
litigation occurred to test the validity and 
constitutionality of the act, and the several 
laws on which it (te]iended. The suit was 
instituted by Dred Scott, a negro slave, in 
the Circuit Court of the United States for 
the District of Missouri, in April Term, 
1854, against John F. A. Sanford, his 
alleged owner, for trespass vi ei armis, in 
holding the plaintiff and his Avife and 
daughters in slavery in said District of 
Missouri, where by law slavery was pro- 
hibited ; they having been previously law- 
fully held in slavery by a former owner — 
Dr. Emerson — in the State of Illinois, 
from whence they were taken by him to 
Missouri, and sold to the defendent, San- 
ford. The case went up on appeal to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and 
was clearly and elaborately argued. The 
majority opinion, delivered by Chief Jus- 
tice Taney, as also the dissenting opinions, 
are reported in fiill in Howard's U. S. 
Supreme Court Reports, Volume 19, page 
393. In respect to the territories the Con- 
stitution grants to Congress the power " to 
make all needful rules and regulations 
concerning the territory and otlter iwoperty 
belonging to the United States.'' The 
Court was of opinion that the clause of 
the Constitution applies only to the terri- 
tory within the original States at the time 
the Constitution was adopted, and that it 
did not apply to future territory acquired 
by treaty or conquest from foreign na- 
tions. They were also of opinion tliat the 
power of Congress over such future terri- 
torial acquisitions was not unlimited, that 
the citizens of the States migrating to a 
territory were not to be regarded as 
colonists, subject to absolute power in 
Congress, but as citizens of the United 
States, with all the rights of citizenship 
guarantied by the Constitution, and that 
no legislation was constitutional which at- 
tempted to deprive a citizen of his 
property on his becoming a resident of a 
territory. This question in the case arose 
under the act of Congress prohibiting 
slavery in the territory of upper Louisiana, 
(acquired from France, afterwards the 
State), and of which the territory of 
Missouri was formed. Any obscurity as 
to what constitutes citizenship, will be re- 
moved by attending to the di.stinction be- 
tween local rights of citizenship of the 
United States according to the Constitu- 
tion. Citizenship at large in the sense of 
the Constitution can be conferred on a 
foreigner only by the naturalization laws 
of Congress. But each State, in the excr. 



cise of its local and reserved sovereignty, 
may place foreigners or other persons on 
a footing with its own citizens, as to politi- 
cal rights and privileges to be enjoyed 
within its own dominion. But State regu- 
lations of this character do not make the 
persons on whom such rights are conferred 
citizens of the United States or entitle 
them to the privileges and immunities of 
citizens in another State. See 5 Wheaton, 
(U. S. Supreme Court Reports), page 4!>. 

The Court said in The Dred Scott case, 
above referred to, that : — " The right of 
property in a slave is distinctly and ex- 
pressly affirmed in the Constitution. The 
right to traffic in it like the ordinary article 
of merchandise and property was guar- 
antied to the citizens of the United States, 
in every State that might desire it for 
twenty years, and the government in ex- 
press terms is pledged to protect it in all 
future time if the slave escapes from his 
owner. This is clone in plain words — too 
plain to be misunderstood, and no word 
can be found in the Constitution which 
gives Congress a greater power over slave 
property, or which entitles property of 
that kind to less protection than the prop- 
erty of any other description. The only 
power conferred is the power coupled with 
the duty of guarding and protecting the 
owner in his rights. Upon these considera- 
tions, it is the opinion of the Court that 
the Act of Congress which prohibited a 
citizen from holding and owning property 
of this kind in the territoiy of the United 
States north of the line therein mentioned, 
is not warranted by the Constitution and 
is therefore void; and that neither Dred 
Scott himself, nor any of his family were 
made free by being carried into this terri- 
tory ; even if they had been carried there 
by the owner with the intention of becom- 
ing a permanent resident." The abolition 
of slavery by the 13th amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States ratified 
and adopted December 18, ISfio, has put 
an end to these discussions formerly so 
numerous. 

As early as 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska 
controversy on the territorial government 
bill, resulted in a division of the Whig 
party in the North. Those not s^ufficiently 
opposed to slavery to enter the new Re]nib- 
lican party, then in its incipicncy, allied 
themselves with the Know-Nothing order, 
which now accepting the name of Ameri- 
can party established a separate and in- 
dependent political existence. The party 
had no hold in the West ; it was entirely 
Middle State at this time, and polled a 
large vote in Massachusetts, Delaware and 
New York. In the State elections of 1855 
the American party made a stride South- 
ward. In 1855, the absence of natural- 
ized citizens was universal in the South, 
and even so late as 1881 the proportion of 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



57 



farcij?n-born population in the Soutlicrn 
States, witli the exception of Florida, 
Louisiana, and Texas was under two per 
cent. At the early date — IKVy — tlie na- 
tivist feelinj? among the Whigs of tliat 
section, made it easy to transfer them to 
the American party, whicli thus secureil in 
both the Eastern and Southern States, tlu' 
election of Governor and Jvcgishiture in 
the States of New llam|)shire, .Massachu- 
Betts, Kliode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, California and Kentucky; and also 
elected part of its State ticket in Mary- 
land, and Texas ; and only lost the States 
of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi- 
ana, and Texas, by small majorities against 
it. 

The order began preparations for a cam- 
paign as a National party, in 1S")(3. It aimed 
to introduce opposition to aliens and Ro- 
man Catholicism as a national question. 
On the 21st of February, 1S5(), the Nation- 
al Council held a session at Philadelphia, 
and proceeded to formulate a declaration of 
principles, and make a platform, which 
were as follows : 

" An humble acknowledgement to the 
Supreme Being, for his protecting care 
vouchsafed to our fathers in their success- 
ful Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto 
manifested to us, their descendants, in the 
preservation of the liberties, the indepen- 
dence, and the union of these States. 

2(1. The i)erpetuation of the Federal 
Union, as the palladium of our civil and 
religious liberties, and the only sure Bul- 
wark of American independence. 

3d. Americans must rule America, and 
to this end, native-born citizens should be 
selected for all state, federal, and munici- 
pal otfices or government employment, in 
preference to all others ; nevertheless, 

4th. Persons born of American par- 
ents residing temporarily abroad, should 
be entitled to all the rights of native-born 
citizens ; but, 

5th. No person shall be selected for po- 
litical station (whether of native or for- 
eign birth), who recognizes any allegiance 
or obligation, of any description, to any 
foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who 
refuses to recognize the Federal and State 
constitutions (each within its sphere) a.s 

{►araniount to all other laws, as rules of po- 
itical action. 

6th. The unqualified recognition and 
maintenance of the reserved rights of the 
several States, and the cultivation of har- 
mony and fraternal good will, between the 
citizens of the several States, and to this 
en<l, non-interference by congress with 
questions appertaining solely to the indi- 
vidual States, and non-intervention by each 
State with tlie affairs of any other State. 

7th. The recognition of the right of 
the native-born and naturalized citizens of 
the United States, permanently residing in 



any territory thereof, to frame their con- 
stitution and laws, and to regulate tiieir 
domestic and social ailairs in tlicir own 
mode, subject only to tlie provisions of the 
Federal ('onstitution, with the privilege of 
admission into the Union, whenever they 
have the requisite j)oj)ulation f )r one rep- 
resentative in (,'ongress. — I'rovided always, 
i that none but those who are citizens of the 
United States, under the (Jonstitution and 
laws thereof, and who have a fixed resi- 
dence in any sucli territory, ought to par 
ticipate in the formation of the Constitu- 
tion, or in the enactment of laws for said 
Territory or State. 

8th. An enforcement of the princij)le 
that no State or Territory ought to admit 
others than citizens of the United States to 
the right of suifrage, or of holding politi- 
cal ollice. 

9th. A change in the laws of naturali- 
zation, making a continued residence of 
twenty -one years, of all not hereinbefore 
provided for, an indispensable requisite for 
citizenship hereafter, and excluding all 
paupers, and persons convicted of crime, 
from landing upon our shores ; but no in- 
terference with the vested rights of foreign- 
ers. 

10th. Opposition to anjMinion betv.-een 
Church and State ; no interference with re- 
ligious faith, or worship, and no test oaths 
for ofHce. 

11th. Free and thorough investigation 
into any and all alleged abuses of public 
functionaries, and a strict economy in pub- 
lic expenditures. 

12th. The maintenance and enforce- 
ment of all laws constitutionally enacted, 
until said laws shall be repealed, or shall 
be declared null and void by competent 
judicial authority. 

The American Ritual, or Constitution, 
rules, regulations, and ordinances of the 
Order were as follows : — 

AMERICAN RITUAL. 

CotistUution of the Natinnnl Council of the Uiiiled States of 
NurlU America. 

Art. 1st. This organization shall ho 
known by the name and title of The 
National Council of the United 
Statrs of North America, and its juris- 
diction and power shall extend to all the 
states, districts, and territories of the 
United States of North America. 

Art. 2d. The object of this organization 
shall be to protect every American citizen 
in the legal and proper exercise of all his 
civil and religious rights and privileges ; 
to resist the insidious policy of the Church 
of Rome, and all other foreign influence 
against our republican institutions in all 
lawful ways ; to place in all offices of honor 
trust, or profit, in the gift of the people, or 
by appointment, none but native-born 
Protestant citizens, and to protect, preserve, 



58 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



and uphold the union of these states and 
the coastitution of the same. 

Art. 3d. Sec. 1. — A person to become a 
member of any subordinate council must 
be twenty-one years of age ; he must be- 
lieve in the existence of a Supreme Being 
as the Creator and preserver of the uni- 
verse. He must be a native-born citizen ; 
a Trotestant, either born of Protestant 
piireuts, or reared under Protestant intlu- 
ence ; and not united in marriage with a 
lioman Catholic; provided, nevertheless, 
that in this last respect, the state, district, 
or territorial councils shall be authorized 
to so construct their respective constitu- 
tions as shall best promote the interests of 
the American cause in their several juris- 
dictions; and provided, moreover, that no 
member who may have a Roman Catholic 
wife shall be eligible to othce in this order ; 
and provided, further, should any state, 
district, or territorial council prefer the 
wurds " Roman Catholic" as a disquali- 
fication to membership, in place of " Pro- 
testant" as a qualification, thej*»may so 
consider this constitution and govern their 
action accordingly. 

Sec. 2. — There shall be an interval of 
three weeks between the conferring of the 
first and second degrees ; and of three 
months between the conferring of the 
second and third degrees — provided, that 
this restriction shall not apply to those who 
may have received the second degree pre- 
vious to the first day of December next ; 
and provided, further, that the presidents 
of state, district, and territorial councils 
may grant dispensations for initiating in 
all the degrees, oflicers of new councils. 

Sec. 3. — The national council shall hold 
its annual meetings on the first Tuesday 
in the mouth of June, at such place as may 
be designated by the national council at 
the previous annual meeting, and it may 
adjourn from time to time. Special meet- 
ings may be called by the President, on the 
written request of five delegations repre- 
senting five state councils ; provided, that 
sixty days' notice shall be given to the 
state councils previous to said meeting. 

Sec. 4. — The national council shall be 
composed of seven delegates from each 
state, to be chosen by the state councils ; 
and each district or territory where a dis- 
trict or territorial council shall exist, shall 
be entitled to send two delegates, to be 
■ chosen from said council — provided that in 
the nomination of candidates for Presi- 
dent and Vice President of the United 
States, and each state shall be entitled to 
cast the same number of votes jia they shall 
have members in both houses of Congress. 
In all sessions of the national council, 
thirty-two delegates, repre^^enting thirteen 
states, territories, or districts, shall consti- 
tute a quorum for the transaction of busi- 
ness. 



Sec. 5. — The national council shall be 
vested with the following powers and ijrivi- 
leges : 

It shall be the head of the organization 
for the United States of North America, 
and shall fix and establish all signs, grips, 
passwords, and such other secret work, as 
may seem to it necessary. 

It shall have the power to decide all 
matters appertaining to national politics. 

It shall have the power to exact irom the 
state councils, quarterly or annual state- 
ments as to the number of members under 
their jurisdictions, and in relation to all 
other matters necessary for its information. 

It shall have the power to form state, 
territorial, or district councils, and to grant 
dispensations for the formation of such 
bodies, when five subordinate councils shall 
have been put in operation in any state, 
territory, or district, and application made. 

It shall have the power to determine 
upon a mode of punishment in case of any 
dereliction of duty on the part of its mem- 
bers or officers. 

It shall have the power to adopt cabal- 
istic characters for the purpose of writing 
or telegraphing. Said characters to be 
communicated to the presidents of the 
state councils, and by them to the presi- 
dents of the subordinate councils. 

It shall have the ])ower to adopt any and 
every measure it may deem necessary to 
secure the success of the organization ; 
provided that nothing shall be done by the 
said national council in violation of the 
constitution ; and provided further, that 
in all political matters, its members may 
be instructed by the state councils, and if 
so instructed, shall carry out such instruc- 
tions of the state councils which they repre- 
sent until overruled by a majority of the 
national council. 

Art. 4. The President shall always preside 
over the national council when present, 
and in his absence the Vice President shall 
preside, and in the absence of both the 
national council shall appoint a president 
j)ro tempore; and the presiding officers may 
at all times call a member to the chair, but 
such appointment shall not extend be- 
yond one sitting of the national council. 

Art. 5. Sec. 1. — The oflicers of the 
National Council shall be a President,Vice- 
President, Chaplain, Corresponding Secre- 
tary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and 
two Sentinels, with such other officers as 
the national council may see fit to appoint 
from time to time ; and the secretaries and 
sentinels may receive such compensation 
as the national council shall determine. 

Sec. 2. — The duties of the several officers ] 
created by this constitution shall be such 
as the work of this organization prescribes.,. 

Art. 6. Sec. 1. — All officers provided for ' 
by this constitution, except the sentinels, 
shall be elected annually by ballot. ThQ 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



president may appoint sentinels from time 
to time. 

Sec. 2. — .V majority of all the votes cast 
shall be reciuisitc loan election for an oflicc. 

Sec. 'i. — All oHiccr.s and dclcL^atcs of this 
council, aiul of all state, district, territorial, 
and sul)i)rdinatc councils, must be invested 
with all the degrees of this order. 

Sec. 4. — .\11 vacancies in the elective 
oflices shall be iilled by a vote of the na- 
tional council, and only for the unexpired 
term of the said vacancy. 

Art. 7. See 1. — The national council shall 
entertain and decide all ciuses of appeal, 
and it shall establish a form of appeal. 

Sec. 2. — The national council shall levy 
a tax upon the state, district, or territorial 
councils, for the sup|)ort of the national 
council, to be paid in such manner and at 
such times as the national council shall 
determine. 

Art. 8. — This national council may alter 
ancl amend this constitution at its regular 
annual meeting in June next, by a vote of 
the majority of the whole number of the 
members present. (Cincinnati, Nov. 24, 
1854.) 

RULES AXD REGULATIONS. 

Rule 1.— Each State, District, or Terri- 
tory, in which there may exist five or 
more subordinate councils working under 
dispensations from the National Council 
of the United States of North America, or 
under regular dispensations from some 
State, District, or Territory, are duly em- 

Sowered to establisli themselves into a 
tate, District, or Territorial council, and 
when so established, to form for them- 
selves constitutions and by-laws for their 
government, in ])ursuance of, and in con- 
sonance with the Constitution of the 
National Council of the United States; 
provided, however, that all State, District, 
or Territorial constitutions shall be subject 
to the approval of the National Council of 
the United States. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 2.— All State, District, or Terri- 
torial councils, when established, shall 
htive full jiower and authority to establish 
all subordinate councils within their re- 
spective limits; and the constitutions and 
by-laws of all such subordinate councils 
must be approved by their respective State, 
District, or Territorial councils. (June, 
1854.) 

Rules.— All State, District, or Terri- 
torial councils, when esta!)li3he(l and until 
the formation of constitutions, shall work 
under the constitution of the National 
Council of the United States. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 4. — In all cases where, for the con- 
venience of the organization, two State or 
Territorial councils may be established, 
the two councils together shall be entitled 
to but thirteen delegates* in the National 

♦KoTE.— See Constitution, Art. 3, Sec. 4, p. 5. 



Council of the United States — the propor- 
tioned number of delegates to depend on 
the nund)er of mendn-rs in the organiza- 
tions; ]>rovided, that no State shall be al- 
lowt'd to have more tlian one State coun- 
cil, without the consent of tin; National 
Council of the United States. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 5. — In any State, District, or Ter- 
ritory, where there may be more than one 
organization working on the same ijasis, 
(to wit, the lodges and " councils,") the 
same siiall be re«piired to combine; the 
oHicers of each organization shall resign 
antl new oflicers be elected ; and thereafter 
these bodies shall be known as State coun- 
cils, and subordinate councils, and new 
charters shall be granted to them by the 
national council. (June, 1854.) 

Rule G. — It shall be considered a pen:il 
offence for any brother not an officer of a 
subordinate council, to make us<' of the 
sign or summons ado])ted for public noti- 
fication, except by dire/-tion of the Presi- 
dent; or for officers of a council to post 
the same at any other time than from nud- 
night to one hour before daybreak, and 
this rule shall be incorporated into the by- 
laws of the State, District, and Territorial 
councils. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 7. — The determination of the neces- 
sity and mode of issuing the posters for 
public notification shall be intrusted to the 
State, District, or Territorial councils. 
(June, 1854.) 

Rule 8. — The respective State, District, 
or Territorial councils shall be required to 
make statements of the number of mem- 
bers witliin their respective limits, at the 
next meeting of this national council, and 
annually thereafter, at the regular annual 
meeting, (June, 1854.) 

Rule 9. — The delegates to the National 
Council of the United States of North 
America shall be entitled to three dollars 
per day for their attendance upon the 
national council, and for each day that 
may be necessary in going and returning 
from the same; and five cents per mile for 
every mile they may necessarily travel in 
going to, and returning from the place of 
meeting of the national council; to be 
computed by the neare^^t mail route : which 
shall be paid out of the treasury of the 
national council. (November, 1854.) 

Rule 10.— Each State, District, or Terri- 
torial council shall he taxed four cents per ' 
annum for every member in good standing 
belonging to each subordinate council un- 
der its jurisdiction on the first day of 
April, which shall be reported to the na- 
tional council, anil paid into the national 
treasury, on or before the first day of the 
annual session, to be held in .June ; and on 
the sime day in each succeeding vear. 
.\nd the first fiscal year shall be considered 
as commencing on the first day of Decern- 



60 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ber, 1854, and ending on the fifteenth day ' 
ofMav, 1855. (November, 1854.) j 

Rule 11. — The following shall be the 
key to determine and ascertain the pur- 
port of any communication that may be 
addressed to the President of a b'tate, Dis- 
trict, or Territorial council by the Presi- 
dent of the national council, who is hereljy 
instructed to communicate a knowledge of ^ 
the same to said officers : ! 

ABCDEFGHI JKL M 
1 7 13 19 2) 2 8 14 20 26 3 9 15 
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 
21 4 10 lo 22 5 11 17 23 6 12 18 24 

Rule 12.— The clause of the article of 
the constitution relative to belief in the 
Supreme Being is obligatory upon every 
State and subordinate council, as well as 
upon each individual member. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 13.— The following shall be the 
compensation of the officers of this coun- 
cil : 

1st. The Corresponding Secretary shall 
be paid two thousand dollars per annum, 
from the 17th day of June, 1854. 

2d. The Treasurer shall be paid five 
hundred dollars per annum, from the 17th 
day of June, 1854. 

3d. The Sentinels shall be paid five dol- 
lars for every day they may be in attend- 
ance on the sittings of the national coun- 
cil. 

4th. The Chaplain shall be paid one 
hundred dollars per annum, from the 17th 
day of June, 1854. 

6th. The Recording Secretary shall be 
paid five hundred dollars per annum, from 
the 17th day of June, 1854. 

6th. The Assistant Secretary shall be 
paid five dollars per day, for every day he 
may be in attendance on the sitting of the 
national council. All of which is to be 
paid out of the national treasury, on the 
draft of the President. (November, 1854.) 

SPECIAL VOTING. 

Vote 1st.— This national council hereby 
grants to the State of Virginia two State 
councils, the one to be located in Eastern 
and the other in Western Virginia, the 
Blue Ridge Mountains being the geo- 
graphical line between the two jurisdic- 
tions. (June, 1854.) 

Vote 2d.— The President shall have 
power, till the next session of the national 
council, to grant dispensations for the for- 
mation of State, District, or Territorial 
councils, in form most agreeable to Ms 
own discretion, upon prooer application 
being made. (June, 1854.) 

Vote 3d.— The seats of all delegates to 
and members of the present national coun- 
cil shall be vacated on the first Tuesday in 
June. 1855, at the hour of six o'clock in 
the forenoon; and the national council 



convening in annual session upon that 
day, shall be composed exclusively of del- 
egates elected under and in accordance 
with the provisions of the constitution, as 
amended at the present session of this 
national council ; provided, that this reso- 
lution shall not apply to the officers of the 
national council. (Novcniber, 1854.) 

Vote 4th. — The Corresponding Secretary 
of this council is authorized to have print- 
ed the names of the delegates to this 
national council ; also, those of the Presi- 
dents of the several State, District, and 
Territorial councils, together with their 
address, and to forward a copy of the 
same to each person named ; and further, 
the Corresponding Secretaries of each 
State, District, and Territory are requested 
to forward a copy of their several con- 
stitutions to each other. (November, 
1854.) 

Vote 5th. — In the publication of the 
constitution and the ritual, under the di- 
rection of the committee — brothers Desh- 
ler, Damrell, and Stephens — the name, 
signs, grips, and passwords of the order 
shall be indicated by [***], and a copy 
of the same shall be furnished to each 
State, District, and Territorial council, and 
to each member of that body. (Novem- 
ber, 1854.) 

Vote 6th. — A copy of the constitution of 
each State, District, and Territorial coun- 
cil, shall be submitted to this council for 
examination. (November, 1854.) 

Vote 7th.— It shall be the duty of the 
Treasurer, at each annual meeting of this 
body, to make a report of all moneys re- 
ceived or expended in the interval. (No- 
vember, 1854.) 

Vote 8th.— Messrs. Giffijrd of Pa., Bar- 
ker of N. Y., Deshler of N. J., Williamson 
of Va., and Stephens of Md., are appointed 
a committee to confer with similar commit- 
tees that have been appointed for the pur- 
pose of consolidating the various American 
orders, with power to make the necessary 
arrangement lor such consolidation — sub- 
ject to the approval of this national coun- 
cil, at its next session. (November, 1854.) 

Vote 9th. — On receipt of the new ritual 
by the members of this national council 
who have received the third degree, they 
or any of them may, and they are hereby 
empowered to, confer the third degree upon 
members of this body in their respective 
states, districts, and territories, and upon 
the presidents and other officers of their 
state, district, and territorial councils. 
And further, the presidents of the state, 
district, and territorial councils shall in 
the first instance confer the third degree 
upon as many of the presidents and officers 
of their subordinate councils as can be as- 
sembled together in their respective local- 
ities ; and afterwards the same may be con- 
ferred upon officers of other subordinate 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



61 



eouncils, by any presiding officer of :i coun- 
cil who shall have previou.sly riH-eivcd it 
uinlcr the i)r<)visiou8 oi the constitution. 
(N'dvenibcr, 18r)4.) 

Vote 10(h. — To entitle any delegate to a 
scat in this national council, at its annual 
session in June next, he must pri'sent a 
properly authenticated certilicatc that he 
was duly elected as a delegate to the same, 
or a;)pointed a substitute in accordance 
with the requirements of the constitutions 
of st.-ite, tt'rritorial, or district councils. 
And no delegate shall be received from 
uny state, district, or territorial council 
which has notadoj)ted the constitution and 
ritual of this national council. (November, 
1S:)4.) 

Vote 11th. — The committee on printing 
the constitution and ritual is authorized to 
have a sullicient nunilier of the same print- 
ed for the use of the order. And no state, 
district, or territorial council shall be al- 
lowed to reprint the same. (November, 
18:)4.) 

Vote 12th.— The right to establish all 
subordinate councils in any of the states, 
districts, and territories represented in this 
national council, shall be confined to the 
state, district, and territorial councils 
which they represent. (November, 1854.) 

coxstitution for the goverxment of 
Subordinate Councils. 

Art. I. Sec. 1. — Each subordinate coun- 
cil shall be composed of not less than thir- 
teen members, all of whom shall have re- 
ceived all the degrees of the order, and 

shall be known and recognised as 

Council, No. , of the of the 

county of , and State of North Caro- 
lina. 

Sec. 2. — No person shall be a member of 
any subordinate council in this state, un- 
less he possesses all the qualifications, and 
comes up to all the requirements laid down 
in the constitution of the national council, 
and whose wife (if he has one), is not a 
Roman Catholic. 

Sec. 3. No application for membership 
shall be received and acted on from a per- 
son residing out of the state, or resides in 
a county where there is a council in ex- 
istence, unless upon special cause to be 
stated to the council, to be judged of by 
the same ; and such person, if the reasons 
be considered sufficient, may be initiated 
the same night he is proposed, provided he 
resides five miles or more from the place 
■where the council is located. But no per- 
son can vote in any council, except the one 
of which he is a member. 

Sec. 4. Every person applying for mem- 
bership, shall be voted for by ballot, in 
open council, if a ballot is requested by a 
single member. If one-third of the votes 
cast be against the applicant, he shall be 
rejected. If any applicant be rejected, he 



shall not be again projiosed within six 

months thereafter. Notliing lierein con- 

! taincii sliall 1)0 construed to jirevent the 

I initiation of a|>i>licanLs privately, by tiiose 

I empowered to do ho, in localities wiiero 

there are no councils within a convenient 

distance. 

Sec. 5. Any member of one subordinate 
council wishing to ciiangc his nu-mbcrship 
to another council, slmll ai)|)iy to the coun- 
cil to which he belongs, cither in writing 
or orally through another member, and tiie 
question shall be decided by the council. 
If a majority are in favor of granting him 
an honorable dismission, he shall receive 
the same in writing, to be signed by the 
])resident and c:ountersigncd by the secre- 
tary. But until a member thus receiving 
an honorable dismission has actually been 
admitted to membership in another coun- 
cil, he shall be held subject to the disci- 
pline of the council from which he baa re- 
ceived the dismission, to be dealt with by 
the same, for any violation of the require- 
ments of the order. liefore being received 
in the council to which he wishes to trans- 
fer his membership, he shall present said 
certificate of honorable dismission, and 
shall be received as new members are. 

Sec. 6. Applications for the second de- 
gree shall not be received except in second 
degree councils, and voted on by second 
and third degree members only, and ap- 
plications for the third degree shall be 
received in third degree councils, and 
voted on by third degree members only. 

Art. II. — Each subordinate council shall 
fix on its own time and place for meeting: 
and shall meet at least once a montli, but 
where not very inconvenient, it is recom- 
mended that they meet once a week. Thir- 
teen members shall form a quorum for 
the transaction of business. Special meet- 
ings may be called by the president at any 
time, at the request of four members of the 
order. 

Art. III. — Sec. 1. The members of each 
subordinate council shall consist of a pre- 
sident, vice-president, instructor, secre- 
tary, treasurer, marshal, inside and outside 
sentinel, and shall hold their ofbces for the 
term of six months, or until their succes- 
sors are elected and installed. 

Sec. 2. The ollicei"3 of each subordinate 
council (except the sentinels, who shall be 
appointed by the j)resident), shall be elect- 
ed at the first regular meetings in January 
and July, separately, and by ballot : and 
each shall receive a majority of all the 
votes cast to entitle him to an election. 
No member shall be elect-xl to any ollice, 
unless he be present and signify his assent 
thereto at the time of his election. Any 
vacancy which may occur by deatli. resig- 
nation, or otherwise, shall be filled at the 
next meeting thereatter, in the manner 
and form above described. 



62 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



Sec. 3. The President.— It shall be the 
duty of the president of each subordinate 
council, to preside in the council, and en- 
force a due observance of the constitution 
and rules of the order, and a proper respect 
for the state council and the national coun- 
cil ; to have sole and exclusive charge of 
the charter and the constitution and r*itual 
of the order, which he must always have 
with him when his council is in session, to 
see that all officers peribrm their respec- 
tive duties ; to announce all ballotings to 
the council ; to decide all questions of 
order ; to give the casting vote in all cases 
of a tie ; to convene special meetings when 
deemed expedient ; to draw warrants on 
the treasurer for all sums, the payment of 
which is ordered by the council ; and to 
perform such other duties as are demanded 
of him by the constitutions and ritual of 
the order. 

Sec. 4. The vice-president of each sub- 
ordinate council shall assist the president 
in the discharge of his duties, whilst his 
council is in session ; and, in his absence, 
shall perform all the duties of the presi- 
dent. 

Sec. 5. The instructor shall perform the 
duties of the president in the absence of 
the president and vice-president, and shall, 
under the direction of the president, per- 
form such duties as may be assigned to 
him by the ritual. 

Sec. 6. The secretary shall keep an ac- 
curate record of the proceedings of the 
council. He shall write all communica- 
tions, fill all notices, attest all warrants 
drawn by the president for the payment of 
money ; he shall keep a correct roll of all 
the members of the council, together with 
their age, residence, and occupation, in 
the order in which they have been admit- 
ted ; he shall, at the expiration of every 
three months, make out a report of all work 
done during that time, which report he 
shall forward to the secretary of the state 
council ; and when superseded in his office 
shall deliver all books, papers, &c., in his 
hands to his successor. 

Sec. 7. The treasurer shall hold all mo- 
neys raised exclusively for the use of the 
state council, which he shall pay over to 
the secretary of the state council at its 
regular sessions, or whenever called upon 
by the president of the state council. He 
shall receive all moneys for the use of the 
subordinate council, and pay all amounts 
drawn for on him, by the president of the 
subordinate council, if attested by the se- 
cretary. 

Sec. 8. The marshal shall perform 
Buch duties, under the direction of the 
president, as may be required of him by 
the ritual. 

Sec. 9. The inside sentinel shall have 
charge of the inner door, and act under 
the directions of the president. He shall 



admit no person, unless he can prove him- 
self a member of this order, and of the 
same degree in which the council is opened, 
or by order of the president, or is satislac- 
torily vouched for. 

Sec. 10. The outside sentinel ^hall have 
charge of the outer door, and act in ac- 
cordance with the orders of the president. 
He shall permit no person to enter the 
outer door unless he give the password of 
the degree in whith the council is at work, 
or is properly vouched for. 

Sec. 11. The secretary, treasurer, and 
sentinels, shall receive such compensation 
as the subordinate councils may each con- 
clude to allow. 

Sec. 12. Each subordinate council may 
levy its own i'ees for initiation, to raise a 
fund to pay its dues to the state council, 
and to defray its own expenses. Each 
council may, also, at its discretion, initiate 
without charging the usual lee, those it 
considers unable to pay the s::me. 

Sec. 13. The president shall keep in his 
possession the constitution and ritual of 
the order. He shall not sufl'er the same 
to go out of his possession under any pre- 
tence whatever, unless in case of absence, 
when he may put them in the hands of 
the vice-president or instructor, or whilst 
the council is in session, for the informa- 
tion of a member wishing to see it, for 
the purpose of initiation, or conferring of : 
degrees. 

Art. IV. Each subordinate council shall 
have power to adopt such by-laws, rules, 
and regulations, for its own government, 
as it may think proper, not inconsistent 
with the constitutions of the national and 
state councils. 

Form of Application for a Charter 
TO Organize a new Council. 



Post Office 



— county, 
Date . 



To 

President of the State Council of North 
Carolina : — 

We, the undersigned, members of the 
Third Degree, being desirous of extending 
the influence and usefulness of our organi- 
zation, do hereby ask for a warrant of dis- 
pensation, instituting and organizing us as 
a subordinate branch of the order, under 
the jurisdiction of the State Council of the 
State of North Carolina, to be known and 
hailed as Council No. , and to be lo- 
cated at , in the county of , Stat© 

of North Carolina. 

And we do hereby pledge ourselves to 
be governed by the Constitution of the 
State Council of the State of North Caro- 
lina, and of the Grand Council of the U. 
S. N. A., and that we will in all things con- 
form to the rules and usages of the order. 



Names. 



Residences. 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



G3 



FORM OF DISMISSION FROM ONE COUNCIL 
TO ANOTHKU. 

This in to certify that I^rothcr , a 

meinber of Council, No. , having 

ma(h> an application tn chanjre his mem- 
bership from this council to that of 

Council, No. , at , in the county 

of , I do hereby declare, that said 

brother has received an honorable dismis- 
sion from this council, and is hereby re- 
commended for membership in Coun- 
cil, No. , in the county of , N. C. ; 

provided, however, that until Hrother 

has been admitted to membership in said 
council, he is to be consideretl subject to 
the dist'ipline of tliis council, to be dealt 
with by the same ibr any violation of the 

requirements of the order. This the 

day of , ISo — , and the year of 

American Independence. 

President, Council, 

No. . 

Secretary. 

FORM OF CERTIFICATE FOR DELEGATES TO 
THE STATE COUNCIL. 

Council, No. , 

county of , N. C. 

This is to certify that and were 

at the regular meetim^ of this council, held 

on the , 185 — , duly elected delegates 

to represent this council in the next an- 
nual meeting of the state council, to be 
held in , on the 3d Monday in Novem- 
ber next. And Ijy virtue of the authority 
in me reposed, I do hereby declare the 

said and to be invested with all 

the rights, powers, and j)rivilcges of the 
delegates as aforesaid. This being the 

day of , 185 — , and the year 

of our national independence. 

President of 

Council, No. 

Secretary. 

FORM OF NOTICE 

From the Sulnriiimtte Omnril to the SUite Council, rrhenever 

any Member of a Suburdiitate CouucU is cjCydUd. 

Council, No. , 

county of , N. C. 

To the President of the State Council of 
North Carolina: 

Sir: — This is to inform you that at a 

meeting of this council, held on the 

day of , 185 — , was duly ex- 
pelled from membership in said council, 
and thus deprived of all the privileges, 
rights, and benefits of this organization. 

In accordance with the provisions of the 
constitution of tlie state council, you are 
hereby duly notified of the same, that you 
may officially notify all the subordinate 
councils of the state to be upon their sruard 

against the said , as one unworthy to 

.associate with patriotic and good men, and 
[if expelled ft/r violating his obligation) a?, 
a perjurer to God and his country. The 



said — — is about years of ago, and 

is by livelihood a 

liuly cert i (led, this the day of 

185—, and in the year of our national 

independence. 

Presi<lent of 

Council, No. . 

Secretary. 

First Degree Council. 

To be admitted to membership in this 
order, the applicant shall be — 

1st. Proposed and found accej)tablc. 

2nd. Introduced and examined under 
the guarantee of secrecy. 

3rd. Placed under the obligation which 
the order imposes. 

4th. Required to enrol his name and 
place of reside:ice. 

5th. Instructed in the forms and usages 
and ceremonies of the order. 

Gth. Solemnly charged as to the objects 
to be obtained, and his duties. 

[A riicommcndation of a candidate to 
this order shall be received only from a 
brother of approved integrity. It shall be 
accompanied by minute i)articulars as to 
name, age, calling, and residence, and by 
an explicit voucher for his qualilications, 
and a personal pledge for h's lidelity. 
These particulars shall be recorded by the 
secretary in a book kept for that purpose. 
The recommendation may be referred, aiid 
the ballot taken at such time and in sue h a 
manner as the state council may prescribe ; 
but no communication shall be'made to the 
candidate until the ballot has been declared 
in his lavor. Candidates shall be received 
in the ante-room by the marshal and sec- 
retary.] 

outside. 

Marshal. — Do you believe in a Supreme 
Being, the Creator and Preserver of the 
universe? 

Ans. — I do. 

Marshal. — Before proceeding further, we 
require a solemn obligation of secrecy and 
truth. If you will take such an obligation, 
you will lay your right hand upon the Holy 
Bible and cross. 

(When it is known that the applicant is 
a Protestant, the cross may be omitted, or 
affirmation may bo allowed.) 

obligation. 

Yon do solemnly swear (or affiriii) that 
you will never reveal anythini; said or done 
in this room, the names of any persons 
present, nor the existence of this society, 
whether found worthy to proceed or not, 
and that all your declarations shall be true, 
so help you God? 

Ans.— "I do." 

Marshal. — Where were you born ? 

Marshal. — 'Where is your permanent 
residence f 



64 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



(If born out of the jurisdiction of the 

United States, the answer shall be written, 
the candidate dismissed with an admonition 
of secrecy, and the brotlier vouching for 
him siis])ended from all the privileges of 
the order, unless upon satisfactory proof 
that he has been misinformed.) 

Manshal. — Are you twenty-one years of 
age? 

Ans. — " I am." 

Marshal. — AVere you born of Protestant 
parents, or w^ere you reared under Protes- 
tant influence? 

Ans. — " Yes." 

Marshal. — If mairied, is your wife a Ko- 
nian Catholic ? 

("No" or "Yes" — the answer to be 
valued as the Constitution of the State 
Council shall provide.) 

Marshal. — Are you willing to use your 
influence and vote only for native-born 
American citizens for all offices of honor, 
trust, or profit in the gift of the people, to 
the exclusion of all foreigners and aliens, 
and Roman Catholics in particular, and 
without regard to party predilections ? 

Ans. — " I am." 

INSIDE. 

(The marshal shall then repair to the 
council in session, and present the written 
list of names, vouchers, and answers to the 
president, who shall cause them to be read 
aloud, and a vote of the council to be taken 
on each name, in such manner as pre- 
scribed by its by-laws. If doubts arise in 
the ante-room, they shall be referred to the 
council. If a candidate be dismissed, he 
shall be admonished to secrecy. The 
candidates declared elected shall be con- 
ducted to seats within the council, apart 
from the brethren. When all are present 
the president by one blow of the gavel, 
shall call to order and say:) 

President. — Brother marshal, introduce 
the candidates to the vice-president. 

Marshal. — Worthy Vice-President, I pre- 
sent to you these candidates, who have duly 
answered all questions. 

Vice-President, rising in his place. — Gen- 
tlemen, it is my oflSce to welcome you as 
friends. When you shall have assumed 
the patriotic vow by which we are all bound, 
we will embrace you as brothers. I am 
authorized to declare that our obligations 
ynjoin nothing which is inconsistent with 
the duty which every good man owes to 
his Creator, his country, his family, or 
himself We do not compel you, against 
your convictions, to act with us in our 
good work ; but should you at any time 
wish to withdraw, it will be our duty to 
grant you a dismissal in good faith. If 
satisfied with this assurance, you will rise 
upon your feet (pausing till they do so), 
place the left hand upon the breast, and 
raise the right h&ad towards heaven. 



(The brethren to remain seated till called 
up.) 

OBLIGATION. 

In the presence of Almighty God and 
these witnesses, you do solemnly promise 
and swear, that you will never betray any 
of the secrets of this society, nor commu- 
nicate them even to proper candidates, ex- 
cept within a lawful council of the order ; 
that you never will permit any of the 
secrets of this society to be written, or in 
any other manner made legible, except lor 
the purpose of official instruction ; that 
you will not vote, nor give your influence 
for any man for any office in the gift of the 
people, unless he be an American born 
citizen, in favor of Americans ruling 
America, nor if he be a Roman Catholic; 
that you will in all political matters, so 
far as this order is concerned, comply with 
the will of the m£ijority, though it may 
conflict with your personal preference, so 
long as it does not conflict with the Con- 
stitution of the United States of America, 
or that of the state in which you reside ; 
that you will not, under any circumstances 
whatever, knowingly 'recommend an un- 
worthy person for initiation, nor suflTer it 
to be done, if in your power to prevent it ; 
that you will not, under any circumstances, 
expose the name of any member of this 
order, nor reveal the existence of such an 
association ; that you will answer an impe- 
rative notice issued by the proper authori- 
ty ; obey the command of the state council, 
president, or his deputy, while assembled 
by such notice, and respond to the claim 
of a sign or ay of the order, xmless it be 
physically impossible; and that you will 

acknowledge the State Council of 

as the legislative head, the ruling authori- 
ty, and the supreme tribunal of the order 

in the state of , acting under the 

jurisdiction of the National Council of the 
United States of North America. 

Binding yourself in the penalty of ex- 
communication from the order, the forfei- 
ture of all intercourse with its members, 
and being denounced in all the societies of 
the same, as a wilful traitor to your God 
and your country. 

(The president shall call up every per- 
son present, by three blows of the gavel, 
when the candidates shall all repeat after 
the vice-president in concert:) 

All this I voluntarily and sincerely 
promise, with a full understanding of the 
solemn sanctions and penalties. 

Vice-President. — You have now taken 
solemn oaths, and made as sacred promises 
as man can make, that you will keep all 
our secrets inviolate; and we wish you dis- 
tinctly to understand that he that takes 
these oaths and makes these promises, and 
then violates them, leaves the foul, the 
deep and blighting stain of perjury resting 
on hia sooh 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



G5 



IWsldent. — (llaving soiitod all by one 
blow of the gavel.) — Uroliier Instructor, 
these new brothers luiviug tomj)lied with 
the denmnd oltlie order, arc entitled to the 
secrets and |>rivileges of the same. You 
will, therefore, invest them with every- 
thing ai>i)ertaining to the first degree. 

In4rurtor. — Brothers: the practices and 
proceedings in our order are a.s follows : 

We have pass-words nece-ssary to bo used 
(to obtain admission to our councils ; forms 
(for our conduct while there; means oi" re- 
cognizing each other when abroad; means 
of mutual protection; and methods for 
giving notices to members. 

.Vt the outer door you will* (/na/te atiij 
orilinanj alarm to attract the attention of 
the outside sentinel). 

When the wicket is opened you will 
])ronounce the [n'ords — whafsthe pa^^n), in 
a whisper. The outside sentinel will re- 
ply (Givr if), vfhen you will give the term 
pass-word and be admitted to the ante- 
room. You will then proceed to the inner 
door and give (one rap). When the 
wicket is opened, give your name, the 
number of, and location of your council, 
the explanation of the term pass, and the 
degree pass-word. 

If these be found correct, you will be 
admitted; if not, your Tiame will be re- 
ported to the vice president, and must be 
properly vouched for before you can gain 
admission to the council. You will then 
proceed to the centre of the room and ad- 
dress the {l^rcsidcnf) with the countersign, 
which is performed thus (placing the right 
hand diagonally across the month). When 
this salutation is recognized, you will 
quietly take your seat. 

This sign is peculiar to this degree, and 
is never to be used outside the council 
room, nor during the conferring of this 
degree. When retiring, you will address 
the ( Vice President) in the same manner, 
and also give the degree pa^s-word to the 
inside sentinel. 

The " term pass-word " is ( We are). 

(The pass-word and explanation is to be 
established by each State Council for its 
respective subordinates.) 

The " explanation " of the " term-pass," 
to be used at the inner door, is [our 
countrifs hope.) 

The "deuTee pass-word "is {Native). 

The "traveling pass-word" is {The 
tneinori/ of our jjilgrim fathers). 

(This word is changed annually by the 



♦In the Ritnal tlm woHs ia parenthpaeu are omitted. 
In the key l>> th>' Kitual, they are written in figures — 
the alphabet uBeJ bein;; tlie same as jirinted below. So 
throughout. 



Key to Unlock CcmmunirMiiotu. 

ABCDEFGHI.TK 
1 7 13 19 25 2 8 14 2(1 20 ?. 
NOPQRSTUVWX 
a 4 10 IG 22 5 11 17 23 6 12 

5 



L M 
9 15 
T Z 



I'residcnt of the National Council of the 
United States, and is to be nuide and used 
only when the brother is traveling beyond 
the jurisdiction of his own state, district, 
or territory. It and all other pa.ss-words 
must be communicatcid in a whisjx r, and 
no brother is entitled to commnnii^ato 
them to another, without authority from 
the presiding ofiicer.) 

"The sign of recognition" is {graspint^ 
the right lappel of the coat with the right 
hand, the fore finger being extended in- 
ivards.) 

The "answer" ia given by (a similar 
action with the left hand.) 

The "grip" is given by {an ordinary 
shake of the hand). 

The person challenging shall {then draw 
the forefinger along the palm of the hand). 
The answer will be given by {a similar ac- 
tion forming a link by hooking together the 
ends of the fore finger) ; \\\\c\\ the follow- 
ing conversation ensue.s — the challenging 
party first saying {is that yours?) The 
answer, {it is.) Then the response {how 
did you get it?), followed by the rejoinder 
{it is my birth-right). 

Public notice for a meeting is given by 
means of a {piece of white paper the shape 
of a heart). 

(In cities * the *** of the *** where the 
meeting is to be held, will be written legi- 
bly upon the notice; and upon the election 
day said *** will denote the *** where 
your presence is needed. This notice will 
never be passed, but will be *** or thrown 
upon the sidewalk with a *** in the 
centre.) 

If information is wanting of the object 
of the gathering, or of the place, &c., the 
inquirer will ask of an undoubted brother 
( Where's when ?) The brother will give the 
information if possessed of it ; if not it will 
be yours and his duty to continue the in- 
(juiry, and thus disseminate the call 
throughout the brotherhood. 

If the color of the paper (be red), it will 
denote actual trouble, which requires that 
you come prepared to meet it. 

The "cry of distress" — to be used only 
in time of danger, or where the American 
interest requires an immediate assemblage 
of the brethren — is {oh, oh, oh.) The re- 
sj)(>nse is {hio, hio, h-i-o.) 

The " sign of caution " — to be given 
when a brother is speaking unguardedly 
before a stranger — is {draicing the fore fing- 
er and thvmh together across the ryes, the 
rest of the hand being closed), which sig- 
nifies " keep dark." 

Brothers, you are now initiated into and 
made acquainted with the work and or- 
ganization of a council of this degree of 
the order ; and the marshal will present 

* roncernin^ what ia Baid of cities, the key to the 
Ritual says : 'Considered unnecessary to decipher what 
18 said in regard to cities." 



66 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



you to the worthy president for admoni- 1 
tion. 

President. — It has no doubt, been long 
apparent to you, brothers, that foreign in- \ 
flueuce and Roman Catholicism have been 
making steady and alarming progress in ! 
our country. You cannot have failed to | 
observe the significant transition of the i 
foreigner and Romanist from a character 
quiet, retiring, and even abject, to one 
bold, threatening, turbulent, and despotic 
in its appearance and assumptions. You 
must have become alarmed at the syste- 
matic and rapidly augmenting power of 
these dangerous and unnatural elements of 
our national condition. So it is, brothers, 
with others beside yourselves in every 
state of the Union. A sense of danger has 
struck the great heart of the nation. In 
every city, town, and hamlet, the danger 
has been seen and the alarm sounded. 
And hence true men have devised this or- 
der as a means of disseminating patriotic 
principles, of keeping alive the fire of na- 
tional virtue, of fostering the national in- 
telligence, and of advancing America and 
the American interest on the one side, and 
on the other of checking the strides of the 
foreigner or alien, or thwarting the ma- 
chinations and subverting the deadly plans 
of the papist and Jesuit. 

Note. — The President shall impress up- 
on the initiates the importance of secrecy, 
the manner of proceeding in recommend- 
ing candidates for initiation, and the re- 
sponsibility of the duties which they have 
.•issumed. 

Second Degree Council. 

Marshal. — Worthy President : These 
brothers have been duly elected to the sec- 
ond degree of this order. I present them 
to you for obligation. 

President. — Brothers : You will place 
your left hand upon your right breast, and 
extend your right hand towards the flag of 
our country, preparatory to obligation. 
(Each council room should have a neat 
American flag festooned over the platform 
of the President.) 

OBLIGATION. 

You, and each of you, of your own free 
will and accord, in the presence of Al- 
mighty God and these witnesses, your left 
hand resting upon your right breast, and 
your right hand extended to the flag of 
your country, do solemnly and sincerely 
swear, that you will not under any cir- 
cumstances disclose in any manner, nor 
suffer it to be done by others, if in your 
power to prevent it, the name, signs, pass- 
words, or other secrets of this degree, ex- 
cept in open council for the purpose of in- 
struction ; that you will in all things con- 
form to all the rules iiiid reeulations of this 
order, and to th'j constitution and by-laws 



of this or any other council to which you 
may be attached, so long as they do not 
conflict with the Constitution of the United 
States, nor that of the State in which you 
reside; that you will under all circum- 
stances, if in your power so to do, attend 
to all regular signs or summons that may 
be thrown or sent to you by a brother of 
this or any other degree of this order; that 
you will support in all political matters, for 
all political offices, members of this order 
in preference to other persons ; that if it 
may be done legally, you will, when elect- 
ed or appointed to any official station con- 
ferring on you the power to do so remove 
all foreigners, aliens, or Roman Catholics 
from office or place, and that you will in 
no case appoint such to any office or place 
in your gift. You do also promise and 
swear that this and all other obligations 
which you have jjreviously taken in this 
order shall ever be kept through life sacred 
and inviolate. All this you promise and 
declare, as Americans, to sustain and 
abide by, without any hesitation or mental 
reservation whatever. So help you God 
and keep you steadfast. 

(Each will answer " I do." 

President. — Brother Marshal, you will 
now present the brothers to the instructor 
for instructions in the second degree of the 
order. 

Marshal. — Brother Instructor, by direc- 
tion of our worthy president, I present 
these brothers before you that you may in- 
struct them in the secrets and mysteries of 
the second degree of the order. 

Instructor. — Brothers, in this degree we 
have an entering sign and a countersign. 
At the outer door proceed (as in the Jirst 
degree). At the inner door you will make 
[two raps), and proceed as in the first de- 
gree, giving the second degree pass-word, 
which is American, instead of that of the 
first degree. If found to be correct, you 
will then be admitted, and proceed [to the 
centre of the room), giving the countersign, 
which is made thus {extending the right 
arm to the national flag over the president^ 
the palm of the hand being vpirards). 

The sign of recognition in this degree is 
the same as in the first degree, with the 
addition of [the middle Jinger), and the re- 
sponse to be made in a [similar manner.) 

Marshal, you will now present the broth- 
ers to the worthy president for admonition. 

Marshal. — Worthy President, I now pre- 
sent these candidates to you for admo- 
nition. 

President. — Brothers, you are now duly 
initiated into the second degree of this or- 
der. Renewing the congratulations which 
we extended to you upon your admission to 
the first degree, we admonish you by every 
tie that may nerve patriots, to aid us in 
our eflbrts to restore the political institu- 
tions of our country to their originai 



TilE AMERICAN RITUAL. 



purity. Bopin with the youth of our land. 
Instil into thrir minds the li'ssdus of our 
country's history — the glorious hiittk's and 
the hrilliant docds of patriotism of our 
fiithers, through which we received the in- 
estimable blessings of civil and religious 
liberty. Point them to the example of the 
sage.s and the statesmen who founded our 
government. Implant in their bosoms an 
ardent love for the Union. Above all else, 
keei) alive in their bosoms the memory, 
the maxims, and the deathless example of 
our illustrious Washinoton. 

Brothers, recalling to your minds the 
solemn obligations which you have sever- 
ally taken in this and the first degree, I 
now pronounce you entitled to all the 
privileges of membership in this the second 
degree of our order. 

Thirh Degree Council. 

Marshal. — Worthy President, these bro- 
thers having been duly elected to the third 
degree of this order, I present them betbre 
you for obligation. 

P/-t\s/(/<'/i^^— Brothers, you will place 
yourselves in a circle around me, each one 
crossing your arms upon your breaji^ts, and 
grasping firmly each other's hands, hold- 
ing the right hand of the brother on the 
right and the left hand of the brother on 
the left, so as to form a circle, symbolical 
of the links of an unbroken chain, and of 
a ring which has no end. 

Note. — This degree is to be conferred 
with the national flag elevated in the cen- 
tre of the circle, by the side of the presi- 
dent or instructor, and not on less than five 
at any one time, in order to give it solem- 
nity, and also for the formation of the cir- 
cle — except in the first instance of confer- 
ring it on the ofiieers of the state and sub- 
ordinate councils, that they may be em- 
powered to progress with the work. 

The obligation ^nd charge in this de- 
gree may be given by the president or in- 
structor, as the president may prefer, 

OBLIGATION. 

You, and each of you, of your own free 
will and accord, in the presence of Al- 
ttiighty God and these witnesses, with your 
hands joined in token of that fraternal af- 
fection which should ever bind together 
the States of this Union — forming a ring, 
in token of your determination that, so far 
as your efforts can avail, this Union shall 
have no end — do solemnly and sincerely 
swear [or affirm] that you will not under 
any circumstances disclose in any manner, 
nor suffer it to be done by others if in your 
power to prevent it, the name, signs, p;iss- 
words, or other secretj^ of this degree, ex- 
cept to those to whom you may prove on 
tnal to be brothers of the same degree, or 



' in open council, for the purpose of instruc- 
tion ; that you do hereijy solemnly declare 
your devotion to the Union of the-^e States ; 
that in the discharge of your duties as 
American citizens, you will uphold, maiu- 

, tain, and defend it ; that you will discour- 

1 age and discountenance any and every at- 
tempt, coming from any and every quarter, 

; which you believe to be designed or calcu- 
lated to destroy or subvert it, or to weaken 
its bonds; and that you will use your influ- 
ence, so far a.s in your power, in endeavor- 
ing to procure an aniical)le and eijuitable 
adjustment of all political discontents or 
differences which may threaten its injury 
or overthrow. You further promise and 
swear [or affirm] that you will not vote for 
any one to fill any office of honor, profit or 
trust of a political character, whom you 
know or believe to be in favor of a disso- 
lution of the Union of these States, or who 
is endeavoring to produce that result ; that 
you will vote for and sujiport for all polit- 
ical offices, third or union degree members 
of this order in preference to all others ; that 
if it may be done consistently with the 
constitution and laws of the land, you will, 
when elected or appointed to any official 
station which may confer on you the power 
to do so, remove from office or place all 
persons whom you know or believe to be in 
favor of a dissolution of the Union, or who 
are endeavoring to produce that result ; and 
that you will in no case appoint such per- 
son to any political office or place whatever. 
All this you promise and swear [or affirm! 
upon your honor as American citizens and 
friends of the American Union, to sustain 
and abide by without any hesitation or 
mental reservation whatever. You also 
promise and swear [or affirm] that this and 
all other obligations which you have pre- 
viously taken in this order, shall ever be 
kept sacred and inviolate. To all this you 
pledge your lives, your fortunes, and your 
sacred honors. So help you God and keep 
you steadfast. 

(Each one shall answer, " I do.") 
President. — Brother Marshal, you will 
now present the brothers to the instructor 
for final instruction in this third degree of 
the order. 

Marshal. — Instructor, by direction of our 
worthy president, I present these brothers 
before you that you may instruct them in 
the secrets and mysteries of this the third 
degree of our order. 

Instructor. — Brothers, in this degree as 
in the second, we have an entering pass- 
word, a degree password, and a token of 
salutation. At the outer door [make any 
ordinary alarm. The outside sentinel will 
say U ; you say ni ; the sentinel will re- 
join on). This will admit you to the inner 
door. At the inner door you will make 
{three) distinct [raps]. Then announce 
your name, with the number (or name) 



68 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



and location of the council to which you 
belong, giving the explanation to the pass- 
word, which is (safe). If found correct, 
you will then be admitted, when you will 
proceed to the centre of the room, and 
placing the [hands on the breast with the 
fingers interlocked), give the token of salu- 
tation, which is [by bowing to the president) . 
You will then quietly take your seat. 

The sign of recognition is made by the 
'same action as in the second degree, with 
the addition of [the third finger), and the 
response is made by (a similar action with 
the left hand.) 

(The grip is given by taking hold of the 
handjn the usual way, and then by slipping 
the finger around on the top of the thumb ; 
then extending the little finger and pressing 
the inside of the xorist. The person chal- 
lenging shall say, do you know what that is ? 
The answer is yes. The challenging party 
shall say, further, what is it ? The answer 
is, Union. 

[The instructor will here give the grip of 
this degree, with explanations, and also the 
true password of this degree, which is 
(Union.)] 

CHARGE. 

To be given by the president. 

Brothers, it iswith great pleasure that I 
congratulate you upon your advancement 
to the third degree of our order. The re- 
sponsibilities you have now assumed, are 
more serious and weighty than those which 
preceded, and are committed to such only 
as have been tried and found worthy. Our 
obligations are intended as solemn avowals 
of our duty to the land that gave us birth ; 
to the memories of our fathers ; and to the 
happiness and welfare of our children. 
Consecrating to your country a spirit un- 
selfish and a fidelity like that which dis- 
tinguished the patriots of the Eevolution, 
you have pledged your aid in cementing 
the bonds of a Union which we trust will 
endure for ever. Your deportment since 
your initiation has attested your devotion 
to the principles we desire to establish, and 
has inspired a confidence in your patriot- 
ism, of which we can give no higher proof 
than your reception here. 

The dangers which threaten American 
liberty arise from foes without and from 
enemies within. The first degree pointed 
out tlie source and nature of our most im- 
minent peril, and indicated the first mea- 
' sure of safety. The second degree defined 
the next means by which, in coming time, 
such assaults may be rendered harmless. 
The third degree, which you have just re- 
ceived, not only reiterates the lessons of 
the other two, but it is intended to avoid 
and provide for a more remote, but no less 
terril)lc danger, from domestic enemies to 
our i'n-c institiitinn-*. 

(Jur object is briefly this: — to perfect an 



organization modeled after that of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and coex- 
tensive with the confederacy. Its object 
and principles, in all matters of national 
concern, to be uniform and identical whilst 
in all local matters the component i>arts 
shall remain independent and sovereign 
within their respective limits. 

The great result to be attained — the only 
one which can secure a j^erfect guarantee 
as to our future — is union ; permanent, 
enduring, fraternal union! Allow me, then, 
to impress upon your minds and memories 
the touching sentiments of the Father of 
his Country, in his Farewell Address : — 

" The unity of government which consti- 
tutes you one people," says Washington, 
" is justly dear to you, for it is the main 
pillar in the edifice of your real independ- 
ence, the support of your tranquillity at 
home, of your peace abroad, of your safety, 
your prosperity — even that liberty you so 
justly prize. 

" * * It is of infinite moment that 
you should properly estimate the immense 
value of your National Union, to your col- 
lective and individual happiness. You 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, and im- 
movable attachment to it; accustoming 
yourselves to think and sj^eak of it, as the 
palladium of your political safety and pros- 
perity ; watching for its preservation with 
jealous anxiety ; discountenancing what- 
ever may suggest even a suspicion that it 
can in any event be abandoned ; and in- 
dignantly frowning upon the dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of 
our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now bind together 
the various parts." 

Let these words of paternal advice and 
warning, from the greatest man that ever 
lived, sink deep into your hearts. Cherish 
them, and teach your children to reverence 
them, as you cherish and reverence the 
memory of Washington himself. The 
Union of these states is the great conserva- 
tor of that liberty so dear to the American 
heart. Without it, our greatness as a na- 
tion would disappear, and our boasted self- 
government prove a signal failure. The 
very name of libert\', and the hopes of 
struggling freedom throughout the world, 
must perish in the wreck of this Union. 
Devote yourselves, then, to its maintenance, 
as our fathers did to the cause of independ- 
ence; consecrating to its support, as you 
have sworn to do, your lives, your fortunes, 
and your sacred honors. 

Brothers: Recalling to your minds the 
solemn obligations which you have sever- 
ally taken in this and the j (receding degrees, 
I now pronounce you entitled to all tlie 
privileges of membership in this organiza- 
tion, and take pleasure in informing you ' 
tliat you are now members of the order of 
[fhr American Union.) 



POLITIC A I. NOMINATIONS IN 185f;, 



6!) 



American, AV'IiIk, lirpiiblU'uii nixl Driiiu- 
cratlc NttiiiiitatloiiM of 1N.~>(>. 

The AiiuTican couvt-iuion mot the next 
clay atter the sension of the National Coun- 
cil of the Order, ou the 22il February, 
1856. It was conij)Osed of 227 delegates ; 
all the States being represented except 
Maine, Vermont, CJeorgia and South Car- 
olina. Hon. Millard Fillmore was nom- 
inated for President, and Andrew ,J. Don- 
elson for Vice-President. 

The Whig Convention met at Baltimore, 
September, 17, ISoG, and endorsed the 
nominations made by the American par- 
ty, and in its j>latform declared that 
" without ailopting or referring to the i)e- 
culiar doctrines of the party which has 
already selected Mr. Fillmore as a candi- 
date" * * * Resolved, that in the 
present exigency of political affairs, we 
are not called upon to discuss the subordi- 
nate questions of the administration in the 
exercising of the constitutional })owers of 
the government. It is enough to know 
that civil war is raging, and that the 
Union is in peril ; and proclaim the con- 
viction that the restoration of Mr. Fill- 
more to the Presidency will furnish the best 
if not the only means of restoring peace." 

The first National Convention of the 
new Republican party met at Philadelphia, 
June 18, 1856, and nominated John C. 
Fremont for President, and William L. 
Dayton for Vice-President. Since the 
previous Presidential election, a new party 
consisting of the disaffected former adhe- 
rents of the other parties — Native and In- 
dependent Democrats, Abolitionists, and 
Whigs opposed to slaven,' — had sprung 
into existence, and was called by its adhe- 
rents and friends, the Republican party. 

This convention of delegates assembled 
in pursuance of a call addressed to the 
people of the United States, without regard 
to past political differences or divisions, 
who were opposed to the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. To the policy of 
President Pierce's administration : To the 
extension of slavery into free territory: In 
favor of the admission of Kansas as a free 
State : Of restoring the action of the fed- 
eral government to the principles of Wash- 
ington and .Jefferson. 

It adopted a platform, consisting of a set 
of resolutions, the principal one of which 
was : " That we deny the authority of 
Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any 
individual, or association of individuals, 
to give legal existence to slavery in any 
territory of the United States, while the 
present Constitution shall be maintained." 
And closed with a resolution: "That we 
invite the approbation and co-operation of 
the men of all ]iarties, however different 
from us in other respects, in support of the 
principles herein declared ; and believing 



that the spirit of our institutions, as well 
!us the Constitution of our country, guar- 
anties liberty of conscience and ciiuality of 
rights among citizcins, we oppose all legis- 
lation impairing their security." 

The Democratic ( 'onveiition, met at 
CinciniuUi, in .May IH;')!!, and nominated 
James Huchanan lor President, and John 
C. Breckcnridge for Vice-President. It 
adopted a platform which containcii the 
material portions of all its previous plat- 
forms, and also defined its position on the 
new issues of the day, and declared ( 1 j that 
the revenue to be raised should not exceed 
the actual necessary expenses of the gov- 
ernment, and for the gradual extinction of 
the public debt; (2) that the Constitution 
does not confer upon the general govern- 
ment the power to commence and carry on 
a general system of internal improvements ; 
(3) for a strict construction of the powers 
granted by the Constitution t-o the ledeial 
government; (4) that Congress has no 
power to charter a national bank ; (5) that 
Congress has no power to interfere with 
slavery in the States and Territories ; the 
people of which have the exclusive right 
and power to settle that question for them- 
selves. (6) Opposition to native American- 
ism. 

At the election which followed, in No- 
vember, 1856, the Democratic candidates 
were elected, though by a popular minority 
vote, having received 1,838,160 popular 
votes, and 174 electoral votes, against 
2,215,768 popular votes, and 122 electoral 
votes for John C. Fremont, the Rejjublican 
candidate, and Mr. Fillmore, the Whig and 
American candidate. 

The aggregate vote cast for Mr. Fillmore, 
who was the nominee on both the Whig 
and American tickets, was 874,534, and 
his electoral vote was eight ; that of the 
State of Maryland. This was the bust na- 
tional election at which the Whigs ap- 
peared as a party, under that name ; they 
having joined with the American and with 
the Republican parties, and finally united 
with the latter after the downfall and ex- 
tinction of the former. In the State elec- 
tions of that year, (1856) the American 
party carried Rhode Island and Maryland; 
and in the 85th Congress, which met in 
December, 1857, the party had 15 to 20 
Representatives and five Senators. When 
the 36th Congress met, in 1859, it had be- 
come almost a border State or Southern 
party, having two Senators ; one Irom 
Kentucky and one from MaPk'land ; and 
23 Representatives, five from Kentucky, 
seven from Tennessee, three from Mary- 
land, one from Virginia, four from Nurth 
Carolina, two from Georgia, and one from 
Louisiana. The American party had none 
of the elements of persistence. It made 
another desperate effort, however, in the 
next Presidential campaign, but having 



70 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



failed to carry the South, disappeared 
finally from politics. 

The new Republican party polled a very 
large vote — 1,341,234 out of a total vote of 
4,053,928 — and its candidates received 114 
votes out of 296, in the electoral college ; 
having secured majorities in all the free 
States, except Illinois, Indiana, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey and California. 

The successful candidate, Mr. James 
Buchanan, was duly inaugurated as Presi- 
dent of the United States, and entered 
upon the discharge of his duties as sjjch, 
March 4, 1857. 

After the election of November, 1856, 
the Republican Association of Washington 
i&sued an address to the people, in which 
the results of the election were examined, 
and the future policy of the party stated. 
It is an interesting paper, as laying the 
foundation of the campaign of 1860, which 
followed, and is here given in full : 



"Republican Association ot Washington. 

Address to the Republicans of the United States. 

" Washington, Nov. 27, 1856. 
" The Presidential contest is over, and at 
last we have some materials to enable us 
to form a judgment of the results. 

" Seldom have two parties emerged from 
a conflict with less of joy in the victors, 
more of hope in the vanquished. The 
pro-slavery party has elected its Presiden- 
tial candidate, only, however, by the votes 
of a minority, and that of such a character 
as to stamp the victory as the offspring of 
sectionalism and temporary causes. The 
Republicans, wherever able to present 
clearly to the public the real issue of the 
canvass — slavery restriction or slavery ex- 
/ tension— have carried the people with them 
I by unprecedented majorities; almost break- 
ing up in some States the organization of 
their adversaries. A sudden gathering to- 
gether of the people, alarmed at the in- 
roads of the slave power, rather than a 
well organized party, with but a few 
months to attend to the complicated de- 
tails of party warfare ; obstructed by a se- 
cret Order, which had prc-occupied the 
field, and obtained a strong hold of the 
national and religious prejudices of the 
masses ; opposed to an old party, com- 
mencing the canvass with the united sup- 
port of a powerful section, hardened by 
long j)arty drill, accustomed to victory, 
wielding tlie whole power of the federal 
administration — a jiarty which only four 
years ago carried all but four of the States, 
and a majority of the popular vote — .still* 
under all these adverse circumstances, they 
have triumphed in eleven, if not twelve of 
the free States, pre-eminent for enterprise 
and general intelligence, and containing 



one half of the whole population of the coun- 
try ; given to their Presidential candidate 
nearly three times as many electoral votes 
as were cast by the Whig party in 1852 ; and 
this day control the governments of fourteen 
of the most powerful States of the Union. 

" Well may our adversaries tremble in 
the hour of their victory. 'The Demo- 
cratic and Black Republican parties,' they 
say, 'are nearly balanced in regard to 
power. The former was victorious in the 
recent struggle, but success was hardly won, 
with the aid of imjjortant accidental ad- 
vantages. The latter has abated nothing 
of its zeal, and has suffered no pause in its 
preparations for another battle.' 

" With such numerical force, such zeal, 
intelligence, and harmony in counsel ; with 
so many great States, and more than a 
million voters rallied to their standard by 
the efforts of a few mouths, why may not 
the Republicans confidently expect a vic- 
tory in the next contest? 

The necessity for their organization still 
exists in all its force. Mr. Buchanan has 
always proved true to the demands of his 
party. He fully accepted the Cincinnati 
platform, and pledged himself to its policy 
— a policy of filibustering abroad, propa- 
gandism at home. Prominent and controll- 
ing among his supporters are men com- 
mitted, by word and deed, to that policy ; 
and Avhat is there in his character, his an- 
tecedents, the nature of his northern sup- 
port, to authorize the expectation that he 
will disregard their will? Nothing will be 
so likely to restrain him and counteract 
their extreme measures, as a vigorous and 
growing Republican organization, as noth- 
ing would be more necessary to save the 
cause of freedom and the Union, should he, 
as we have every reason to believe, con- 
tinue the pro-slavery policy of the present 
incumbent. Let us beware of folding our 
arms, and waiting to see what he will do. 
We know the ambition, the necessities, the 
schemes of the slave power. Its policy of 
extension and aggrandizement and univer- 
sal empire, is the law of its being, not an 
accident — is settled, not fluctuating. Covert 
or open, moderate or extreme, according to 
circumstances, it never changes in spirit or 
aim. With Mr. Buchanan, the elect of a 
party controlled by this policy, administer- 
ing the government, the safety of the 
country and of free institutions must rest in 
the organization of the Republican jiarty. 

What, then, is the duty before us? 
Organization, vigilance, action; action on 
the rostrum, through the press, at the bal- 
lot-box ; in state, county, city, and town 
elections ; everywhere, at all times ; in every 
election, making Republicanism, or loyal- 
ty to the policy and principles it advocates, 
the sole political test. No primary or 
municipal election should be .suffered to 
go by (lefault. The party that would sue- ' 



TUhi KA.N.SAS .S I KLJUULK. 



71 



ceed nationally must triiniij)h in states — 
triinn|ih in the state elections, must be 
prepared by municipal success. 

Next to tlie remaining power in the 
states already under their control, let tlie 
Roi)ublii'ans devote tliemselves to the 
work of disse.ninating their princii)ieH, 
and initiating the true course of" political 
action in the states which have deciiled the 
election against them. This time we liave 
failed, for reasons nearly ali of which nniybe 
removed by i)roper ellhrt. .Many thousand 
hone.st, but not well-informed voters, who 
supported Mr. Buchanan under the delu- 
sive impression that he would favor the 
cause ot free Kans;is will soon learn their 
mistake, atul be anxious to correct it. The 
timid policy of the Republicans in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, in post- 
poning their independent action, and tem- 
porizing with a party got up f )r pur])oses 
not harmonizing with their own, and the 
conduct of Mr. F'illmore's friends in either 
voting for Mr. Buchanan, or dividing the 
oppositiim by a separate ticket, can hardly 
be repeated again. The true course of the 
Republicans is to organize promptly, bold- 
ly, and honestly upon their own jirinciples, 
so clearly set forth in the Philadeli)hia 
platform, and, avoiding coalitions with 
other parties, appeal directly to the masses 
of all parties to ignore all organizations 
and issues which would divert the public 
mind from the one danger that now threat- 
ens the honor and interests of the country, 
and the subtlety of the Union — slavery 
propagandism allied with disunionism. 

Let us not forget that it is not the want 
of generous sentiment, l)ut of sufficient in- 
formation, that ])revcTits the American peo- 
ple from being united in action against the 
aggressive policy of the slave power. Were 
these simple questions submitted to-day to 
the people of the United States : — Are you 
in favor of the extension of slavery? Arc 
you in fovor of such extension by the aid 
or connivance of the federal government? 
And could they be permitted to record their 
votes in response, without eml)arrassmcnt, 
without constraint of any kind, ninetcen- 
twentieths of the people of the free States, 
and perhaj)s more than half of the people 
of the slave States, would return a decided 
negative to both. 

Let us have faith in the people. Let us 
believe, that at heart they are hostile to 
the extension of slavery, desirous that 
the territories of the Union be consecrated 
to free labor and free institutions; and that 
they require only enlightenment as to the 
most efl'ectual means of securing this end, 
to convert their cherished sentiment into a 
fixed princii)le of action. 

The times are pregnant witli warning. 
That a disunion party exists in the Soutli, 
no longer admits of a doul)t. It accepts 
the election of Mr. Buchanan as affording 



time and means to consolidate itw strength 
and mature its plans, which comi>rehen<l 
not only the enslavement of Kansas, and 
the recognition of slavery in all territory of 
the United States, l)ut tJie conversion of 
tile lower half of California int(» a slave 
State, the organization of a new slavery 
territory in the (iadsden purclnuse, the fu- 
ture annexation of Nicaragua and subju- 
gation of Central America, and the acqui- 
sition of Cuba ; and, as the free States are 
not exjjected to submit to all this, ultimate 
dismemberment of the Union, and the for- 
mation of a great slaveholding confeder' 
acy, with foreign alliances with Brazil and 
Russia. It may assume at first a moderate 
tone, to prevent the sudden alienation of itH 
Northern allies ; it may delay the develop- 
ment of its ]>lot, as it did under the Pierce 
administration; but the repeal of the Mis- 
souri compromise came at last, and so will 
come upon the country inevitably the final 
acts of the dark conspiracy. When that 
hour shall come, then will the honest Dem- 
ocrats of the free States be driven into our 
ranks, and the men of the slave States who 
prefer the republic of Washington, Adams 
and Jefferson — a republic of law, order 
and liberty — to an oligarchy of slavehold- 
ers and slavery propagandists, governed by 
Wise, Atchison, Soule, and Walker, founded 
in fraud and violence and seeking aggran- 
dizement by the spoliation of nations, will 
bid God speed to the labors of the Repub- 
lican party to preserve liberty and the 
Union, one and inseparable, perpetual and 
all powerful. 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 27, 1856. 



The Kansas Straggle. 

It was the removal of tlie interdiction 
against slavery, in all the territory north 
of 36° 30,' by the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise w'hich gave legality to the 
struggle for Kansas, and it was the doc- 
trine of popular sovereignty which gave 
an impartial invitation to both sides to en- 
ter the struggle. The aggressive men of 
both parties hurried emigrants to the Ter- 
ritory. Each accused the other of organ- 
ized efforts, and soon in the height of the 
excitement these charges were rather con- 
fessed than denied. 

A new question was soon evolved by the 
struggle, for some who entered from the 
South took their slaves with them. The 
Free State men now contended that sla- 
very was a local institution and confined 
to the States where it existed, and tliat it 
an emigrant passed into the territory with 
his slaves these became free. The South- 
ern view was, that slaves were recognized 
as property by the National Constitution ; 
that therefore their masters had a right to 
take them there and hold them under con- 



72 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



stitiitional guarantees, the same as any 
other property ; that to assert anything 
else would be to deny the equality of the 
States within their eommon territory, and 
degrade them from the rank of equals to 
that of inferiors. This last proposition 
had such force that it would doubtless have 
received more general recognition if the 
North had not felt that the early compact 
dedicating the territories north of 36° 30' 
to freedom, had been violated. In answer 
to this proposition they therefore pro- 
claimed in their platforms and speeches, 
and there was no other logical answer, 
" that freedom was National, and slavery 
Sectional." 

We cannot enter upon a full description 
of the scenes in Kansas, but bloodshed 
and rapine soon followed the attempts of 
the opposing parties to get control of its 
government. What were called the " Bor- 
der Ruffians " by the Free State men, be- 
cause of active and warlike organization 
in Missouri and upon its borders, in the 
earlier parts of the struggle, seemed to 
have the advantage. They were .supported 
by friends near at hand at all times, and 
warlike raids were frequent. The Free 
State men had to depend mainly upon 
New England for supplies in arms and 
means, but organizations were in turn 
rapidly completed to meet their calls, and 
the struggle soon became in the highest 
degree critical. 

The pro-slavery party sustained the 
Territorial government appointed by the 
administration ; the anti-slavery party re- 
pudiated it, because of its presumed com- 
mittal to slavery. The election for mem- 
bers of the Territorial legislature had been 
attended with much violence and fraud, 
and it was claimed that these things prop- 
erly annulled any action taken by that 
body. A distinct and separate convention 
was called at Topeka to frame a State con- 
stitution, and the Free State men likewise 
elected their own Governor and Legisla- 
ture to take the place of those appointed 
by Buchanan, and when the necessary 
preliminaries were completed, they ap- 
plied for admission into the Union. After 
a long and bitter struggle Congress decided 
the question by refusing to admit Kansas 
under the Topeka Constitution, and by re- 
cognizing the authority of the territorial 
government. These proceedings took place 
during the session of 1856-7, which ter- 
minated immediately before the inaugura- 
ation of President Bufihanan. 

At the beginning of Buchanan's admin- 
istration in 1857, the Republicans almost 
solidly faced the Democrats. There still 
remained part of the division caused by 
the American or Know-Nothing party, but 
itfi membership in Congress had already 
been compelled to show at least the ten- 
dency of their sentiments on the great 



question which was now rapidly dividing 
the two great sections of the Union. The 
result of the long Congressional struggle 
over the admission of Kansas and Nebras- 
ka was simply this : " That Congress was 
neither to legislate slavery into any Terri- 
tory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; 
but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the Constitution of the United States,"* 
and it was specially prescribed that when 
the Territory of Kan.sas shall be admitted 
as a State, it shall be admitted into the 
Union with or without slavery as the con- 
stitution adopted should prescribe at the 
time of admission. 

This was, as it proved, but a temporary 
settlement on the principle of popular 
sovereignty, and was regarded at the time 
as a triumph of the views of Stephen A. 
Douglas by the friends of that great poli- 
tician. The more radical leaders of the 
South looked upon it with distrust, but 
the blood of the more excitable in both 
sections was rapidly rising toward fever 
heat, and the border men from the Free 
and Slave States alike were preparing to 
act upon a compromise which in effect in- 
vited a conflict. 

The Presidential election in 1856 had 
singularly enough encouraged the more 
aggressive of both sections. Buchanan's 
election was a triumph for the South ; 
Fremont's large vote showed the power of 
a growing party as yet but partially or- 
ganized, and crippled by schisms which 
grew out of the attempt to unite all ele- 
ments of opposition to the Democrats. 
The general plan of the latter was now 
changed into an attempt to unite all of the 
free-soil elements into a party organization 
against slavery, and from that time for- 
ward until its total abolition slavery was 
the paramount issue in the minds ol' the 
more aggressive men of the north. Lin- 
coln voiced the feelings of the Republi- 
cans when he declared in one of his Illi- 
nois speeches : — 

" We will, hereafter, speak for freedom, 
and against slavery, as long as the Consti- 
tution guaranties free speech ; until every- 
where, on this wide land, the sun shall 
shine, and the rain shall fall, and the 
wind shall blow upon no man who goes 
forth to unrequited toil." 

In the Congressional battle over the ad- 
mission of Kansas and Nebraska, Douglas 
was the most conspicuous figure, and the 
language which we have quoted from 
Buchanan's inaugural was the literal 
meaning which Douglas had given to his 
idea of "popular" or ".squatter sover- 
eignty." 

Prior to the Kansas struggle the Free 

* President Buchanan's Inaugural .\ddre8B. 



THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 



73 



Boilers of the North had regarded Douglas 
as an ally of the South, and his udmitti-d 
ambition for the IVcsidcMK-y gave color to 
this .suspicion. He it \v:i.s who reported 
and carried throuixli Congress the hill for 
the repeal of the Missouri (.'oiuproniise, a 
measure which at that time w;ls thought to 
obstruct Southern designs in the territories 
of the great West, but this repeal proved 
in fact the first i)lain steps toward the free- 
dom of the territories. Having repealed 
that compromise, something must take its 
place, and what better than "popular 
sovereignty," tliought Douglas. Terri- 
tories contiguous to the Slave States, or in 
the same latitude, would thus naturally 
revert to slavery ; while those farther north, 
and at that time leiust likely of early set- 
tlement, would be dedicated to freedom. 
There wa-s a grave miscalculation just here. 
Slave-owners were not apt to change tlieir 
homesteads, and could not with either 
profit or convenience carry their property 
to new lands which might or might not be 
fruitful in the crops best adapted to slave 
labor. Slave-owners were few in number 
compared with the free citizens of the 
North and the thousands of immigrants 
annually landing on our shores. People 
who had once moved from the New Eng- 
land or Middle States westward, were 
rather fond of it, and many of these 
swelled the tide which constantly sought 
homes in the territories ; and where these 
did not go in person their .sons and daugh- 
ters were quite willing to imitate the early 
adventures of their parents. All these 
counted for the North under the doctrine 
of " popular sovereignty," and it was the 
failure of that doctrine to aid the South 
which from this time forward caused that 
section to mistrust the friendship of 
Douglas. 

No political writer has since questioned 
his motives, and we doubt if it can be done 
successfully. Ilis views may have under- 

fone some change since 1850, and it would 
e singular if they had not ; for a mind a.i 
discerning as his could hardly fail to note 
the changes going on all about him, and 
no where more rapidly than in his own 
State. He thought his doctrine at least 
adapted to the time, and he stood by it 
with rare bravery and ability. If it had 
been accepted by the Republicans, it would 
have been fatal to their organization as a 
party. We doubt the ability of any party 
to stand long upon any mere compromise, 
made to suit the exigencies and avoid the 
dangers of the moment. It may be said 
that our government, first based on a con- 
federacy and then a constitution, with a 
system of checks and balances, with a di- 
vision of power between the people and 
the States, is but a compromise ; but the 
assertion will not hold good. These things 
were adopted because of a belief at the 



time that they were in themselves right, or 
:us nearly right a.s those who participated 
in their adoption were given U) set! the 
right. There was certainly no attempt at 
a <liri.'ti<jn of riijkl and irron//, and the 
closest investigation will show nothing be- 
yond a surrender of powir for the goc^d of 
all, which is in it.self the very essence and 
beginning of government. 

We have said tiuit Douglas fought 
bravely for his idea, and every movement 
in his most remarkable campaign with 
Lincoln for the U. S. Senate demonstrated 
the iact. The times were lull of agitation 
and excitement, and the.se were iiurea.sed 
when it became a]>parent that IJuchanan's 
administration would aid the ellbrt to 
make Kansas a slave State. Doughis was 
the lirst to see that the application of ad- 
ministration machinery to his principle, 
would degrade and rob it of its fairness. 
He therefore resented Buchanan's inter- 
ference, and in turn Buchanan's friends 
sought to degrade him by removing him 
from the chairmanship of the Senate Com- 
mittee on Territories, the position which 
had given him marked control over all 
questions pertaining to the organization of 
territories and the admission of new 
States. 



The Lincoln and Douglas Debate. 

The Senatorial term of Douglas was 
drawing near to its close, when in July,. 
1858, he left Washington tio enter upon the 
canvass for re-election. The Republican 
State Convention of Illinois had in the 
month previous met at Springfield, and 
nominated Abraham Lincoln as a candi- 
date for United States Senator, this with a 
view to pledge all Republican members of 
the Legislature to vote for him — a practice 
since gone into disuse in most of the States, 
because of the rivalries which it engenders 
and the aggravation of the dangers of de- 
feat sure to follow in the selection of a can- 
didate in advance. " First get your goose, 
then cook it," inelegantly describes the 
basic principles of improved political tac- 
tics. But the Republicans, particularly of 
the western part of Illinois, had a double 
purpose in the selection of Lincoln. He 
was not as radical as they, Ijut he well re- 
presented the growing Republican senti- 
ment, and he best of all men could cope 
with Douglas on the stump in a canva.ss 
which they desired should attract the at- 
tention of the Nation, and give shape to 
the sentiment of the North on all questions 
pertaining to slavery. The doctrine of 
'■ popular sovereignty '' was not acceptable 
to the Repul)lit'ans, the recent repeal of 
the Missouri compromise having led them, 
or the more radical portion of them, to 
despise all compromise measures. 

The plan of the Illinois Republicans, if 



74 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



indeed it was a well-settled plan, accom- 
plished even more than was anticipated, 
though it did not result in ininiediate suc- 
cess, rt gave to the debate wliich followed 
between Lincoln and Douglas a world-wide 
celebrity, and did more to educate and 
train the anti-slavery sentiment, taken in 
connection with the ever-growing excite- 
ment in Kansas, than anything that could 
have happened. 

Lincoln's speech before the convention 
which nominated him, gave the first clear 
expression to the idea that there was an 
"irrepressible conflict" between freedom 
and slavery. Wm. H. Seward on October 
25th following, at Rochester, N. Y., ex- 
pressed the same idea in these words : 

" It is an irrepressible conjiict between 
opposing and enduring forces, and it means 
that the United States will sooner or later 
become either an entire slaveholding Na- 
tion, or an entirely free labor Nation." 

Lincoln's words at Springfield, in July, 
1858, were: 

" If we could first know where we are, 
and whither we are tending, we could bet- 
ter judge what to do, and how to do it. 
We are now far into the fifth year, since a 
policy was initiated with the avowed object, 
and confident promise of putting an end to 
the slavery agitation. Under the operation 
of that policy, that agitation has not only 
not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 
In my opinion it will not cease, until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. 
' A house divided against itself cannot 
stand.' I believe this government cannot 
endure permanently half slave and half 
free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved — I do not expect the house to fall — 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing, or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind shall rest 
in the belief that it is in the course of ulti- 
mate extinction ; or its advocates will push 
it forward, till it shall become alike lawful 
in all the States, old as well as new — North 
as well as South." 

Douglas arrived in Chicago on the 9th 
of July, and was warmly received by en- 
thusiastic friends. His doctrine of " pop- 
ular sovereignty " had all the attractions 
of novelty and apparent fiiirness. For 
months it divided many Republicans, and 
at one me the New York Tribnne showed 
indications of endorsing the position of 
Douglas — a fact probalily traceable to the 
attitude of jealousy and hostility manifested 
toward him by the Buchanan "administra- 
tion. Neither of the great debaters were 
to be wholly free in the coming contest. 
Douglas was undermined by Buchanan, 
wlio i'eiired him as a rival, and by the more 
bitter friends of slavery, who could not see 
that the new doctrine was safely in their 



interest ; but these things were dwarfed in 
the State conflict, and those who shared 
such feelings had to make at least a show 
of friendship until they saw the result. 
Lincoln was at first handicapped by the 
doubts of that class of Republicans who 
thought " popular sovereignty " not bad 
Republican doctrine. 

On the arrival of Douglas he replied to 
Lincoln's Springfield speech ; on the 16th 
he spoke at Bloomingtou, and on the 17th, 
in the afternoon, at Springfield. Lincoln 
had heard all three speeches, and replied 
to the last on the night of the day of its 
delivery. He next addressed to Douglas 
the following challenge to debate : 

Chicago, July 24th, 1858. 

Hon. S. a. Douglas : — My Dear Sir : — 
Will it be agreeable to you to make an ar- 
rangement to divide time, and address the 
same audience, during the present canvass? 
etc. Mr. Judd is authorized to receive 
your answer, and if agreeable to you, to en- 
ter into terms of such agreement, etc. 
Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

Douglas promptly accepted the chal- 
lenge, and it was arranged that there should 
be seven joint debates, each alternately 
opening and closing, the opening speech 
to occupy one hour, the reply one hour 
and a half, and the closing half an hour. 
They spoke at Ottawa, August 21st ; Free- 
port, August 27th ; Jonesboro', September 
15th ; Charleston, September 18th ; Gales- 
burg, October 7th ; Quincy, October 18th ; 
and Alton, October ISth. We give in 
Book III of this volume their closing 
speeches in full. 

Great crowds attended, and some of the 
more enterprising daily journals gave pho- 
nographic reports of the speeches. The 
enthusiasm of the North soon ran in Lin- 
coln's favor, though Douglas had hosts of 
friends ; but then the growing and the 
aggressive party was the Republican, and 
even the novelty of a new and attractive 
doctrine like that of " popular sovereignty" 
could not long divert their attention. The 
prize suspended in view of the combat- 
ants was the United States Senatorship, 
and to close political observers this was 
plainly within the grasp of Douglas by 
reason of an apportionment which would 
give his party a majority in the Legisla- 
ture, even though the popular majority 
should be twenty thousand against him — 
a system of apportionment, by the way, 
not confined to Illinois alone, or not pecu- 
liar to it in the work of any of the great i)ar- 
ties at any period when party lines were 
drawn. 

Buchanan closely watched the fight, and 
it was charged and is still believed by the 
friends of "the " Little Giant," that the 



THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DKBATK, 



75 



administration secretly employed its pa- 
tronage antl power to defeat him. Certain 
it is that a tew prominent Democrats de- 
serted the standard of Doughis, and that 
some of them were rewarded. In tiie iieat 
of the battle, however, Douglas' I'rieiids 
were earekws of the views of the adminis- 
tration. He w;us a greater leader than 
Huchanan, and in Illinois at least he over- 
shadiiwed the ailministration. Me lacked 
'neithiu- money nor friends. Special trains 
of cars, i)anner-;, cannon, bands, proces- 
sions, were all su]H)licd with lavish hands. 
The democracy of Illinois, nor yet of any 
other State, ever did so well before or 
since, and if the administration had been 
with him this enthnsiasm might have 
spread to all other States and given his 
doctrine a larger and more glorious life. 
Only the border States of the South, how- 
ever, saw opportunity and glory in it, 
while the oliin'-holders in other sections 
stood off and awaited results. 

Lincoln's position was different. He, 
doubtless, early realized that his chances 
for election were remote indeed, with the 
apportionment as it was, and he sought to 
impress the nation with the truth of his 
convictions, and this without other dis- 
play than the force of their statement and 
publication. Always a modest man, he 
■was never more so than in this great battle. 
He declared that ho did not care for the 
local result, and in the light of what tran- 
spired, the position was wisely taken. 
Douglas was apparently just as earnest, 
though more ambitious ; for he declared 
in the vehemence of the advocacy of his 
doctrine, that " he did not care whether 
slavery w;vs voted up or voted down." 
Douglas had more to lose than Lincoln — 
a place which his high abilities had hon- 
.ored in the United States Senate, and 
'which intriguing enemies in his own party 
made him doubly anxious to hold. Beaten, 
and he was out of the field for the Presi- 
dency, with his enthroned rival a candi- 
date for re-election. Successful, and that 
rival must leave the field, with himself in 
direct command of a great majority of the 
party. This view must have then been 
presented, but the rapid rise in])ublic feel- 
ing made it in ])art incorrect. The calcu- 
lation of Douglas that he could at one 
and the same time retain the good will of 
all his political friends in Illinois and 
those of the South failed him, though he 
did at the time, and until his death, better 
represent the majority of his party in the 
whole country than any other leader. 

At the election which followed the de- 
bate, the popular choice in the State as a 
whole was for Lincoln by 126,084 to 121,- 
940 for Douglas ; but the apportionment 
of 1850 gave to Douglas a plain majority 
of the Senators and Representatives. 

At the Freeport meeting, August 27th, 



there were sharp questions and answere 
between the debaters. Tlu-y were brought 
on by Lincoln, who, after alluding to some 
(juestions propounded to him at (Jttawa, 
said : 

" r now propose that I will answer any 
of the interrogatories, ujxm conilition that 
he will answer questions I'roin me not ex- 
ceeding the same nund)er, to which I give 
him an opportunity to respond. The juilge 
remains silent; I now say that I will an- 
swer his interrogatories, whether he an- 
swer mine or not, and that after I have 
done so I shall propound mine io him. 

" I have suj)posed myself, since the or- 
ganization of the Republican ])arty at 
Bloonungton in May, 18o(), bound sis a 
jtarty man by the platforms of the party, 
there, and .since. If, in any interrogatories 
which I shall answer, I go beyond the 
scope of what is within these platforms, it 
will be perceived that no one is responsible 
but myself. 

" Having said thus much, I will take up 
the judge's interrogatories as I find them 
printed in the Chicayo Times, and answer 
them seriatim. In order that there may 
be no mistake about it, I have copied the 
interrogatories in writing, and also my 
answers to them. The first one of these 
interrogatories is in these words : 

Question 1. — I desire to know whether 
Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, 
in favor of the unconditional repeal of the 
Fugitive Slave Law ? 

Ansiver. — I do not now, nor ever did, 
stand in favor of the unconditional repeal 
of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

Q. 2. — I desire him to answer whether 
he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, 
against the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union, even if the people 
want them ? 

.L— I do not now, nor ever did, stand 
pledged against the admission of any more 
slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3 — I want to know, whether he-stands 

Sledged against the admission of a new 
tate into the Union, with such a Consti- 
tution as the people of the State may see 
fit to make? 

A. — I do not stand pledged against the 
admission of a new State into the Union, 
with such a Constitution as the people of 
the State may see fit to make. 

Q. 4. — I want to know whether he stands 
to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia? 

A. — I do not stand to-day pledged to the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

Q. 5. — I desire him to answer whether 
he stands pledged to tlie prohibition of the 
slave trade between the diflferent States? 

A. — I do not stand pledged to jirohibi- 
tion of the slave trade between the different 
States. 



76 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Q. 6. — I desire to know whether he 
stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all 
the Territories of the United States, North 
as well as South of the Missouri Compro- 
mise line ? 

A. — I am impliedly, if not expressly, 
pledged to a belief in the right and duty 
of Congress to prohibit slavery in all of the 
United States' Territories. 

Q. 7. — I desire him to answer, whether 
he is opposed to the acquisition of any new 
territory, unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein ? 

A. — I am not generally opposed to honest 
acquisition of territory ; and in any given 
case, I would or would not oppose such ac- 
quisition, according as I might think such 
acquisition would or would not aggravate 
the slavery question among ourselves. 

"Now, my friends, it will be perceived 
upon an examination of these questions 
and answers, that so far, I have only an- 
swered that I was not pledged to this, that, 
or the other. 

The judge has not framed his interroga- 
tories to ask me anything more than this 
and I have answered in strict accordance 
with the interrogatories, and have answered 
truly, that I am not pledged at all upon 
any of the points to which I have an- 
swered. But I am not disposed to hang 
upon the exact form of his interrogatories. 
I am rather disposed to take up, at least 
some of these questions, and state what I 
really think upon them. 

" The fourth one is in regard to the abo- 
lition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia. In relation to that, I have my mind 
very distinctly made up. I should be very 
glad to see slavery abolished in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. I believe that Congress 
possesses the constitutional power to abolish 
it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I should 
not, with my present views, be in favor of 
endeavoring to abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, unless it should be upon 
these conditions : First, That the aboli- 
tion should be gradual ; Second, That it 
should be on a vote of a majority of quali- 
fied voters in the District ; and Third, 
That compensation should be made to un- 
willing owners. With these three condi- 
tions, I confess I would be exceedingly 
glad to see Congress abolish slavery in 
the District of Columbia, and in the lan- 
guage of Henry Clay, ' sweej) from our 
Capital that foul blot upon our nation.' " 

I now proceed to propound to the judge 
the interrogatories, so far as I have framed 
them. I will bring forward a new in- 
stalment when I get them ready. I will 
bring now only four. The first one is: — 

1. If the peo]>le of Kansas shall, by 
means entirely unobjectionable in all other 
respects, adopt a State Constitution and 
ask admission into the Union under it 
before they have the requisite number of 



inhabitants, according to the English bill 
— some ninety-three thousand — will he 
vote to admit them? 

2. Can the people of the United States 
Territory, in any lawful way, against the 
wish of any citizen of the United States, 
exclude slavery from its limits prior to the 
formation of a State Constitution ? 

3. If the Supreme Court of the United 
States shall decide that States cannot ex- 
clude slavery from their limits, are you in t 
favor of acquiescing in, adopting and fol- 
lowing such decision as a rule of political 
action ? 

4. Are you in favor of acquiring addi- 
tional territory in disregard of how much 
acquisition may affect the nation on the 
slavery question ? 

To these questions Mr. Douglas said: 
" In reference to Kansas, it is my opinion 
that, as she has population enough to con- 
stitute a slave State, she has people enough 
for a free State. I hold it to be a sacred 
rule of universal application, to require a 
Territory to contain the requisite popula- 
tion for a member of Congress, before it is 
admitted as a State into the Union. 

2. "It matters not what way the Supreme 
Court may hereafter decide, as to the ab- 
stract question whether slavery may or 
may not go into a Territory under the 
Constitution, the people have the lawful 
means to introduce it, or exclude it as they 
please, for the reason that slavery cannot 
exist a day, or an hour, anywhere, unless 
it is supported by local police regulations. 
These police regulations can only be estab- 
lished by the local legislature, and if the 
people are opposed to slavery, they will 
elect representatives to that body, who will, 
by unfriendly legislation, effectually pre- 
vent the introduction of it into their midst. 
If, on the contrary, they are for it, their 
legislation will favor its extension. Hence, 
no matter what the decision of the Su- 
preme Court may be on that abstract 
question, still the right of the people to 
make a slave Territory or a free Terri- 
tory is perfect and complete under the 
Nebraska bill. 

" 3. The third question which Mr. Lin- 
coln presented is, if the Supreme Court of 
the LTnited States shall decide that a State 
of this Union cannot exclude slavery from 
its own limits, will I submit to it? I am 
amazed that Mr. Lincoln should ask such 
a question. 

He casts an imputation upon the Su- 
preme Court of the United States by suj)- 
posing that they would violate the consti- 
tution of the United States. I tell him 
that such a thing is not possible. It would 
be an act of moral treason that no man on 
the bench could ever descend to. Mr. 
Lincoln, himself, would never, in his par- 
tisan feelings, so far forget what was right 
as to be guilty of such an act. 



THE KAN8AS STRUGGLE. 



77 



4. Witli our iiiitunil ituTraHt', growing 
witli a riij)i(lity uiikaowii in any otlirr purl 
of the gl'>l)t', witli the tide of fiiiigratioii 
that is lleoing I'rom (K'spotisin in tlic old 
world, to rti'L'lv refuge in our own, lIuTe is 
a constant torrent pouring into this coun- 
try that ri'cjuires more hind, more terri- 
ory upon whicli to settle, and just as fiist 
uS our interests and our (hstiny recpiire 
ai additional territory in the North, in the 
f luth, or on the Island of the Ocean, [ 
am for it, and when we reijuire it, will 
leave the people, according to the Nebraska 
bill, free to (to as they plcjise on the sub- 
ject of slavery, and every other ques- 
tion." 

The bitterness of the feelings aroused by 
the canvass and boldness of Douglas, can 
both be well shown by a brief abstract 
from his speech at Freeport. He had j)er- 
sisted in calling the Republicans " Blcuk- 
Rej)ublicans," although the crowd, the 
great majority of which was there against 
him, insisted that he should say " White 
Republican." In response to these oft re- 
peated demands, he said : — 

" Now, there are a great many Black 
Republicans of you who do not know this 
thing was done. ('' White, white, and 
great clamor)." I wish to remind you that 
while Mr. Lincoln was speaking, there 
AViis not a Democrat vulgar and black- 

fuard enough to interrupt him. But I 
now that the shoe is pincliing you. I am 
clinching Lincoln now, and you are scared 
to death for the result. I have seen this 
thing before. I have seen men make ap- 
pointments for discussions and the mo- 
ment their man has been heard, try to in- 
terrupt and prevent a fair hearing of the 
other side. I have seen your mobs before 
and defy your wrath. (Tremendous ap- 
! plause. ) 

" My friends, do not cheer, for I need 
my whole time. 

" I have been put to severe tests. I have 
stood by my principles in fair weather and 
in foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. 
I have defended the great principle of 
self-governmeat here among you when 
Northern sentiment ran in a torrent against 
me, and I have defended that same great 
principle when Southern sentiment came 
down like an avalanche upon me. I was 
not afraid of any test they jmt to me. I 
knew I was right— I knew my principles 
were sound — I knew that the peoj)le would 
see in the end that I had done right, and 
I knew that the (rod of Heaven would 
smile upon me if I was faithful in the i)er- 
formance of my duty." 

As an illustration of the earnestnes-s of 
Lincoln's jwsition we need only quote two 
paragraphs from his speech at Alton : — 

"Is slavery wrong? Th;it is the real 
issue. That is the issue that will continue 
in this country when these poor tongues of 



.Judge D(mglas and myself shall be silent. 
It is the eternal struggle between tliese two 
|)rincipleri — right ancf wrong — throughout 
the world. They are two jirinciples that 
have .stood face to face from the beginning 
of time; and will ever coniiniie to struggle. 
The one is the common right ol'humanitv, 
and the other the divine right of Kings. 
It is the same i)rincii)le in whatever shape 
it develops itself. It is thesaine spirit that 
says, 'you work and toil, and earn bread, 
and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape 
it comes, whether from the mouth of a 
King who seeks to bestride the people of 
his own nation and life by the fruilof their 
labor, or from one race of men as an 
apology for enslaving another race, it is 
the same tyrannical ])rincii>le." 

And again : — 

" Oil this subject of treating it as a 
wrong, and limiting its spread, let me say a 
word. Has anything ever threatened the 
existence of this Union save and except 
this very institution of slavery? What is 
it that we hold most dear among us? Our 
own liberty and prosperity. What has 
ever threatened our liberty and prosperity 
save and except this institution of slavery ? 
If this is true, how do you propose to im- 
prove the condition of things? by enlarging 
slavery? — by spreading it out and making 
it bigger? You may have a wen or cancer 
upon your person and not be able to cut it 
out, lest you bleed to death ; but surely it 
is no way to cure it, to engraft it and 
spread it over your whole bodj\ That is 
no proper way of treating what you regard 
a wrong. You see this peaceful way of 
dealing with it as a wrong — restricting the 
spread of it, and not allowing it to go into 
new countries where it has not already 
existed. That is the peaceful way, the 
old-fashioned way, the way in which 
the fathers themselves set as the ex- 
ample." 

The administration of Pierce had left 
that of Buchanan a dangerous legacy. He 
found the pro-slavery party in Congress 
temporarily triumphant, it is true, and 
supported "by the action of Congress in re- 
jecting the Topeka constitution and rec- 
ognizing the territorial government, but 
he found that that decision was not acccj)- 
table either to the majority of the people 
in the country or to a rapidly rising anti- 
slavery sentiment in the North. Yet he 
saw but one course to pursue, and that was 
to sustain the territorial government, which 
had issued the call for the Lcconipton con- 
vention. He was supported in this view 
by the action of the Supreme Court, which 
had decided that slavery existed in Kansas 
under the constitution of the United States, 
and that the people therein could only re- 
lieve themselves of it by the election of 
delegates who would prohibit it in the 
constitution to be framed by the Lecomp- 



78 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ton convention. The Free State men re- 1 
fused to recognize the call, made little, if 
any, preparation for the election, yet on 
the last day a number of them voted for 
State officials and a member of Congress 
under the Lecompton constitution. This 
had the effect of suspending hostilities be- 
tween the parties, yet peace was actually 
maintained only by the intervention of 
U. S. troops, under the command of Col. 
Sumner, who afterwards won distinction 
in the war of the rebellion. The Free 
State people stood firmly by their Topeka 
constitution, and refused to vote on ques- 
tions affecting delegates to the Lecompton 
convention. They had no confidence in 
Governor Walker^ the appointee of Presi- 
dent Buchanan, and his proclamations 
passed unheeded. They recognized their 
own Governor Rubinson, who in a message 
dated December 7th, 1857, explained and 
defended their position in these words: 

" The convention which framed the con- 
stitution at Topeka originated with the 
people of Kansas territory. They have 
adopted and ratified the same twice by a 
direct vote, and also indirectly through two 
elections of State officers and members of 
the State Legislature. Yet it has pleased 
the administration to regard the whole 
proceeding as revolutionary." 

The Lecompton convention, proclaimed 
by Governor Walker to be lawfully con- 
stituted, met for the second time, Sept. 4th, 
1857, and proceeded to frame a constitu- 
tion, and adjourned finally Nov. 7t.h. A 
large majority of the delegates, as in the 
first, were of course pro-slavery, because 
of the refusal of the anti-slavery men to 
participate in the election. It refused to 
submit the whole constitution to the people, 
it is said, in opposition to the desire of 
President Buchanan, and part of his 
Cabinet. It submitted only the question 
of whether or not slavery should exist in 
the new State, and this they were required 
to do under the Kansas-Nebraska act, if 
indeed they were not required to submit it 
all. Yet such was the hostility of the 
pro-slavery men to submission, that it was 
only by three majority the proposition to 
submit the main question was adopted — a 
confession in advance that the result was 
not likely to favor their side of the con- 
troversy. But six weeks' time was also 
allowed for preparation, the election being 
ordered for Dec. 21st, 1857. Still another 
advantage was taken in the printing of the 
ballots, as ordered by the convention. The 
method prescribed was to endorse the bal- 
lots, "Constitution with Slavery," and 
" Constitution with no Slavery, thus coni- 
pelling the voter, however adverse his 
views, as to other ])arta of the Constitution, 
to vote for it a.s a whole. As a consequence, 



to participate in the election, and the result 
as returned was 6,143 votes in favor of 
slavery, and 589 against it. The constitu- 
tion was announced as adopted, an election 
was ordered on the first Monday of Janu- 
ary, 1858, for State officers, members of the 
Legislature, and a member of Congress. 
The opponents of the Lecompton constitu- 
tion did not now refrain from voting, partly 
because of their desire to secure the repre- 
sentative in Congress, but mainly to secure 
an opportunity, as advised by their State 
officers, to vote down the Lecompton con- 
stitution. Both parties warmly contested 
the result, but the Free State men won, and 
with their general victory secured a large 
majority in the Legislature. 

The ballots of the Free State men were 
now headed with the words " Against the 
Lecompton Constitution," and they re- 
turned 10,226 votes against it, to 134 for 
it with slavery, and 24 for it against slavery. 
This return was certified by J. W. Denver, 
" Secretary and Acting Governor," and its 
validity was endorsed by Douglas in his 
report from the Senate Territorial Com- 
mittee. It was in better accord with his 
idea of popular sovereignty, as it showed 
almost twice as large a vote as that cast 
under the Lecompton plan, the fairness of 
the return not being disputed, while that 
of the month previous was disputed. 

But their previous refusal to vote on the 
Lecompton constitution gave their oppo- 
nents an advantage in position strangely at 
variance with the wishes of a majority of 
the people. The President of that conven- 
tion, J. Calhoun, forwarded the document 
to the President with an official request 
that it be submitted to Congress. This 
was done in a message dated 2d February, 
1858, and the President recommended the 
admission of Kansas under it. 

This message occasioned a violent debate 
in Congress, which continued for three 
months. It was replete with sectional 
abuse and bitterness, and nearly all the 
members of both Houses participated. It 
finally closed with the passage of the 
" Act for the admission of the State of 
Kansas into the L^nion," passed May 4th, 
1858. This Act had been reported by a 
committee of conference of both Houses, 
and was passed in the Senate bv 31 to 22, 
and in the House by 112 to 103. There 
was a strict party vote in the Senate with 
the exception of Mr. Douglas, C. E. Stuart 
of Michigan, and D. C. Broderick of Cal- 
ifornia, who voted with the Republican 
minority. In the House several anti- 
Lecomi)ton democrats voted with the Re- 
publican minority. These were Messrs. 
Adrian of New Jersey ; Chapman of Penn- 
sylvania ; Clark of New York ; Cockerill 
of Ohio ; Davis of Indiana ; Harris of II- 



(at least this was given as one of the rea- 1 linois ; Haskin of New York ; Hickman 
•ons,) the Free State men aa a rule refused \ of Pennsylvania; McKibben of California; 



THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 



79 



Marshall of Illinois ; Morji^ftn of New 
York; Morris, Shaw, and Smith of Illinois. 
The Americans who voti'd with the lltipuh- 
licans were Crittenden of Kentucky ; Davis 
of Maryhmd ; Marshall of Kentucky ; 
Rieaud of Maryland ; Underwood of Ken- 
tucky. A number of those ])reviously 
classed as Anti-Lceonipton Democrats 
voted apjainst their coUeajjjues of the same 
faction, and consciiuentiy ajz:ains( tlie bill. 
These were Messrs. Cockerill, ( iwcsheck, 
Hall, Lawrence, Pendleton and Cox of 
Ohio; English and Foley of Indiana; and 
Jones of Pennsylvania. The Americans 
who voted against the bill were Kennedy 
of Maryland; Anderson of Missouri ; Eus- 
tis of Louisiana; (lilmer of North Caro- 
lina; Hill of Georgia; Maynard, Ready 
and Zollicotler of Tennessee; and Trippe 
of Georjria. 



Ijeconipton Constitution. 

The following are the political features 
of the Lecomptou constitution : 

Article VII. — Slavery. 

Seo. 1 . The right of pr(iperty is before 
and higher than any constitutional sanc- 
tion, and the right of the owner of a slave 
to such slave and its increase is the same, 
and as inviolable as the right of the owner 
of any property whatever. 

Sec. 2. The legislature shall have no 
power to pa.ss laws for the emancipation 
of slaves without the consent of the 
owners, or without paying the owners 
previous to their emancipation a full 
equivalent in money for the slaves so 
emancipated. They shall have no power 
to prevent emigrants to the state from 
bringing with them such persons as are 
deemed slaves by the laws of any one of 
the United States or territories, so long as 
any person of the same age or description 
shall be continued in slavery by the laws 
of this state: Provided, That such person 
or slave be the bona fide property of such 
emigrants : And prorided, also, That laws 
may be passed to prohibit the introduc- 
tion into this state of slaves who have 
committed high crimes in other states or 
territories. They shall have power to pass 
laws to permit the owners of slaves to 
emancipate them, saving the rights of 
creditors, and preventing them from be- 
coming a public charge. They shall have 
power to oblige the owners of slaves to 
treat them with humanity, to provide for 
them necessary food and clothing, to ab- 
stain from all injuries to them extending 
to life or limb, and, in c;is.e of their neglect 
or reftisal to comply with the direction of 
such laws, to have such slave or slaves 
sold for the benefit of the owner or 
owners. 



Sec. 3. In the prosecution of slavej^ for 
crimes of higher gratle than petit larceny, 
the legislature shall have no power t-) de- 
prive them of an impartial trial bv a petit 

jury- 

Sec. 4. Any person who shall mali- 
ciously dismember, or de|)rive a slave i)f 
life, shall suffer such |)Unisliment as would 
be inflicted in case the like- offence had 
been committed on a free white person, 
and on the like proof, except in case of 
insurrection of such slave. 

Free Negroen. 

Bill of Rujhts, Sfx'. 28. Free negroes 
shall not be allowed to live in this state 
under any circumstances. 

Article VIII. — Elections and Rights of 
Suffrage. 

Sec. 1. Every male citizen of the 
United States, above the age of twenty- 
one years, having resided in this state one 
year, and in the county, city, or town in 
which he may offer to vote, three months 
next preceding any election, sliall have 
the qualifications of an elector, and be en- 
titled to vote at all elections. And every 
male citizen of the United States, above 
the age aforesaid, who may be a resident 
of the state at the time this constitution 
shall be adopted, shall have the right of 
voting as aforesaid ; but no such citizen or 
inhabitant shall be entitled to vote ex- 
cept in the county in which he shall 
actually reside at the time of the elec- 
tion. 



The Topeka Constitution. 

The following are the political features 
of the Topeka constitution : 



Slavery. j 

Bill of Kight.'i, Sec. 6. There shall hi 

no slavery in this state, nor involuntary 

servitude, unless for the punishment of 



Amendments to the Constitution. 

Sec. 1. All propositions for amend- 
ments to the constitution shall be made 
by the General Assembly. 

Sec. 2. A concurrence of two-thirds of 
the members elected to each house shall be 
necessary, after which such proposed 
amendments shall be again referred to the 
legislature elected next succeeding said 
publication. If passed by the second 
legislature by a majority of two-thirds of 
the members elected to each house, such 
amendments shall be republished as afore- 
said, for at least six months prior to the 
next general election, at which election 
such proposed amendments shall be sub- 
mitted to the people for their approval or 



J^O 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



rejection ; and if a majority of the electors 
voting at such election shall adopt such 
amendments, the same shall become a part 
of the constitution. 

Sec. 3. When more than one amend- 
ment is submitted at the same time, they 
shall be so submitted as to enable the 
electors to vote upon each ameudment 
separately. No convention for the forma- 
tion of a new constitution shall be called, 
and no amendment to the constitution 
shall be, by the general assembly, made 
before the year 18G5, nor more than once 
in five years thereafter. 

Siibviissioii of Constitution to the People. 
Schedule, Sec. 2. That this constitution 
shall be submitted to the people of Kansas 
for ratification on the 15th day of Decem- 
ber next. That each qualified elector 
shall express his assent or dissent to the 
constitution by voting a written or printed 
ticket, labelled " Constitution," or " No 
Constitution ;" which election shall be 
held by the same judges, and conducted 
under the same regulations and restric- 
tions as is hereinafter provided for the 
election of members of the general 
assembly. 



The Douglas Amendment. 

The following is the Douglas amend- 
ment, which really formed the basis of the 
bill for admission : 

" It being the true intent and meaning 
of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
state or territory, nor to exclude it there- 
from, but to leave the people thereof per- 
fectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." 

The bill which passed on the 4th of May 
was known as the English bill, and it met 
the approval of Buchanan. To the measure 
was attached " a fundamental condition 
precedent," which arose from the fact that 
the ordinance of the convention accom- 
panying the constitution claimed for the 
new State a cession of the public lands six 
times greater than had l/oen granted to 
other States, amounting in all to 2.3,500,- 
000 acres. In lieu of tins Congress pro- 
posed to submit to a vote of the people a 
proposition specifying the number of acres 
ancf the purposes for wliich the money 
arising from their sale were to l)e used, and 
the acceptance of this was to be followed 
by a proclamation that " thereafter, and 
without further proceedings from Congress 
the admission of the State of Kansas, into 
the Union, upon an equal footing with the 
original States in all respects whatever, 
shall be complete and absolute." The con- 
dition was never fulfilled, for the peo])le at 
the election on the 2d of August, 1858, 



rejected it by a majority of 9,513, and Kan- 
sas was not admitted under the Lecompton 
constitution. 

Finally, and after continued agitation, 
more peaceful, however, than that which 
characterized the earlier stages of the strug- 
gle, the territorial legislature of Kansas 
called an election for delegates to meet and 
form a constitution. They assembled in 
convention at Wyandot, in July, 1859, and 
reported a constitution prohibiting slavery. 
This was adopted by a majority exceeding 
4000, and under it Kansas was admitted to 
the Union on the 29th of January, 1861. 

The comparative quiet between the re- 
jection of the English proposition and the 
adoption of the Wyandot constitution, was 
at one time violently disturbed by a raid 
made by John Brown at Harper's Ferry, 
with a view^ to excite the slaves to insur- 
rection. This failed, but not before Gov. 
Wise, of Virginia, had mustered his militia, 
and called for the aid of United States 
troops. The more radical anti-slavery men 
of the North were at first shocked by the 
audacity of an offense which many looked 
upon as an act of treason, but the anxiety 
of Virginia to hang Brown and all his 
followers who had been captured alive, 
changed a feeling of conservatism in the 
North to one of sympathy for Brown and 
deeper hatred of slaA'ery. It is but fair to 
say that it engendered hostility to the 
Union in the South. The right and wrong 
of slavery was thereafter more generally 
discussed than ever. The talent of the 
South favored it; while, with at least a 
large measure of truth it can be said that 
the talent of the North opposed it. So 
bitter grew the feeling that soon the 
churches of the sections began to divide, 
no other political question having ever be- 
fore disturbed the Union. 

We have not pretended to give a com- 
plete history of the Kansas trouble either 
in that State or in Congress, nor yet a full 
history of the many issues raised on ques- 
tions which were but subsidiary to the 
main one of slavery. Our object is to show 
the relation of the political parties through- 
out that struggle, for we are dealing with 
the history of parties from a national view, 
and not with battles and the minor ques- 
tions or details of parliamentary struggles. 
The contest had cemented the Democrats 
of the South as it had the Republicans of , 
the North ; it divided both the Democratsi 
of the North and the Americans in all] 
sections. John Bell, of Tennessee, and] 
Sam Houston of Texas, recognized leaders] 
of the Americans, had shown their sym- 
pathy with the ncAV stand taken by Doug-j 
las, as early as 1854. Bell, however, was 
less decided than Houston, and took his] 
position with many qualifications. Hous- 
ton opposed even the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, and made the lastspeechj 



THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION, 



81 



against it in the Senate, lie closed with 
thi'Sf words: 

" In the disfharf^e of my duty I have 
acte<hc-:irlossiy. Tiie events of the future 
are h'fl in tliehand-sof a wise Proviik-nce, 
and, in my opinion, on the (U>cision whirii 
we make upon tiiis question must depend 
union or disunion." 

These sentiments were shared by many 
Amerieans, and tlie threat majority of tliem 
driltrd into the Kcpubliean party. The 
Aholitiouists from tlie lieirinnini:; of the 
stru^xgh", allied themselves with the Repuh- 
lieans, a few of their leadei^s proclaiming, 
however, that this jjarty was not sutlicicutly 
advanced in its views. 



Tlie Cliarli-stou Convention. 

Such was the condition of the parties 
when the Democratic national convention 
met at Charleston, S. C, on the 23d of 
April, I81IO, it being then the custom of 
the Democratic ]>artv, as it is of all major- 
it)' parties, to call its convention first. It 
was composed of delegates from all the 
thirty-three States of the Union, the whole 
number of votes being 303. After the ex- 
ample of former Democratic conventions 
it adopted the two-third rule, and 202 votes 
were reipiired to make nominations for 
President and Vice-President. Caleb Cush- 
ing, of ]\Iass., presided. From the first a 
radical difference of opinion was exhibited 
among the members on the question of 
slavery in the Territories. Almost the 
entire Southern and a minority of the 
Northern portion believed in the Dred 
Scott decision, and held that slave property 
was as valid under the constitution as any 
other class of property. The Douglas 
delegates stood firmly by the theory of 
popular sovereignty, and avowed their in- 
ditlcrence to the fact whether it would lead 
to the protection of slave property in the 
territories or not. On the second day a 
committee on resolutions consisting of one 
memher from each State, selected by the 
State delegates, was named, and then a 
resolution was resolved unanimously "that 
'this convention will not proceed to ballot 
for a candidate for the Presidency until the 
platform shall have been adopted." On 
the fifth day the committee on rcsfdutions 
presented majority and minority reports. 
After a long discussion on the respective 
merits of the two reports, they were both, 
on motion of Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, 
re-committed to the Committee on Reso- 
lutions, with a view, if possible, to promote 
harmony; but this proved to be impracti- 
cable. On the sixth day of the Conven- 
tion (Saturday, April 2Sth.) at an evening 
Bcssion, Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, and 
Mr. Samuels, of Iowa, from the majority 
6 



and minority of the committee, again mado 
oi)posite and conllicting n;porls on thu 
(pu'stion of slavery in tiie Territorii-s. On 
tills question tlie committee liad divided 
Irom the Ix'ginning, tlie one jiortion em- 
bracing the fifteen members from the 
slaveholding States, with those from Cali- 
fornia and Oregon, an<l the other consist- 
ing of tlie members from all the freeStates 
east of the Rocky Mountains. On .ill other 
questions both re])orts substantially agree<l. 

The following is the report of the major- 
ity made on this subject by .Mr. Avery, of 
North Carolina, the chairman of the com- 
mittee: ^' Ji'esolvcd, That the platform 
adopted by the Democratic party at Cin- 
cinnati he'affirmed with the following ex- 
planatory resolutions: 1st. That the tiov- 
ernment of a Territory, organized by an 
act of Congress, is provisional and tempo- 
rarv, and during its existence all citizens 
of the United States have an etjual right 
to settle with their property in the Terri- 
tory, without their rights, either of person 
or property, being destroyed or imi)aired 
by Congressional or Territorial legishition. 
2d. That it is the duty of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, in all its departments, to protect, 
when necessary, the rights of persons and 
property in the Territories, and wherever 
else its constitutional authority extends. 
3d. That when the settlers in a Territory 
having an adequate population form a 
State Constitution, the right of sovereignty 
commences, and being consummated by 
admission into the Union, they stand on 
an equal footing Avith the people of other 
States, and the State thus organized ought 
to be admitted into the Federal Union 
whether its constitution prohibits or recog- 
nizes the institution of slavery." 

The following is the report of the minor- 
ity, made by Mr. Samuels, of Iowa. After 
re-affirming the Cincinnati platform by 
the first resolution, it proceeds: "Inas- 
much as differences of opinion exist in the 
Democratic party, as to the nature and ex- 
tent of the powers of a Terrhorial Legisla- 
' ture, and as to the powers and duties of 
Congress, under the Constitution of the 
United States, over the institution of 
slavery within the Territories, Jicsolved, 
That the Democratic party will abide by 
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States upon questions of constitu- 
tional law." 

After some preliminary remarks, ;Mr. 
Samuels moved the adoption of the minor- 
ity report as a substitute for that of the 
majority. This gave rise to an earnest 
and excited debate. The difference be- 
tween the parties was radical and irrecon- 
cilable. The South insisted that the Cin- 
cinnati platform, whose true construction 
in regard to slavery in the Territories had 
alwa'vs been denied by a portion of the 
Democratic party, should be explained and 



82 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



settled by an express recognition of the 
priufipk's decided by the Supreme Court. 
The North, on the other hand, refused to 
recognize this decision, and still main- 
tained the power to be inherent in the 
people of a Territory to deal with the 
question of slavery according to their own 
discretion. The vote was then taken, and 
the minority report was substituted for 
that of the majority by a vote of one hun- 
dred and sixty-iive to one hundred and 
thirty-eight. The delegates from the six 
New England States, as well as from New 
York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, fourteen 
free States, cast their entire vote in favor 
of the minority report. New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania alone among the free States 
east of the Rocky Mountains, refused to 
vote as States, but their delegates voted as 
individuals. 

The means employed to attain this end 
were skillfully devised by the minority of 
the Pennsylvania delegation in favor of 
nominating Mr. Douglas. The entire del- 
egation had, strangely enough, placed this 
power in their hands, by selecting two of 
their number, Messrs. Cessna and Wright, 
to represent the whole on the two most im- 
portant committees of the Convention— 
that of organization and that of resolu- 
tions. These gentlemen, by adroitness and 
parliamentary tact, succeeded in abrogat- 
ing the former practice of casting the vote 
of the State as a unit. In this manner, 
whilst New York indorsed with her entire 
thirty-five votes the peculiar views of Mr. 
Douglas, notwithstanding there Avas in her 
delegation a majority of only five votes in 
their favor on the question of Territorial 
sovereignty, the effective strength of Penn- 
sylvania recognizing the judgment of the 
Supreme Court, was reduced to three votes, 
this being the majority of fifteen on the 
one side over twelve on the other. 

The question next in order before the 
Convention was upon the adoption of the 
second resolution of the minority of the 
committee, which had been substituted for 
the report of the majority. On this ques- 
tion Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkan- 
sas, Texas, Florida, and Mississippi re- 
fused to vote. Indeed, it soon appeared 
that on the question of the final adoption 
of this second resolution, Avhich in fact 
amounted to nothing, it had scarcely any 
friends of either party in the Convention. 
The Douglas ])arty, without ex])lanation 
or addition, voted against it. On the other 
hand, the old Democracy could not vote 
for it without admitting that the Supreme 
Court had not already placed the right 
over slave property in the Territories on 
the same footing Avith all other property, 
and therefore they also voted against it. 
In consequence the resolution was nega- 
tived by a vote of only twenty-one in ita 



favor to two hundred and thirty-eight. 
Had the seven Southern States jubt men- 
tioned voted, the negatives would have 
amounted to two hundred and eighty-two, 
or more than thirteen to one. Thus both 
the majority and the minority resolutions 
on the Territorial question Avere rejected, 
and nothing remained before the Conven- 
tion except the Cincinnati platform. 

At this stage of the proceedii^gs (April 
30th), the States of Louisiana, Alabama, 
South Carolina, Mississijipi, Florida, Tex- 
as, and Arkansas, having assigned their 
reasons for the act, Avithdrew in succession 
from the Convention. Alter these seven 
States had retired, the delegation from 
Virginia made an efl'ort to restore har- 
mony. Mr. Russell, their chairman, ad- 
dressed the Convention and portrayed the 
alarming nature of the crisis. He ex- 
pressed his fears that Ave were on the eve 
of a revolution, and if this Convention 
should prove a failure it would be the last 
National Convention of any party Avhich 
Avould ever assemble in the United States, 
" Virginia," said he, " stands in the midst 
of her sister States, in garments red Avith 
the blood of her children slain in the first 
outbreak of the 'irrepressible conflict.' 
But, sir, not when her children fell at mid- 
night beneath the Aveapon of the assassin, 
Avus her heart penetrated with so profound 
a grief as that Avhich Avill Avring it when 
she is obliged to choose betAveen a sepa- 
rate destiny Avith the South, and her com- 
mon destiny Avith the entire Republic." 

Mr. Russell Avas not then prei3ared to 
answer, in behalf of his delegation, whether 
the events of the day (the defeat of the 
majority report, and the Avithdrawal of the 
seven States) were sufiicient to justify her 
in taking the irrevocable step in question. 
In order, therefore, that they might have 
time to deliberate, and if they thought 
proper make an effort to restore harmony . 
in the Convention, he expressed a desire 
that it might adjourn and afford them an 
opportunity for consultation. The Con- 
vention accordingly adjourned tiiitil the 
next day, Tuesday, May 1st ; and imme-, 
diately after its reassembling the delega- 
tion from Georgia, making the eighth 
State, also AvithdrcAV. 

In the mean time the Virginia delega- 
tion had consulted among themselves, and 
had conferred Avith the delegation of the 
other Southern States Avhich still remained 
in the Convention, as to the best mode of 
restoring harmony. In consequence Mr. 
IIoAvard, of Tennessee, stated to the Con- 
vention that " he had a proposition to pre- 
sent in behalf of the delegation from Ten- 
nessee, Avhenevcr, under parliamentary 
rules, it Avould be j)roper to present it." ■ 
In this Tennessee Avas joined by Kentucky 
and Virginia. He should propose the fol- 
loAving resolution whenever it Avould be in 



,i'i5 



THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



83 



order: 'Resolved, Tliat the citizens of the 
United States have an equal ri^lit to set- 
tle with their property in the Territories 
(lithe United .States ; and that, uiidi'r tiie 
di'cision of tiie Supreme Court of the 
United States, which we recognize as the 
correct exposition of the Constitution of 
the United States, neither the rights of 
person nor property can be destroyed or 
inpaircil by Congressional or Territorial 
legislation.' '* 

On a subsequent day (May 3d), Mr. Rus- 
sell intbnned the Convention that this re- 
Bolution had, "he believed, received the 
approbation of all the delegations from 
the S(»uthcrn States which remained in 
the Convention, and also received the ap- 
probation of the delegation from New 
York. He was informed there was strength 
enough to pass it when in order." 

IMr. Howard, however, in vain attempted 
to obtain a vote on his resolution. When 
he moved to take it up on the evening of 
the day it bad been ollered, he was met by 
cries of "Not in order," '"Not in order." 
The manifest purpose was to postpone its 
consideration until the hour should arrive 
which had been fixed by a previous order 
of the Convention, in opposition to its first 
order on the same subject, for the balloting 
to commence for a Presidential candidate, 
when it would be too late. This the friends 
of Mr. Douglas accomplished, and no vote 
was ever taken upon it either at Charleston 
or Baltimore. 

Before the balloting commenced Mr. 
Howard succeeded, in the face of strong 
opposition, with the aid of the thirty-five 
votes from New York, in obtaining a vote 
of the Convention in rc-aflirmance of the 
two-thirds rule. On his motion they re- 
solved, by 141, to 112 vijtes, " thatthel're- 
sident of the Convention be and he is here- 
by directed not to declare any person 
nominated for the office of President or 
Vice-President, unless he shall have re- 
ceived a number of votes equal to two- 
thirds of the votes of all the electoral col- 
leges." It was well known at the time 
that tliis resolution rendered the regular 
nomination of Mr. Douglas impossible. 

The balloting then commenced (Tuesday 
evening. May 1st), on the eighth day of the 
session. Necessary to a nomination, under 
the two-thirds rule, 202 votes. On the 
first ballot Mr. -Douglas received 1451 
votes; Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, 42; Mr. 
Guthrie, of Kentuckv, 3')l ; Mr. Johnson, 
of Tennessee, 12; Mr. Dickinson, of New 
York, 7; Mr. Lane, of Oregon, G; Mr. 
Toucey, of Connecticut, 2\ ; Mr. Davis, of 
Mississippi, li, and Mr. Pearce, of Marv- 
land, 1 vote. 

The voting continued until i^Iay 3d. 
during which there were fiftv-four addi- 
tional ballotings. Mr. Douglas never rose 
to more than lo2i, and ended in 151^ 



votes, 202 votes being nccassary to a nomi- 
nation. 

Until 1S24 nominations had been made 
by Congressional caucus. In these none 
partici])ated excent Senators and Demo- 
cratic States, ana Kej)rcsentatives from 
Democratic C(jngressional districts. The 
simple majority rule governed in these 
caucuses, because it was morally certain 
that, composed as they were, no candid.ite 
could lie selected against tlu- will of the 
Democratic States on whom his elccti(in 
depended. But whi-n a change was made 
t<j National Conventions, it was at once 
perceived that if a mere majority could 
nominate, then the delegates from Anti- 
Democratic States might be mainly instru- 
mental in nominating a candidate for 
whom they could not give a single electo- 
ral vote. AVhilst it would have been harsh 
and incx])edient to exclude these States 
from the Convention altogether, it would 
have been unjust to confer on them a con- 
trolling j)ower over the nomination. To 
compromi.se this difficulty, the two-thirds 
rule was adopted. Under its operation it 
would be almost impossible that a candi- 
date could be selected, without the votes 
of a simple majority of delegates from the 
Democratic States. This was the argu- 
ment of its friends. 

It had now become manifest that it was 
impossible to make a nomination at 
Charleston. The friends of Mr. Douglas 
adhered to him and would vote for him 
and him alone, whilst his opponents, ap- 
prehending -the effect of his principles 
should he be elected President, were equally 
determined to vote against his nomination. 

In tiie hope that some compromise 
might yet be effected, the Convention, on 
the motion of Mr. Ru.ssell, of Virginia, 
resolved to adjourn to meet at Baltimore on 
Monday, the ISth June; and it was " re- 
spectfully recommended to the Democratic 
party of the several States, to make pro- 
vision for supplying all vacancies in their 
respective delegations to this Convention 
when it shall re-assemble." 

The Convention re-assembled at Balti- 
more on the 18th June, 18(30, according to 
its adjournment, and Mr. Cushiug, the 
President, took the chair. 

Immediately after the reorganization of 
the Convention, Mr. Howard, of Tennes- 
see, offered a resolution, "that the Presi* 
dent of this Convention direct the .ser- 
geant-at-arms to issue tickets of ailmission 
to the delegates of the Convention, as orig- 
inally constituted and organized at Charles- 
ton." Thus the vitally important question 
was distinctly presented. It soon, how- 
ever, became manifest that no such reso- 
lution could prevail. In the absence of 
the delegates who had withdrawn at 
Charlestfjn, the friends of Mr. Dousrlas 
constituted a controlling majority. At tha 



84 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



thre?liold they resisted the admission of 
llic original delegates, and contended that 
by withdrawing they had irrevocably re- 
signed their seats. In supjwrt of this po- 
sition, they relied upon the language of 
the resolution adjourning the Convention 
to Baltimore, which, as we have seen, 
" recommended to the Democratic parly 
of the several States to make provision for 
supplying all vacancies in their respective 
delegations to this Convention, when it 
shall reassemble." On the other hand, 
the advocates of their readmission con- 
tended that a simj^le withdrawal of the 
delegates was not a final renunciation of 
their seats, but they were still entitled to 
reoccupy them, whenever, in their judg- 
ment, this course would be best calculated 
to restore the harmony and promote the 
success of the Democratic party ; that the 
Convention had no right to interpose be- 
tween them and the Democracy of their 
respective States ; that being directly re- 
sponsible to this Democracy, it alone could 
accept their resignation ; that no such re- 
signation had ever been made, and their 
authority therefore continued in full force, 
and this, too, with the approbation of their 
constituents. 

In the mean time, after the adjournment 
fi-om Charleston to Baltimore, the friends 
of Mr. Douglas, in several of these States, 
had proceeded to elect delegates to take 
the place of those who had withdrawn 
from the Convention. Indeed, it was 
manifest at the time, and has since been 
clearly proved by the event, that these 
delegates represented but a small minority 
of the party in their respective States. 
These new delegates, nevei"theless,appeared 
and demanded seats. * 

Alter a long and ardent debate, the 
Convention adopted a resolution, offered 
by Mr. Church, of New York, and modi- 
fied on motion of Mr. Gilmore, of Penn- 
sylvania, as a substitute for that of Mr. 
Howard, to refer " the credentials of all 
persons claiming seats in this Convention, 
mnde vacant by the secession of delegntes 
at Charleston, to the Committee on Cre- 
dentials.'' They thus prejudged the ques- 
tion, by deciding that the seats of these 
delegates had been made and were r-tiW 
vacant. The Committee on Credentials 
had been originally composed of one dele- 
gate iVom each of the thirty-three States, 
but the niimber was now reduced to twen- 
ty-five, in consequence of the exclusion of 
eight of its members from the States of 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Car- 
olina, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and 
Florida. The committee, therefore, now 
stood 16 to 9 in favor of the nomination of 
IMr. Douglas, instead of 17 to 10 against it, 
according to its original organization. 

• Frnni 'Mr. BiidiMnnirs AflminiHtr.ition on tlie fivo of 
tb« Rebellion, publighcd hy I). Ai>i)leton & Co., 18CG. 



The committee, through their chairman, '-f. 
Mr. Krum, of Missouri, made their report ■'^' 
on the 21st June, and Governor Stevens, of 
Oregon, at the same time presented a 
minority report, signed by himself and 
eight otlier members. 

It is unnecessary to give in detail these 
conflicting reports. It is sufficient to state 
that whilst the report of the majority 
maintained that the delegates, by with- 
drawing at Charleston, had resigned their 
seats, and these were still vacant ; that of 
the minority, on the contrary, asserted the 
right of these delegates to resume their 
seats in the Convention, by virtue of their 
original appointment. 

On the next day (June 22), the impor- 
tant decision was made between the con- 
flicting reports. Mr. Stevens moved to 
substitute the minority report for that of 
the majority, and his motion was rejected 
by a vote of lOOi to 150. Of course no 
vote was given from any of the excluded 
States, except one half vote from each of 
the parties in Arkansas. 

The resolutions of the majority were then 
adopted in succession. Among other mo- 
tions of similar character, a motion had 
been made by a delegate in the majority 
to reconsider the vote by which the Con- 
vention had adopted the minority report, 
as a substitute for that of the majority, 
and to lay his own motion on the table. 
This is a common mode resorted to, ac- 
cording to parliamentary tactics, of de- 
feating every hope of a reconsideration of 
the pending question, and rendering the 
first decision final. 

Mr. Cessna with this view called for a 
vote on laying the motion to reconsider on 
the table. Should this be negatived, then 
the question of reconsideration would be 
open. The President stated the question 
to be first " on laying on the table the mo- 
tion to reconsider the vote by which the 
Convention refused to amend the majority 
report of the Committee on Credentials by 
substituting the report of the minority." 
On this question New York, for the first 
time since the meeting at Baltimore, voted 
with the minority and changed it into a 
majority. "AVhen New York was called," 
says the report of the proceedings, " and re- 
sponded thirty-five votes" (in the nega- 
tive) "the response was greeted with loud 
cheers and applause." The result of the 
vote was 113-} to ISS^ — "so the Convention 
refused to lay on the table the motion to 
reconsider the minority report." The Con- 
vention then adjourned until evening, on 
motion of Mr. Cochrane, of New York, 
amidst great excitement and confusion. 

This vote of New York, appearing to in- 
dicate a purpose to harmonize the party by 
admitting the original delegates from the 
eight absent States, was not altogether un- 
expected. Although voting as a unit, it 



THE CIIARLKSTON CONVENTIOX. 



85 



wa^ known that herdelopition wciv prcally 
dividdl um tw^ tli(:m<.A\' ch. TLii" cx;ut 
Btreii'j;cU of tli'- minorily w;h alu-rwards 
stated l»y Mr. IJ.irtlelt, one ol' its nicnibers, 
in the Brc.'!ciiirid|j;e Convention. Jle .said: 
"Upoiiall (HU'stions and espeeially n|)oii 
the adoption of the majority report on cre- 
dentials, in wiiich we had a loni; contest, 
the line was strictly drawn, and tliere were 
thirty on one side and forty on the other." 

The po.sition of New Yorlv ca!itin;i;an un- 
divided vote of thirty-live, with Dean Rich- 
mond at their head, had been a controlling 
power from the commencement. 

Strong e.'cpeotations were, therefore, now 
entertained that after the New York dele- 
gation had recorded their vote against a 
motion which would have killed tlie mi- 
nority rep )rt beyond hope of revival, they 
would now follow this up by taking the 
next step in advance and voting for its re- 
consideration and adoption. On the even- 
ing of the very same day, however, they 
reversed their course and voted against it.s 
reconsideration. They were then cheered 
Vv the opposite party from that which ha<l 
ciieered them in the morning. Thus the 
action of the Convention in favor of the 
majority report became final and conclu- 
sive. 

Mr. Cessna, of Pennsylvania, at once 
moved " that the Convention do now pro- 
ceed to nominate candidate? for President 
and Vice-President of the United .States." 

Mr. Russell rose and stated, " It has be- 
come my duty now, by direction of a large 
majority of the delegation from Virginia, 
respectfully to inform you and this body, 
that it is not consistent with their convic- 
tions of duty to participate longer in its 
deliberations." 

Mr. Lander next stated " that it became 
his duty, as one of the delegates from North 
Carolina, to say that a very large majority 
of the delegation from that State were 
compelled to retire permanently from this 
Convention, on account, as he conceived, 
of the unjust course that had been pursued 
toward some of their fellow-citizens of the 
South. The South had heretofore relied 
upon the Northern Democracy to give them 
therights which were justly due them ; but 
the vote to-tlay had satisfied the majority 
of the North Carolina delegation that these 
rights were now refused them, and, this 
being the case, they could no longer re- 
main in the Convention." 

Then followed in succession the with- 
drawal of the delegations from Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Maryland, California, Oregon, 
and Arkansas. The Convention now ad- 
journed at half-past-ten o'clock until the 
next morning at ten. 

Soon after the assembling of the Con- 
vention, the Pre-ident, Mr. Cashing, whilst 
tendering his thanks to its members for 
their candid and honorable support in the 



performance of Iuh duties, stated that not- 
withstanding the retirement of tin- di !(.-g;i. 
tions of .several id" the States at ( 'harl.-ston, 
in his solicitude to maintain the hurmonv 
.and union of the J»emoeratic Jfarty, he 
had continued in his post of labor. "To 
that end and in that sense," said lie, " I 
hail the honor to meet you, gentlemen, iRro 
at Baltimore. Put circumstances liavo 
since transpired which compel me to pau-e. 
Tlie delegations of a majority of the States 
liave, either in whole or in part, in one 
form or another, ceasetl to participate in 
the deliberations of tlie Convention. * * 
*■ In the present circumstances, I deem 
it a duty of self-respect, and I deem it 
still more a duty to this Convention, as at 
present organized, * * * to resign my 
seat as I'resideiit of this Convention, iu 
order to take my place on the floor as a 
member of the delegation from Massachu- 
setts. * * * I deem this above all a 
duty which I owe to the members of this 
Convention, a.s to whom no longer would 
my action re])rcsent the will of a majority 
of the Convention." 

Governor Tod, of Ohio, one of the Vice- 
Presidents, then took the vacant chair, and 
was greeted with hearty and long-continued 
cheers and applause from members of the 
Convention. 

Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, now an- 
nounced that a portion of the Massachu- 
setts delegation desired to retire, but wa.s 
interrupted by cries of "No," "No," 
" Call the roll." Mr. Cessna called for the 
original question, to wit, that the Conven- 
tion now proceed to a nomination for Pres- 
ident and Vice-President. 

The President here ordered the Secre- 
tary to call the States. Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, and Vermont were called, and they 
gave an unljroken vote for Ste],>hcn A. 
Douglas. When Massachusetts was called, 
Mr. Putler rose and said he liad a respect- 
ful paper in his hand which he would 
desire the President to liave read. A scene 
of great confusion thereupon ensued, cries 
of " I object" being heard uj)on all sides. 
Mr. Butler, not to be batlied, contended 
for his right at this stage to make remarks 
pertinent to the matter, and cited in his 
su[)port the practice of the Conventions at 
Baltimore in 1848 and 1852, and at Cin- 
cinnati in 1856. He finally prevailed, and 
was permitted to procee I. Jle then said 
he " would now withdra v from the Con- 
vention, upon the ground that there had 
been a withdrawal, in who. e or in part, of 
a majority of the States; and further, 
which was a matter more personal ^) him- 
self, he could notsit in a convention where 
the African slave trade, which wa.s piracy 
according to the laws of his country, waa 
openly advocated." 

Mr. Butler then retired, f>llowed by 
General Cashing and lour others of the 



86 



AMERICAN POLITICS 



Massachusetts delegation. All of these 
had voted with the South and against 
Douglas. 

The balloting now proceeded. Mr. 
Douglas received 17o^. votes; Mr. GutJiric 
!);Mr. Breckinridge "O2 ; Mr. Bocock and 
Mr. Seymour each 1 ; and Mr. Dickerson 
and Mr. Wise each half u vote. On the 
next and last ballot Mr. Douglas received 
181 o votes, eight of those in the minority 
having changed tlieir votes in his favor. 

To accdunt for this number, it is proper 
to state that a few delegates Irom live of 
the eight Suites which had withdrawn still 
remained in the Convention. On the las^t 
ballot My. Douglas received all of their 
votes, to wit : 3 of the 15 votes of Virginia, 
1 of the 10 votes of North Carolina, li of 
the 3 votes of Arkansas, 3 of the 12 votes 
of Tennessee, 3 of the 12 votes of Ken- 
tucky, and 2] of the 8 votes of Maryland, 
making in the aggregate 14 votes. To 
this number nu\y be added the 9 votes of 
the new delegates from Alabama and the 
6 from Louii-iana, which had been admitted 
to the exclusion of the original dele- 
gates. 

Mr. Douglas was accordingly declared 
t.o be the regular nominee of the Democra- 
tic party of the Union, upon the motion of 
]Mr. Church, of New York, when, accord- 
ing to the report of the proceedings, " The 
whole body rose to its feet, hats were 
waved in the air, and many tossed aloft; 
shouts, screams, and yells, and every 
boisterous mode of expressing approbation 
and unanimity, were resorted to." 

Senator Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was 
then unanimously nominated as the 
candidate for Vice-President ; and the 
Convention adjourned sine die on the 23d 
June, the sixth and last day of its ses- 
sion. On the same day, but after the ad- 
journment, Mr. Fitzpatrick declined the 
nomination, and it was immediately con- 
ferred on Mr. Ilersehel V. Johnson, of 
Georgia, by the Executive Committee. 
Thus ended the Douglas Convention. 

P)Ut another Convention assembled at 
Baltimore on the same 23d June, styling 
itself the "National Democratic Conven- 
tion." It was composed chiefly of the 
deleirates who had just withdrawn from 
the Douglas Convention, and the original 
delegatc-i from Alabama and Louisiana. 
One of their first acts was to abrogate the 
two-third rule, as had been done by the 
Douglas Convention. Both acted under 
the same nece -sity, been use the preserva- 
tion of this rule would have prevented a 
nomination by either. 

I\Tr. Cushing was elected and took the 
chair as President. In his opening ad- 
dress he said: "Gentlemen of the Con- 
vention, we assemble here, delegates to tlie 
National 1) 'niocratic Convention, duly 
accredited thereto from more than twenty 



States of the Union, for the purpose of 
nominating candidates of the Democratic 
party for the ofiices of President and Vice- 
President of the United States, for the 
pur2)0se of announcing the principles of 1 
the party, and for the purpose of continu- 
ing and re-establishing that party upon 
the firm foundations of the Constitution, 
the Union, and the coequal rights of the 
several States." 

Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, who had 
reported the majority resolutions at 
Charleston, now reported the same from 
the committee of this body, and they 
"were adopted unanimously, amid great 
applause." 

The Convention then proceeded to select 
their candidates, Mr. Loring, on behalf 
of the delegates from Massachusetts, who 
with ]\Ir. Butler had retired from the 
Douglas Convention, nominated John C. 
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, which Mr. 
Dent, representing the Pennsylvania dele- 
gation present, " most heartily seconded." 
Mr. Ward, from the Alabama delegation, 
nominated II. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; 
Mr. Ewing, from that of Tennessee, nomi- 
nated Mr. Dickinson, of New York ; and 
Mr. Stevens, from Oregon, nominated 
General Joseph Lane. Eventually all 
these names were withdrawn except that 
of Mr. Breckinridge, and he received the 
nomination by a unanimous vote. The 
whole number of votes cast in his favor 
I'rom twenty States was 103't. 

General Lane was unanimously nomi- ,_ 
nated as the candidate lor Vice-President. 1 
Thus terminated the Breckinridge Conven- 
tion. 



Tlie Chicago Republican Convention. 

The Republicans had named May IGth, 
18G0, as the date and Chicago as the place 
for holding their second National Conven- 
tion, They had been greatly encouraged 
by the vote for Fremont and Dayton, and, 
what had now become apparent as an ir- 
reconcilable division of the Democracy, 
encouraged them in the belief that they 
could elect their candidates. Those of the 
great W^est were especially enthusiastic, 
and had contributed freely to the erection 
of an immense " Wigwam," capable of 
holding ten thousand people, at Chicago. 
All the Northern States were fully repre- 
sented, and there were besides partial de- 
legations from Delaware, Maryland, Ken- 
tucky, Misscmri and Virginia, with occa- 
sional delegates from other Slave States, 
there being none, however, from the Gulf 
Spates. David Wilmot, of Penna., author 
of the Wilmot proviso, Avas made tempo- 
rary chairman, and George Ashman, of 
I\Iass., permanent President. No diifer- 
encos were excited by the report of the com- 
mittee on platlbrm, and the proceedings 



THE AMERICAN CONVENTION. 



87 



throughout were charaftcrizcd by f^rcat 
harmony, tlioui^di there was a somewhat 
sharp contest lor the rresideiitial nomina- 
tion. The prominent eandidates were \Vm. 
H. Seward, ol' New York; Abrah.im Lin- 
coln, of Illinois ; Salmon P. Cluuse, oi" 
Ohio; Simon t'ameron, of Pennsylvania, 
and Edward Hates, of Missouri. There 
■ were three hall. )ts, Mr. Lincoln receiving- 
ill the last ;i')4 out of 44G votes. Mr. Sew- 
ard led the vote at the beginninir, but he 
was strongly 0])posed by gi-nth'men in his 
own State as prominent as Horace (ireeley 
and Thiirlow Weed, anil his nomination 
was thou.rht t* be inexi)edient. Lincoln's 
successful debate with I)ou<Tlas was still 
fresh in the minds of the delegates, and 
every addition to his vote so heightened 
the entliusiasm that the convention was 
finally carried '"off its feet," the delegations 
rapidly changing on the last ballot. Lin- 
coln hat! been a known candidate but a 
month or two before, while Seward's name 
had been everywhere canva-^sed, and where 
oppose 1 in the Eastern an<l Middle States, 
it was mainly because of the belief that his 
views on slavery were too radical. He was 
more strongly favored by the Abolition 
branch of the party than any other candi- 
didate. Wh^n the news of his success was 
first conveyed to Mr. Lincoln he was sit- 
ting in the olhi-e of the State Journal, at 
Springfield, which was connected by a 
telegraph wire with the Wigwam. On the 
close of the third ballot a despatch was 
hande 1 Mr. Lincoln. He read it in silence, 
and then announcing the result said: 
"There is a little woman down at our 
house would like to hear this — I'll go down 
and tell her," and he started amid the 
shouts of ])ersanal admirers. Hannibal 
Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for Vice- 
President with much unanimity, and the 
Chicago Convention closed its work in a 
single day. 



The American Con-rentlon. 

A " Constitutional Union," really an 
American Convention, had met at i3alti- 
raore on the 9th of May. Twenty States 
were represented, and John Belt, of Ten- 
nessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachu- 
setts, were named for the Presidency and 
Vice-Presidency. Their friends, though 
known to be less in number than either those 
of Douglas, Lincoln or Breckinridge, yet 
made a vigorous canvass in the hope that 
the election would be thrown into the 
House, and that there a compromise in the 
vote by Scates would naturally turn toward 
their candi-lates. The result of the great 
contest is elsewhcregiven in our Tabulated 
History of Politics. 

THE PRINCIPLES IXVOI.VEn. 
Lincoln received lartre majorities in 
nearly all of the free States, his popuhir 



vote being 1,800, i')2; electoral vote, IHO. 
Douglas was next in tlie jjopniar estimate, 
receiving l,li7'>,l'>7 vot s, with but 12clec- 
toi-a. Breckinridge had .SlT.iloiJ votes, with 
70 electors; Bell, with o70,0.'il votes, had 
31) electors. 

The principles involved in the contro- 
versy are given at len-'th in the Book of 
IMatforms, and were briefly the.sc: The 
Kepubliian party asserted that slavery 
should not be extended to the territories; 
t!iat it conld exist oidy by virtue of local 
and positive law; that freedom was na- 
tional ; that slavery was morally wrong, 
and the nation should at least anticipate 
its gradual extinction. The Douglas wing 
of the Democratic party adhered to tlie 
doctrine of popular sovereignty, and 
claimed that in its exercise in the terri- 
tories they were indifferent whether slavery 
was voted up or down. The Breckinridge 
wing of the Democratic party asserted both 
the moral and legal right to hold slaves, 
and to carry them to the territories, and 
that no ])ower save the national constitu- 
tion could prohibit or interfere with it out- 
side of State lines. The Americans sup- 
porting Bill, adhered to their peculiar 
doctrines touching emigration and natural- 
ization, but had abandoned, in most of the 
States, the secrecy and oath-s of the Know- 
Nothing order. They were evasive and 
non-committal on the slavery question. 

Preparing for Secession. 

Secession, up to this time, had not bc^n 
regarded as treasonable in all sections and 
at all times. As shown in many previous 
pages, it had been threatened by the Hart- 
ford Convention ; certainly by some of the 
people of New England wdio opposed the 
war of 1812. Some of the more extreme 
.Vbolitionists had favored a division of the 
sections. The South, particularly the Gulf 
States, had encouraged a secret organiza- 
tion, known as the " Order of the Lone 
Star," previous to and at the time of the 
annexation of Texas. One of its objects 
was to acquire Cuba, so as to extend slave 
territory. The Gulf States needed more 
slaves, and though the law made partici- 
paney in the slave trade piracy, many car- 
goes had been landed in parts of the Gulf 
without jirotest or prosecution, just prior 
to the election of 1860. Calhoun had 
threatened, thirty years before, nullifica- 
tion, and before that again, .eeression in 
the event of the passage of the Public 
Land Bill. Jefferson and Madison had 
indicated that doctrine of State Bights on 
which secession was based in the Kentucky 
and Virginia resolutions of 179S, facts 
which were daily discussed by the people 
of the Sonth during this most exciting of 
all Presidential campaigns. 

The leaders in the South had .".ntif ipatod 
defeat at the election, and many of them 



88 



AMEEICAN POLITICS. 



made early preparations for the withdrawal 
of their [States from the Union. Some of 
the more extreme anti-slavery men of the 
North, noting these preparations, for a 
time favored a plan of letting the South 
go in peace. South Carolina was the first 
to adopt a secession ordinance, and before 
it did so, Horace Greeley said in the New 
York Tribune : 

" If the Declaration of Independence 
justified the secession from the British 
Empire of three millions of colonists in 
177G, we can not see why it would not jus- 
tify the secession of five millions of South- 
rons from the Federal Union in 1861." 

These views, however, soon fell into dis- 
favor throughout the North, and the period 
of indecision on either side ceased when 
Fort Sumter was fired upon. The Gulf 
States openly made their preparations as 
soon as the result of the Presidential elec- 
tion Avas known, as a rule pursuant to a 
previous understanding. The following, 
condensed from Hon. Edward McPher- 
son's " Political History of the United States 
of America during the Great Rebellion," is 
a "-orrect statement of the movements 
which iollcwed, in the several Southern 
States : 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

November 5th, 1860. Legislature met 
to choose Presidential electors, who voted 
for Breckinridge and Lane for President 
and Vice President. Gov. William II. 
Gist recommended in his message that in 
the event of Abraham Lincoln's election 
to the Presidency, a convention of the 
people of the State be immediately called 
to consider and determine for themselves 
the mode and measure of redress. He ex- 
pressed the opinion that the only alterna- 
tive left is the " secession of South Caro- 
lina from the Federal Union." 

7th. United States ofhcials resigned at 
Charleston. 

lOtli. U. S. Senators James H. Ham- 
mond and James Chestnut, Jr., resigned 
tlieir seats in the Senate. Convention 
called to meet Dec. 17th. Delegates to be 
elected Dec. 6th. 

IP.th. Collection of debts due to citi- 
zens of non-slaveholding States stayed. 
Francis W. Pickens elected Governor. 

17th. Ordinance of Secession adopted 
tinanimouslv. 

21st. Commissioners appointed (Barn- 
well, Adams, and Orr) to proceed to 
. Washington to treat for the possession of 
U. S. Government property wif bin the lim- 
its of South Carolina. Coinmi-^sioners aji- 
p'tinted to the other slaveliolding States. 
Southern Couirress proposed. 

21th. Representatives in Congress with- 
dr(>w. 

GdV. Pickens issued a proclamation 
" announcing the repeal, Dec. 20th, 1800, 



by the good people of South Carolina," of 
tlie Ordinance of May 23d, 1788, and " the 
dissolution of the union between the State 
of South Carolina and other States under 
the name of the United States of Ameri- 
ca," and proclaiming to the world " that 
the State of South Carolina is, as she has 
a right to be, a separate, sovereign, free 
and independent State, and, as such, has a; 
right to levy war, conclude peace, negotiate 
treaties, leagues, or covenants, and to do 
all acts whatsoever that rightfully apper- 
tain to a free and independent State. 

" Done in the eighty-fifth year of the 
sovereignty and independence of South 
Carolina." 

Jan. 3d, 1861. South Carolina Com- 
missioners left Washington. 

4th. Convention anpointed T. J. With- 
ers, L. M. Keitt. W. W. Bovce, Jas. Chest- 
nut, Jr., E. B. Rhett, Jr., R. W. Barnwell, 
and C. G. Memminger, delegates to South- 
ern Congress. 

5th. Convention adjourned, subject to 
the call of the Governor. 

14th. Legislature declared that any at- 
tempt to reinforce Fort Sumter v^ould be 
considered an open act of hostility and a 
declaration of war. Approved the Gov- ^ 
ernor's action in firing on the Star of the 
West. Accepted the services of the Cataw- 
ba Indians. 

27th. Received Judge Robertson, Com- 
missioner from Virginia, but rejected the 
proi)Osition for a conference and co-oper- 
ative action. 

March 2Gth. Convention met in Charles- 
ton. 

April 3d. Ratified "Confederate" Con- 
stitution — yeas 114, nays 16. 

8th. Transferred forts, etc., to " Con- 
federate " government. 

GEORGIA. 

November 8th, 1860. Legislature met 
pursuant to previous arrangement. 

18th. Convention called. Legislature 
appropriated $1,000,000 to arm the State. 

Dec. 3d. Resolutions adopted in tlie Leg- 
islature proposing a conference of the 
Southern States at Atlanta, Feb. 20th. 

January 17th, 1861. Convention met. 
Received Commissioners from South Caro- 
lina and Alabama 

18th. Resolutions declaring it the right 
and duty of Georgia to secede, adopted — 
yeas 165, nays 130. 

19th. Ordinance of Secession passed — 
ye:\s 208, nays 89. 

21st. Senators and Representatives in 
Concrress withdrew. 

24th. Elected Delegates to Southern 
Congress at IMontgomery, Alabama. 

28tli. Elected Commissioners to other 
Slaveholding States. 

29th. Ado))ted an address " to the South 
and the world." 



PREPARING FOR SECKSSION. 



89 



March 7th. Convention rcasscMiihlcnl. 

KJth. lliitilit'd tlie " Coufcderute " Cun.sti- 
tulioii— yeas W, nays .">. 

2(ilh. OrdiiKUue pjissi-d authorizing the 
"('(inlLMli-ratc" goviTniiunt to ()ccu[)y, usr 
ami {lossi's-i tlic torts, navy yards, arsenals, 
and (.ustuni houses witiiia the limits of said 
{State. 

April 2(;th. Governor Brown issued a 
proehunatiou ordering' the reimdiation l)y 
Jiie citizens of CJeorgia of all debts due 
Northern men. 

MISSISSIl'l'I. 

November 26th, 18G0. Legislature met 
Nov. 2()th, and adjourned Nov. 30th. Elec- 
tion for Convention lixcd for Dec. liOth. 
Convention to meet Jan 7lh. Convention 
bills and secession resolulions j>assed unani- 
mously. C'ominissioncrs appointed to other 
Slavcholding States to secure " their co- 
operation in effecting measures for their 
common defence and safety." 

Jan. 7th, ISGl. Convention assembled. 

9th. Ordinance of Secession passed — 
yeas 84, nays 15. 

Jn the ordinance the people of the State 
of Mississippi express their consent to form 
a federal union with such of the States as 
have seceded or may secede from the Union 
of the United States of America, upon the 
basis of the present Constitution of the 
United States, except such parts thereof as 
embrace other portions than such seceding 
States. 

10th. Commissioners from other States 
received, llesolutions adopted, recogniz- 
ing South Carolina as sovereign and inde- 
jtendent. 

.Tan. 12th. Eepresentatives in Congress 
withdrew. 

li»lh. The committee on the Confederacy 
in the Legislature reported resolutions to 
provide for a Southern Confederacy, and 
to establish a provisional government for 
seceding States and States hereafter seced- 
ing. 

21st. Senators in Congress withdrew. 

March .'iOth. Ratified "Confederate" 
Constitution — yeas 78, nays 7. 

FLORIDA. 

November 2Gth, ISGO. Legislature met. 
Governor M. S. Perry recommended imme- 
diate secession. 

Dec. 1st. Convention bill passed. 

Jan. 3d, 18G1. Convention met. 

7th. Commissioners from South Carolina 
and Alabama received and heard. 

loth. Ordinance of Secession passed — 
yeas ()2, nays 7. 

18th. Delegates appointed to Southern 
Congress at ]\lontgomery. 

21st. Senators and Representatives in 
Congress withdrew. 

Feb. 11th. Act passed by the Legisla- 
ture declaring that after any actual collision 



between Federal troops an<l those in tho 
einoloy of Florida, tiieact of lioldiiig ollico 
under tlie Federal guvi-rumcnt shall bo 
(K'claietl treason, and llie person convict('d 
shall suli'er deatli. Transferred control of 
government jiroperty captured, to the" Cou- 
lederate " government. 

LOUISIANA. \ 

Deccnd)er lOtli, ISGO. Legislature met. 

lltli. Convention called lor Jan. 23d. 
Military bill jjassed. 

12th. Commissioners from Mississippi re- 
ceived and heard. Governor instructed to 
conummieate with Governors of otlicr 
soutliern States. 

Jan 23d, 18G1. Convention met and 
organized. Received and heard Commis- 
sioners from South Carolina and Alal)ama. 

2oth. Ordinance of Secession ])assed— 
yeas 113, nays 17. Convention refused to 
submit the ordinance to the people by a 
vote of 84 to 45. This was subsequently 
reconsidered, and the ordinance was sub- 
mitted. The vote u])on it as declared was 
20,448 in favor, and 17,20G aga.inst. 

Feb. 5th. Senators withdrew from Con- 
gress, also the Representatives, except John 
E. Bouligny. State flag adopted. Pilots 
at tlie Balize prohibited from bringing over 
the bar any United States vessels of war. 

^larch 7th. Ordinance adopted in secret 
session transferring to " Confederate " States 
government $53G,000, being the amount of 
bullion in the U. S. mint and customs 
seized by the State. 

16th. An ordinance voted down, submit- 
ting the " Confederate " Constitution to the 
peojde — yeas 26, nays 74. 

21st. llatified the "Confederate "Consti- 
tution — yea.s 101, nays 7. Governor author- 
ized to transfer the arms and proi)erty 
captured from the United States to the 
" Confederate" Government. 

27th. Convention adjourned sine die. 

ALABAMA. 

January 7th, ISGl. Convention met. 

8th. Received and heard the Commis- 
sioner from South Carolina. 

11th, Ordinance of Secession passed in 
secret session — yeas 61 , nays 39. I'roposi- 
tion to submit ordinance to the people lost 
— yeas 47, nays 53. 

i4th. Legislature met pursuant to pre- 
vious action. 

19th. Delegates elected to the Southern 
Congress. 

21st. Representatives and Senators in 
Congress withdrew. ^ 

2Gth. Commissioners appointed to treat 
with the United States Government relative 
to the United States forts, arsenals, etc., 
within the State. 

The Convention requested tlio people of 
tlie States of Delaware, :\Iaryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida^ 



90 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Georgia, ^lississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
Arkansas, Teuncssee, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri to meet the people of Alabama by 
their delegates in Con vention, February 4th, 
ISUl, at Montgomery, for the purpose of 
consulting as to the most effectual mode of 
securing concerted or harmonious action in 
whatever measures may be deemed most 
desirable for their common peace and 
security. Military bill passed. Commis- 
sioners appointed to other Slaveholding 
States. 

March 4th. Convention re-assembled. 

loth. Eatilied "Confederate" Constitu- 
tion, yeas 87, nays 6. Transferred control 
forts, of arsenals, etc., to " Confederate" 
Government. 

ARKANSAS. 

January IGth, 186L Legislature passed 
Convention bill. Vote of the people on 
the Convention was 27,412 for it, and 15,- 
820 against it. 

February 18th. Delegates elected. 

March 4th. Convention met. 

18th. The Ordinance of Secession de- 
feated — yeas 35, nays 39. The convention 
effected a compromise by agreeing to sub- 
mit the ([uestion of co-operation or seces- 
sion to the peojjle on the 1st Monday in 
August. 

May 6th. Passed Secession Ordinance — 
yeas 69, nays 1. Authorized her delegates 
to the I'rovisional Congress, to transfer the 
arsenal at Little Rock and hospital at Na- 
poleon to the " Confederate " Government. 

TEXAS. 

Jantiary 21st, ISGl. Legislature met. 

28th. People's State Convention met. 

29th. Legislature passed a resolution de- 
claring that the Federal Government has 
no power to coerce a Sovereign State after 
she has pronounced her separation from 
the Federal Union. 

February 1st. Ordinance of Secession 
passed in Convention — yeas 166, nays 7. 
Military bill passed. 

7th. Ordinance passed, forming the foun- 
dation of a Southern Confederacy. Dele- 
gates to the Southern Congress elected. 
Also an act passed submitting the Ordi- 
nance of Secession to a vote of the people. 

23d. Secession Ordinance voted on by 
the people ; a(lo])ted by a vote of 84,794 in 
favor, and 11,2;)5 against it. 

jMarch 4th. Convention declared the 
State out of the Union. Gov. Houston 
issued a proclamation to that effect. 

IGlh. Convention by a vote of 127 to 4 
deposed Gov. Houston, declaring his scat 
vacant. Gov. Houston issued a proclama- 
tion to the peo])le [)rotcsting against this 
action of tlie Convention. 

20th. Legislature confirmed the nction 
of the Convention in deposing Gov. Hous- 
ton by a vote of 53 to 11. Transferred 



forts, etc., to "Confederate" Government 
23d. Ratified the " Confederate" Consti- 
tution — yeas 68, nays 2, 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

November 20th, 1860. Legislature met. 
Gov. Ellis recommended that the Legisla- 
ture invite a conference of the Southern 
States, or failing in that, send one or more 
delegates to the neighboring States so as to 
secure concert of action. He recommended 
a thorough reorganization of the militia, 
and the enrollment of all persons between 
18 and 45 years, and the organization of a 
corps of ten thousand men ; also, a Con- 
vention, to assemble immediately after the 
proposed consultation with other Southern 
States shall have terminated. 

December 9th, Joint Committee on Fed- 
eral Relations agreed to report a Conven- 
tion Bill. 

17th. Bill appropriating $300,000 to 
arm the State, debated. 

18th. Senate j^assed above bill — yeas, 
41, nays, 3. 

20th. Com.missioners from Alabama and 
^Mississippi received and heard — the latter, 
J. Thompson, by letter. 

22d. Senate bill to arm the State failed 
to pass the House. 

22d. Adjourned till January 7th. 

January 8th, 1861. Senate Bill arming 
the State passed the House, yeas, 73, nays, 
26. 

30th. Passed Convention Bill — election 
to take place February 28th. No Secession 
Ordinance to be valid without being rati- 
fied by a majority of the qualified voters of 
the State. 

31st. Elected Thos. L. Clingman United 
States Senator, 

February 13th. Commissioners from 
Georgia publicly received. 

20th. Mr. Hoke elected Adjutant Gen- 
eral of the State. Military Bill passed. 

28th. Election of Delegates to Conven- 
tion took place. 

28th. The vote for a Convention was 
46,671; against 47,333 — majority against a 
Convention 661. 

May 1st. Extra session of the Legisla- 
ture met at the call of Gov. Ellis. The 
same day they i^assed a Convention Bill, 
ordering the election of delegates on the 
15th. 

2d. Legislature adjourned. 

13th. Election of delegates to the Con- 
vention took place. 

20th. {'on vention met at Raleigh. 

21st. Ordinance of Secession passed ; 
also the " Confederate " Constitution rati- 
fied. 

June 5th. Ordinance passed, ceded the 
arsenal at Fayetteville, and transferred 
magazines, etc., to the "Confederate" 
Government. 



PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 



91 



TnxNns.sicR. 

Jiuuiary (Uli, IXdl. Lcj^ishiture met. 

12li. I'iisscd (yoiivi'iition Bill. 

;^Utli. C'oniiuisiioiK'rs to W;i-:]uii;^toii 
appointed. 

FeliriKirv Sth. People voted no Conven- 
tion : (;7,.Sl)0 to 54.ir)G. 

M;iy l^t. Le,ii;isl;iture p:is-;ed :i joint re- 
solution iuithorizinj^ the liuvernor to ap- 
point t'oniinissioners to enter into ji niili- 
tary leaicuc with the iiuthorities ol" tlie 
" C'onl'ederate "' States. 

7th. Legislature in sceret session rati- 
fied the leai^ue entered into by A. (). W. 
Totte'.i, Giistavus A. Henry, Washington 
r.arrow, (Joinmissioners for Tennessee, and 
Henry W. Jlilliard, Commissioner for 
"Confederate" States, stipulating that 
Tenne-isee until she became a member of 
the Confederacy placed the whole military 
force of the State under tlie control of the 
]'resi«lent of the '' Confederate" States, and 
turned over to the " Confederate " States 
all the public property, naval stores and 
numitions of war. Passed the Senate, 
yeas 14, nays 6, absent and not voting 5; 
the House, yeas 42, nays 15, absent and 
not voting, 18. Also a Declaration of In- 
dt-pendenre and Ordinance dissolving the 
Federal relations between Tennessee and 
the United States, and an ordinance adopt- 
ing and ratifying the Confederate Consti- 
tution, tlu!se two latter to be voted on by 
the people on .lunc 8th were passed. 

June 24th. Gav. Isham G. Harris de- 
clared Tennessee out of the Union, the 
vote for Separation being 104,019 against 
47,238. 

VIRGIXIA. 

January 7th, ISGl. Legislature con- 
vened. 

Sth. Anti-coercion resolution passed. 

9th. Resolution passed, asking that the 
status quo be maintained. 

10th. The Governor transmitted a des- 
patch from the Mississippi Convention, an- 
nouncing its unconditional secession from 
the Union, and desiring on thebasis of the 
old C'onstitution to form a new union with 
the seceding States. The House adopted — 
yeas 77, nays Gl, — an amendment submit- 
ting to a vote of the people the question of 
referring f )r their decision any action of 
the Convention dissolving Virginia's con- 
nection with tlie Union, or chan<ring its 
organic law. The Richmond Enquirer 
denounce 1 "the emasculation of the Con- 
vention r>ill as imperilling all that Virgin- 
ians held most sacred and dear." 

lG;h. Commissioners Hopkins and Gil- 
mer of Alabama received in the Legisla- 
ture. 

17tli. Resolutions pa.ssed proposing tlie 
Crittenden resolutions as a basis for adjust- 
ment, and requesting ( Jeneral Government 
to avoid collision with Southern States. 



Gov. Letcher communicated tho Resolu- 
tions of the Legislature id' New York, 0.x- 
])res.-iing the utmost disdain, and saying 
tiiat " the threat conveved can inspire no 
terror in freemen." Tlie resolutions were 
directed to be returned to the Governor of 
New York. 

ISth. 81,000,000 appropriated for tho 
defence of tlie State. 

IDtii. Passed resolve that if all cflbrts 
to reconcile the ditierences of the country 
fail, every consideration of honor and in- 
terest denumds that Virginia sludl unite 
her destinies with her .sister slavdiolding 
States. Also that no reconstruction of t!io 
Union can be pernument or satisfacl<jry, 
which will not secure to each section self- 
protecting power against any invasion of 
the Federal Union upon the reserved r:ght.<j 
of either. (See Hunter's pri>positiou for 
adjustment.) 

21st. Replied to Commissioners Hop- 
kins and Gilmer, expressing inability to 
make a definite response until after the 
meeting of the State Convention. 

22d. The Governor transmitted the re- 
solutions of the Legislature of Ohio, with 
unfavorable comment. His message was 
tabled by a small majority. 

30th. The House of "Delegates to-day 
tabled the resolutions of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature, but referrcl those of Tennes- 
see to the Committee on Federal Relations. 

February 20th. The resolutions of the 
Legislature of Michigan were returned 
without comment. 

28th. Ex-President Tyler and James A. 
Seddon, Commissioners to the Peace Con- 
gress, presented their report, and denounced 
the recommendation of that body as a de- 
lusion and a sham, and as an insult and an 
offense to the South. 



Proceedings of Virginia Convention. 

February 4th. Election of delegates to 
the Convention. 

13th. Convention met. 

14th. Credentials of John S. Preston, 
Commissioner from South Carolina, Fulton 
Anderson from Mississippi, and Henry L. 
Benning from Georgia, were received. 

18th. Commissioners irom Mississippi 
and Georgia heard ; both pictured the dan- 
ger of Virginia remaining with the North; 
neither contemplated such an event as re- 
union. 

19th. The Commissioner from S.')uth 
Carolina was heard. He said his people 
liclicvcd the L^nion unnatural and mon- 
strous, and declared that there was no 
human force — nosanctity of iuiman touch, 
— that could re-unite the peojile of tho 
North with the peojile of the South — that 
it could never be done unless the economy 
of God were changed. 



92 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



20th. A committee reported that in fill 
but sixteen counties, the majority for sub- 
mitting the action of the Convention to a 
vote of the i)eople Avas 52,857. Numerous 
resolutions on Federal llehitions intro- 
duced, gx'nerally expressing attachment to 
the Union, but denouncing coercion. 

26th. j\Ir. (roggin of Bedford, in his 
speech, denied tlie right of secession, but 
admitted a revolutionary remedy for wrongs 
committed upon a State or section, and 
said wherever Virginia went he was with 
her. 

March 2d. IMr. Goode of Bedford offered 
a resolution that, as the powers delegated 
to the General Government by Virginia 
had been perverted to her injury, and as 
the Crittenden propositions as a basis of 
adjustment had been rejected by their 
Korthern confederates, therefore every 
consideration of duty, interest, honor and 
patriotism requires that Virginia should de- 
clare her connection with the Government 
to be dissolved. 

5th. The thanks of the State were voted 
to Hon. John J. Crittenden, by yeas 107, 
nays 16, for his efforts to bring about an 
honorable adjustment of the national diffi- 
culties. Mr. Ilarvie of Amelia offered a 
resolution, requesting Legislature to make 
needful appropriations to resist any attempt 
of the Federal authorities to hold, occupy 
or possess the property and places claimed 
by the United States in any of the seceded 
States, or those that may withdraw or col- 
lect duties or imposts in the same. 

9th. Three reports were made from the 
Committee on Federal Relations. The 
majority proposed to submit to the other 
States certain amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, awaiting the response of non-slave- 
holding States before determining whether 
" she will resume the powers granted by 
her under the Constitution of the United 
States, and throw herself upon her reserved 
rights ; meanwhile insisting that no coer- 
cion be attempted, the Federal forts in se- 
ceded States be not reinforced, duties be 
not collected, etc.," and proposing a Con- 
vention at Frankfort, Kentucky, the last 
Monday in May, of the States of Delaware, 
Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. Henry 
A. Wise differed in details, and went fur- 
ther in the same direction. Messrs. Lewis 
E. Harvie, Robert L. Montague and Sam- 
uel C. Williams recommended the immedi- 
ate passage of an Ordinance of Secession. 
Mr. Barbour of Culpeper insisted upon the 
immediate adoption by the non-slavehold- 
ing States of needed guarantees of safety, 
and provided for the appointment of three 
Commissioners to confer with the Confed- 
erate authorities at Montgomery. 

19ih. Committee on Federal Relations 
reported proj)osi.'d amendments to (he 
Constitution, Vt'hich were the substitute of 



Mr. Franklin of Pa., in "Peace Confer- 
ence," changed by using the expression 
" involuntary servitude " in place of " per- 
sons held to service." The right of owners 
of slaves is not to be impaired by congres- 
sional or territorial law, or any pre-exist- 
ing law in territory hereafter acquired. 

Involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
to be prohibited north of 36°30', but shall 
not be prohibited by Congress or any Ter- 
ritorial legislature south of that line. The 
third section has some verbal alteratiojis, 
providing somewhat better security for 
property in transit. The fifth section pro- 
hibits the importation of slaves from places 
beyond the limits of the United States. 
The sixth makes some verbal changes in 
relation to remuneration for fugitives by 
Congress, and erases the clause relative to 
the securing of privileges and immunities. 
The seventh forbids the granting of the 
elective franchise and right to hold oflice 
to persons of the African race. The eighth 
provides that none of these amendments, 
nor the third paragraph of the second sec- 
tion of the first article of the Constitution, 
nor the third paragraph of the second sec- 
tion of the fourth article thereof, shall be 
amended or abolished without the consent 
of all the States. 

25th. The Committee of the Whole re- 
fused (yeas 4, nays 116) to strike out the 
majority report and insert Mr. Carlile's 
" Peace Conference " substitute. 

20th. The Constitution of the " Confede- 
rate" States, proposed by Mr. Hall as a sub- 
stitute for the rejiort of the committee, re- 
jected — yeas 9, nays 78. 

28th. The first and second resolutions 
reported by the committee adopted. 

April 6th. The ninth resolution of the 
majority report came up. Mr. Bouldin 
offered an amendment striking out the 
whole, and inserting a substitute declaring 
that the independence of the seceded 
States should be acknowledged without 
delay, which was lost — yeas 68, nays 71. 

9th. Mr. Wise's substitute for the tenth 
resolution, to the effect that Virginia re- 
cognizes the independence of the seceding 
States was adopted — yeas 128, nays 20. 

April 17. Ordinance of Secession passed 
in secret session — yeas 88, nays 55, one 
excused, and eight not voting. 

Same day the Commissioners adopted 
and ratified the Constitution of the Provi- 
sional Government of the " Confederate" 
States of America, this ordinance to cease 
to have legal efiect if the people of Vir- 
ginia voting upon the Ordinance of Seces- 
sion should reject it. 

25th. A Convention was made between 
Commissioners of Virginia, chosen by the 
Convention, and A. H. Stephens, Commis- 
sioner for "Confederates," stipulating that 
Virginia until she became a member of the 
Confederacy should place her military 



PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 



93 



force undor tlie dlrct'tion of tlic I'l-csidcnt 
of tlio " Coiifodoratc " Stales; iilso turn 
over to " Coiii'oderato " iStates all her pub- 
lie i)roperty, naval .^stores, and mimitious of 
Avar. Signed by J. Tyler, W. 15. I'rcston, 
S. Mid). Moore, James P. IIoleoini)e, .Fas. 
i(\ r>riiee. Lewis 10. llarvic — for Virginia; 
and A. li. Stephens for "Confederate" 
States. 

Juno 2")th. Secession vote announced us 
12H,S81 lor, and .'IJ.lol against. 

July. The Convention passed an ordi- 
nance to the elfeet that any citizen of Vir- 
ginia holding oliicc under the Covernnient 
of the United States after the 31st of July, 
IStJI, should be forever banished from the 
State, and be declared an alien enemy. 
Also that any citizen of Virginia, hereafter 
undertaking to rejjrescnt the State of Vir- 
ginia in the Congress of the United States, 
sl;ouM, in addition to the above penalties, 
be considered guilty of treason, and his 
property be liable to confiscation. A pro- 
vision was inserted exempting from the 
]>onalties of the act all officers of theUnitetl 
States outsiile of the United States, or of 
the Confederate States, until after Julv 
1st, 1SG2. 

KE^"TUCKY. 

December 12th, 1S60. Indiana militia 
offer their services to quell servile insur- 
rection. Gov. Magoffin declines accepting 
them. 

January 17th, 18l31. Legislature con- 
vened. 

22(1. The House by a vote of 87 to 6 re- 
solved to resist the invasion of the South 
at all hazards. 

27th. Legislature adopted the Virginia 
resolutions requiring the Federal (lovern- 
ment to protect Slavery in the Territories 
and to guarantee the right of transit of 
slaves through the Free States. 

February 2d. The Senate passed by a 
vote of 2") to 11, resolutions appealing to 
the Southern States to stop the revolution, 
protesting against Federal coercion and 
providing that the Legislature reassemble 
on the 2 1th of April to hear the responses 
from sister States, also in favor of making 
an application to call a National Conven- 
tion for proposing amendments to the Con- 
stitution of the United States, also by a 
vote of 2-3 to 14 declared it inexpedient at 
this time to call a State Convention. 

oth. The House by a vote of 54 to 40 
passed the above resolutions. 

March 22d. State Rights Convention as- 
sembled. Adopted resolutions denouncing 
any attempt on the part of the Govern- 
ment to collect revenue as coercion ; and 
affirming that, in case of any such attempt, 
the border States should make common 
cause with the Southern Confederacy. 
They also recommended a border State 
Convention. 



April 21th. Gov. ]\T.i}];ofrin called an extra 
session of the IjCgislatun'. 

May 20th. (Jov. MagoHin Issued a neu- 
trality jiroclamation. 

September mil. The House of Rejire- 
sentatives by a vote of 71 to 2i>, adojtted a 
resolution tlireeting the (Jovernor to issue 
a proclamation ordering the ( 'onfeilerate 
troops to evacuate Kentucky soil. The 
Governor vetoed the resolution, which 
was afterwards ])assed over his veto, and 
accordingly he issued the required procla- 
mation. 

October 29th. Southern Conference met 
at Ivussellville. H. C. Hurnett elected 
(Jhairman, R. jMcKcc Secretary, T. S. 
Ih-yan Assistant Secretary. Remained in 
secret session two days and then adjourned 
sine die. A series of re^solutions reported 
by G. W. Johnson were adopted. They 
recite the unconstitutional and oppressive 
a(;ts of the Li^gislature, proclaim revolu- 
tion, provide for a Sovereignty Convention 
at Russellvillc, on the 18th of November, 
recommend the organization of county 
guards, to be placed in the service of and 
paid by the Confederate States Govern- 
ment; pledge resistance to all Federal and 
State taxes, for the prosecution of the war 
on the ])art of the United States ; ami ap- 
point Robert McKee, John C. Breekin- 
ridge, Humphrey Marshall, (Jeo. W. Ew- 
ing, H.W. Bruce, Geo. B. Hodge, AVilliam 
Preston, Geo. W. Johnson, Blanton Dun- 
can, and P. B. Thompson to carry out the 
resolutions. 

November 18th. Convention met and 
remained in session three days. 

20th. It passed a Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and an Ordinance of Secession. 
A Provisional Government consisting of a 
Governor, Legislative Council of ten, a 
Treasurer, and an Auditor were agreed 
upon. Geo. W. Johnson was chosen Gov- 
ernor. Legislative Council were: Willis 
B. Machen, John W. Crockett, .Tames P. 
Bates, Jas. S. Chrisman, Phil. B. Thomp- 
son, J. P. Burnside, H. W. Ihiice, J. W. 
Moore, E. M. Bruce, Geo. B. Hodge. 

MARYLAND. 

Nov. 27th, ISGO. Gov. Hicks declined 
to call a special session of the Legislature, 
in response to a request for such convening 
froni Thomas G. Pratt, Sprigg Harwood, 
J. S. Franklin, N. H. Green, Llewellyn 
Boyle, and J. Pinkney. 

December 10th. Gov. Hicks replied to 
A. H, Handy, Commissioner from ^lissis- 
sippi, declining to accept the programme 
of Secession. 

20th. Wm. H. Collins, Esq., of Balti- 
more, issued an address to the people, in 
favor of the Union, and in 3Iarch a second 
address. 

31st, The "Clipper" denied the exist- 
ence of an organization in Marjdaud to 



94 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



prevent the inauguration of President Lin- 
coln. 

A. H. Handy of Mississippi addressed 
citizens of Baltimore in favor of disunion. 

January od, 18GL Henry Winter Davis 
issued an address in favor of tlie Union. 

3d. Numerous Union meetings in vari- 
ous jiart of the State. Gov. Hicks issued 
a,n address to the people against seces- 
Bion. 

11th. John C. Legrand in a letter to 
Hon. Reverdy Johnson replied to the 
Union speech of the latter. 

14th. James Carroll, former Democratic 
candidate for Governor, announced his de- 
sire to go with the seceding States. 

IGth. Wm. A. Spencer, in a letter to 
Walter S. Cox, Esq., declared against the 
right of Secession but for a Convention. 

IG. Marshal Kane, in a letter to Mayor 
Berrett, denied that any organization ex- 
ists to prevent the inauguration of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and said tliat the President 
elect would need no armed escort in pass- 
ing through or sojourning within the limits 
of Baltimore and Maryland. 

24th. Coleman Yellott declared for a 
Convention. 

80th. Messrs. John B. Brooke, President 
of the Senate, and E. G. Kilbourn, Speaker 
of the House of Delegates, asked the Gov- 
jernor to convene the Legislature in re- 
sponse to public meetings. Senator Ken- 
nedy published his opinion that Mary- 
land must go with Virginia. 

February 18th. State Conference Con- 
vention held, and insisted upon a meeting 
of the Legislature. At a meeting in How- 
ard Co., which Speaker E. G. Kilbouru 
addressed, a resolution was adopted that 
"immediate steps ought to be taken for 
the establishment of a Southern Confed- 
eracy, by consultation and co-operation 
with such other Southern and Slave States 
as may be ready therefor." 

April 21st. Gov. Hicks wrote to Gen. 
Butler, advising that he do not land his 
troops at Annapolis. Butler replied that 
he intended to land there and march 
thence to Washington. Gov. Hicks pro- 
tested against this and also against his 
having taken forcible possession of the 
Annapolis and Elkridge railroad. 

24th. A special election of ten delegates 
to the Legislature took place at Baltimore. 
The total vote cast in all the wards was 
9,249. The total vote cast at the Presi- 
dential election in November, 1860, was 
30,148. 

2Gth. Legislature reassembled at Fred- 
erick, Annapolis being occupied by Union 
troops. 

29th. Gov. Hicks sent a message to the 
Legislature communicating to them the 
correspondence between himself and Gen. 
Butler and the Secretary of War relative 
to the landing of troops at Anoapolia. 



The House of Delegates voted against 
Secession, 53 to 13. Senate unanimously. 

May 2d. The Committee on Fedcrnl de- 
lations, "in view of the seizure of the 
railroads by the General Government and 
the erection of fortitications," presented 
resolutions appointing Commissioners to 
the President to ascertain whether any lio- 
coming arrangements with the Geiier;.! 
Government are practicable, for the main- 
tenance of the peace and honor of the 
State and the security of its inhabitants. 
The report was adopted, and Otho Scott, 
Robt. M. McLane, and "Wm. J. Ross were 
appointed such Commissioners. 

Mr. Yellott in the Senate introduced a 
bill to appoint a Board of Public Safety. 
The powers given to the Board included 
the expenditure of the two millions of dol- 
lars proposed by Mr. Bnuie lor the defence 
of the State, and the entire control of the 
military, including the removal and ap- 
pointment of commissioned oflicers. It 
was ordered to a second reading by a vote 
of 14 to 8. The Board Avas to consist of 
Ezekiel F. Chambers, Enoch Louis Lowe, 
John V. L. MacMahon, Thomas G. Pratt, 
Walter Mitchell, and Thomas Winans. 
Gov. Hicks was made ex-officio a member 
of the Board. This measure was strongly 
pressed by the Disunionists for a long 
time, but they were finally compelled to 
give way, and the bill never passed. 

6th. The Commissioners reported the 
result of their interview with the Presi- 
dent, and expressed the opinion that some 
modification of the course of the General 
Government towards Maryland ought to 
be expected. 

10th. The House of Delegates passed a 
series of resolutions reported by the Com- 
mittee on Federal Relations by a vote of 
43 to 12. The resolutions declare that 
Maryland protests against the war, and 
does earnestly beseech and implore the 
President of the United States to make 
peace with the "Confederate" States; 
also, that " the State of Maryland desires 
the peaceful and immediate recogition of 
the independence of the Confederate 
States." Those who voted in the negative 
are Messrs. Medders, Lawson, Keene, 
Routzahn, Naill, Wilson of Harlbrd, Bay- 
less, McCoy, Fiery, Stake, McCleary, and 
Gorsuch. 

13th. Both Houses adopted a resolution 
providing for a committee of eight mem- 
bers, (four from each House) to visit the 
President of the United vStates and the 
President of the Southern Confederacy. 
The committee to visit President Davis 
were instructed to convey the assurance 
that Maryland sympathizes with the Con- 
federate States, and that the people of 
^laryland are enlisted with their whole 
hearts on the side of reconciliation and 
peace. 



PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 



95 



June nth. Messrs. McKiiiji^, YcUottand 
Hunliii;,', ColnmissicMicrs to visit Prcsidi'iit 
Davis, prcsiMitod tlii'ir report ; acioiiipany- 
iu'^ wliieh is a lettir from Jetlcrson Davis, 
expressing his <irati(i(;atioii to hear tliat 
the State of .MaryUiiid was in sympathy 
with themselves, was eidisted on tiie side 
of peaee and reci)neilialion, and avowin;: 
his perfeet willinu''ne-<s for a cessation of 
hostilities, and a readiness to receive any 

groposition for peace from the United 
tates Crovernment. 

20th. The House of Delegates, and June 
22d, the Senate adopted resolutions un- 

Jualifieilly jirotesting against the arrest of 
loss NVinans and sundry other citizens of 
JIaryland, as an "oppressive and tyran- 
nical assertion and exercise of military 
jurisdiction within the limits of Maryland, 
over the persons and property of her citi- 
zens, by the Government of the United 
States."' 

MISSOURI. 

January l")th, 1861. Senate passed Con- 
vention l^ill — yeas 31, nays 2. Passed 
House also. 

February 2.Sth. Convention met; motion 
to go into secret session, defeated. A reso- 
lution retiuiring members to take an oath 
to support the Constitution of the United 
States and the State of Missouri, was lost 
— 65 against 80. 

March 4. Resolution passed, 64 yeas, 35 
nays, a]>pointing committee to notify Mr. 
Glenn, Commissioner of Georgia, that the 
Convention was ready to hear any com- 
munication from his State. Mr. Glenn was 
introduced, read Georgia's articles of se- 
cession, and made a speech urging Mis- 
souri to join her. 

5th. Resolutions were read, ordering 
that the protest of St. Louis against co- 
ercion be reduced to writing, and a copy 
sent to the President of the United States; 
also, resolutions were adopted informing the 
Commissioner from Georgia that Missouri 
dissented from the position taken by that 
State, and refused to share the honors of 
secession with her. 

6th. Resolutions were offered by several 
members and referred, calling a Conven- 
tion of the Southern States which have 
not seceded, to meet at Nashville, April 
15th, providing for such amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States as 
shall secure to all the States equal rights 
in the Union, and declaring strongly 
against secession. 

9th. The Committee on Federal Rcla-, 
tions reported a series of resolutions, set- 
ting forth that at present there is no ade- 
quate cmse to impel ^Missouri to leave the 
Union, but that on the contrary she will 
labor for such an adjustment of existing 
troubles a*! will secure peace and the rights 
and equality of all the Stal«3 ; that the 



peoj)le of Missouri regard the amondmonta 
to the ('onstiluti(jn proposeil liy Mr. Crit- 
tenden, with their extension to territory 
hereafter to he re(iuired, a basis of adjust- 
ment which would forever remove all ddli- 
culties; and that it is expedient for the 
Legislature to call a C<MiV(;ntinn for pro- 
posing amendments to the Constilutioii. 

'i'he Senate pas-ed resol'itions that tlu'ir 
Senators be instructed, and their Repre- 
sentatives reipiested, to oppose the juis- 
sage of all acts granting suppliers of men 
and money to coerce the secM'ding States 
into submission or subjugation; and that, 
should such acts be pa.ssed by Congress, 
their Senators be instructed, and their Re- 
presentatives re(|uested, to retire from the 
hails of Congress. 

Kith. An amendment of the fifth resolu- 
tion of the majority report of the Com- 
mittee on Federal Relations, asserting that 
Missouri would never countenance nor aid 
a seceding State in making war upon the 
General Government, nor ])rovide men 
and money for the purpose of aiding the 
CJcneral Government to coerce a seceding 
State, was voted down. 

27th. The following resolution was 
passed by a vote in the House of 62 against 
42:— 

Resolved, That it is inexpedient for the 
General Assembly to take any steps for 
calling a National Convention to propose 
amendments to the Constitution, as recom- 
mended by the State Convention. 

July 22d. The Convention reassembled. 

23d. Resolution passed, by a vote of 65 
to 21, declaring the office of President, 
held by General Sterling Price at the last 
session of the Convention, vacant. A 
committee of seven were appointed to re- 
port what action they deem it advisable to 
take in the dislocated condition of the 
State. 

25th. The committee presented their re- 
port. It alludes at length to the present 
unparalleled condition of things, the reck- 
less course of the recent Government, and 
flight of the Governor and other State 
officers from the capitol. It declares the 
offices of Governor. Lieutenant-Governor, 
and Secretary of State vacant, and pro- 
vides that their vacancies shall be fillea by 
the Cotivention, the officers so appointed 
to hold their positions till August, 1862, 
at which time it provides for a special elec- 
tion by the people. It repeals the ninth 
section of the sixth article of the Consti- 
tution, and provides that the Supreme 
Court of the State shall consist of seven 
members ; and that four members, in ad- 
dition to the three nf)W (■om])rising the 
Court, shall be appointed by the Governor 
chosen by this Convention to hold office 
till 1862," when the people shall decide 
whether the change shall be permanent. 
It abolishes the State Legislature, and or- 



96 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



dains that in caso, before the 1st of August, 
1802, the Governor chosen by this Con- 
vention shall consider the public exigen- 
cies demand, he shall order a special elec- 
tion for the members of the State Legisla- 
ture. It recommends the passage of an 
ordinance repealing the following bills, 
passed by the Ivcgislature in secret session, 
)in May last : The military iund bill, the 
bill to suspend the distribution of the 
school fund, and the bill for cultivating 
friendly relations Avith the Indian tribes. 
It repeals the bill authorizing the appoint- 
ment of one major-general of the Missoiiri 
militia, and revives the militia law of 1859. 

A resolution Avas passed that a commit- 
tee of seven be appointed by the President 
to prepare an address to the people of the 
State of Missouri. 

November 26th. Jefferson Davis trans- 
mitted to the " Confederate " Congress a 
message concerning the secession of Mis- 
souri. It was accompanied by a letter 
from Governor Jackson, and also by an 
act dissolving the union with the United 
States, and an act ratifying the Constitu- 
tion of the Provisional Government of the 
Confederate States ; also, the Convention 
between the Commissioners of Missouri 
and the Commissioners of the Confederate 
States. Congress unanimously ratified the 
Convention entered into between the Hon. 
E. ]\I. T. Hunter for the rebel Government 
and the Commissioners for Missouri. 



Inter-state Commissioners. 

The seceding States, as part of their plan 
of operation, appointed Commissioners to 
visit other slaveholding States. They 
were as follows, as announced in the news- 
papers : 

South Carolina. 

To Alabama, A. P. Calhoun. 

To Georgia, James L. Orr, Ex-M. C. 

To Florida, L. W. Spratt. 

To Mississippi, M. L. Bonham, Ex-M. C. 

To Louisiana, J. L. Manning. 

To Arkansas, A. C. Spain. 

To Texas, J. B. Kershaw. 

To Virginia, John S. Preston. 

Alabama, 

To North Carolina, Isham W. Garrett. 

To Mississipiii, E. W. Pettus. 

To South Carolina, J. A. Elmore. 

To Maryland, A. F. Hopkins. 

To Virginia, Frank Gilmer. 

To Tennessee, L. Pope Walker. 

To Kentucky, Stephen F. Hale. 

To Arkansas, John Anthony Winston. 

. Georgia. 

To Missouri, Luther J. Glenn. 
To Virginia, Henry L. Benning. 



Mississippi. 
To South Carolina, C. E. Hooker. 
To Alabama, Jos. W. Matthews, Ex-Gov. 
To Georgia, William L. Harris. 
To Louisiana, Wirt Adams. 
To Texas, H. H. xMiller. 
To Arkansas, Crcorge R. Fall. 
To Florida, E. M. Ycrger. 
To Tennessee, T. J. Wharton, Att'y-Gen. 
To Kentucky,W. S. Featherstone, Ex-M. C. 
To North Carolina, Jacob Thompson, Ex- 

M. C. 
To Virginia, Fulton Anderson. 
To Maryland, A. H. Handy, Judge. 
To Delaware, Henry Dickinson. 
To Missouri, liussell. 



SoTitliern Congress. 

This body, composed of Deputies elected 
by the Conventions of the Seceding States, 
met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 
4th, 18G1, to organize a Southern Confed- 
eracy. Each State had a representation 
equal to the number of members of the 
Thirty-sixth Congress. The members 
were : 

South Carolina. 

Robert W. Barnwell, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
R. Barnwell Rhett, " " " 
James Chestnut, jr., " " " 
Lawrence M. Keitt, Ex-M, C. 
William W. Bovce, " " 
Wm. Porcher Miles, " " 
C. G. Memminger. 
Thomas J Withers. 

Alabama* 
W. P. Chilton. 
Stephen F. Hale. 
David P. Lewis. 
Thomas Fearn, 
Richard W. Walker. 
Robert H. Smith. 
Colin J. McRae. 
John Gill Shorter. 
J. L. M. Curry, Ex-M. C. 

Flo7-ida. 
J. Patten Anderson, Ex-Delegate from 

Washington Territory. 
Jackson Morton, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
James Powers, 

Mississippi. 
W. S. Wilson. 
Wiley P. Harris, Ex-M. C. 
James T. Harrison. 
Walter Brooke, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
AVilliam S. Barry, Ex-]M. C. 
A. M. Clayton. 

Georgia. 
Robert Toombs, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
Howell Cobb, Ex-M. C. 

Martin J. Crawford, " " 
Augustus R Wright, " " 



PREPARING FOR SECESSION, 



9T 



Auj^iatua IT. Krenan. 

Benjamin J I. Hill. 

Francis S. 15iuU)\v. 

E. A. Nisbot. 

Thoniin U. U. Cobb. 

Alexiindcr 11. Stephens, Ex-M. C. 

Louisiana. 
Duncan F. Kennor. 
Churle-s M. C<.nraci, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
Henry Marsbiill. 
John Terkins, jr. 
G. E. Sparrow. 
E. De Clouct. 

T(Kcas. 

(Admitted Miirch 2d, 1861.) 

Louis T. Wifrfall, Ex-U. S. Senator. 

John Hemphill, " 

John H. lieagun, Ex-M. C. 

T. N. Waul. 

John Greirg. 

W. S. Oldham. 

W. B. Ochiltree. 



Proceedlnga of tlie Sonthem Congress. 

February 4th, 1831. Howell Cobb of 
Georgia elected Pre-;ident, Johnson J. 
Hooper of Alabama, Secretary. Mr. Cobb 
announced that secession " is now a fixed 
and irrevocable fact, and the separation is 
perfect, complete and perpetual." 

Gth. David L. Swain, M. W. Ransom, 
and John L. Bridgers, were admitted as 
Commissioners from North Carolina, un- 
der resohitions of the General Assembly of 
that State, passed January 29th, 18G1, "to 
eft'ect an honorable and amicable adjust- 
ment of all the difficulties that disturb 
the country, upon the basis of the Critten- 
den resolutions, as modified by the Legis- 
lature of Virginia," and to consult with 
the delegates to the Southern Congress 
for their "common peace, honor and 
safety." 

7th, Congress notified that the State of 
Alabama had placed $500,000 at its dispo- 
sal, as a loan to the provisional government 
of the Confederacy of Seceding States, 

8th. The Constitution of the Provisional 
Government adopted. * 

♦The Provisional Condtitntlon adoptf^l by the Seceded 
States differs I'roni the Ctm-ititution of the United Statts 
in iieYi'nil imiM>rt.-int particulars. The alteratious and 
kdditiuQg are aa fulluwd : 

ALTERATIONS. 

1st. The ProviBional ConBtitution difTorgfrom the other 
in this : That tlio Ii'^ialative powers of the Provisional 
Government are vested in tl>o Congress now assembli'd. 
and this l).i<ly exenis'-s all the functions that are exer- 
cised by either or both branches of Itie United States 
Government. 

I'd. The I'rovisional Pre«idcnt holds his office for one 
year, unb'ss smn'T Hiiporseded by the e«tabli.^hment of a 
permanent (rovcrnment. 

3d. Kach State-is erected into a distinct jndicial dis- 
trict, the judce having all the piiwers heretofore vested 
Jn the district and circuit courts ; and the several district 
Juiljres tiipethcr compose the supreme bench— a majority 
of thum constituUug a quorum. 

7 



9th. Jefferson Davis, of Mi«si«sinpi, 
elected Provisional Prcsi(i<'nt of liie (.on- 
federate States of America, and AlK.xanih-r 
H. Steplu'tis, of (Jeorgia, Vici'-I'ri'.siiicnt. 
The (jui'stion of attacking Fort Sumter has 
been referred to the Congress, 

11th. Mr. Stephens announced his ac- 
ceptance. Committee appointed to prepare 
a permanent Constitution. 

Pith. The Congress assumed "charge 
of all (juestions and dilliculties now exist- 
ing between the sovereign States of this 
Confederacy and the Government of tho 
United States, relating to the occuj)ation of 
forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom-houses, 
and all other public estiiblishments." The 
resolution was directed to be communicated 
to the Governors of the respective States of 
the Confederacy. 

15th. Official copy of the Texas Ordi- 
nance of Secession presented. 

16th, President Davis arrived and re- 
ceived with salute, etc. 

18th, President Davis inaugurated. 

19th, Tariff law passed. 

21st. Robert Toombs appointed Secre- 
tary of the State ; C. G. Memmineer, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury ; L. Pope Walker, of 

4th. Whenever the word " Union " occurs in tho 
United States Conntitutjon tho word '• Confederacy " is 
substituted. 

THE FOLLOWINO ARE THE ADDITIONS. 

Ist. The President may veto any 8ei)ar,ite appropriation 
without vetoing the whole bill in which it is con- 
tained. 

2d. The African slave-trade is proliibited. 

?.d. Congress is emi)i)wcn«l to prohibit the introduction 
of slaves from any State not a member of this Confed- 
eracy. 

4th. All appropriations must be upon tho demand of 
the President or heads of departments. 

OMISSIONS. 

Ist, There is no prohibition on members of Conjjress 
hidding other office* of honor and emolument under the 
Provisional Government. 

2d. Theio is no provision for a neufnil spot for tlie 
location of a scat of government, or for sites for forts, ar- 
sennls, and dock-vards ; consequently there is no reference 
made to the territorial powers of the Provisional Govern- 
ment. 

:;d The section in the old Constitution in reference to 
capitation and other direct tax is omitted ; also, the sec- 
tion providing that no tax or duty shall bo laid on any 
exports. 

4th. The prohibition on States keeping troops or ships 
of war in time of pi'iu"e is omitted 

5th. The Constitution Ix^ing provisional merely, no 
provision is made for its ratification. 

AMENDMENTS. 

Ist. The fugitive slave clause of the old Constitution is 
go amended ns to contain the word "slave,"' and to pro- 
vide for full compensation in ciutes of ablucticm of forci- 
ble rescue on the part of the State in which such abduc- 
tion or rescue may take place. 

2d. Congress, by a vote of two-thirds, may at any time 
alter or amend the Constitution. 

TEMPORARY PROVISIONS. 

1st. The Provisional Governmi-nt is rerinlred to take 
immediate steps for the settlement of all matters bftweon 
the States forming it and their other late confederates of 
the United Sjates in relation to the public proi>erty and 
the public debt. 

2d. Montgomery is made the temporary scat of govern- 
ment. 

;id. This Constitution is to continue one year, nnleas 
altered by a two thirds vote or superseded by a pcrm*- 
Deat Uovernmont. 



98 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Alabama, Secretary of War ; Stephen R. 
Mallory, Secrctorj' of the Navy ; Judah P. 
Benjamin, Attorney-General, and John H. 
•Reagan, Postmaster-General; Philip Clay- 
ton, of Georgia appointed Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, and Wm. M. Browne, 
late of the Washington Constitution, 
Assistant Secretary of State. 

March 2d, The Texas Deputies re- 
ceived. 



Tlie Confederate States. 

The Confederate States was the name of 
the government formed in 1861 by the 
seven States which first seceded. Bellige- 
rent rights were accorded to it by the lead- 
ing naval powers, but it was never recog- 
nized as a government, notwithstanding 
the persevering efforts of its agents near 
the principal courts. This result was mainly 
due to the diplomacy of the federal Sec- 
retary of State, Wm H, Seward, to the 
proclamations of emancipation in 1862-3, 
which secured the sympathy of the best 
elements of Great Britain and France for 
the federal government, and the obstinate 
persistence of the federal government in 
avoiding, as far as possible, any recognition 
of the existence, even de facto, of a con- 
federate government. The federal generals 
in the field, in their communications with 
confederate officers, did not hesitate, upon 
occasion, even to give " president " Davis 
his official title, but no such embarrassing 
precedent was ever admitted by the civil 
government of the United States, It at 
first endeavored, until checked by active 
preparations for retaliation, to treat the 
crews of confederate privateers as pirates ; 
it avoided any official communication with 
the confederate government, even when 
compelled to exchange prisoners, confining 
its negotiations to the confederate commis- 
sioners of exchange ; and, by its persistent 
policy in this direction, it succeeded, with- 
out any formal declaration, in impressing 
upon foreign governments the belief that 
any recognition of the confederate States 
as a separate people would be actively re- 
sented by the government of the United 
States as an act of excessive unfriendliness. 
The federal courts have steadily held the 
same ground, that " the confederate states 
was an unlawful assemblage, without cor- 
porate power ; " and that, though the 
separate States were still in existence and 
were indestructible, their state govern- 
ments, while they chose to act as part of 
the confederate States, did not exist, even 
de. facto. Enrly in January, 1861, while 
only South Carolina had actually seceded, 
though other Southern States had called 
conventions to consider the question, the 
Senators of the seven States farthest South 
practically a.s8umed control of the whole 
movement, and their energy and unswer- 



ving singleness of purpose, aided by the 
telegraj)h, secured a rapidity of execution 
to which no other very extensive conspi- 
racy of history can affi)rd a parallel. The 
ordinance of secession was a negative in- 
strument, purporting to withdraw the state 
from the Union and to deny the authority 
of the federal government over the people 
of the State ; the cardinal object of the 
senatorial group was to hurry the forma- 
mation of a new national government, as 
an organized political reality which would 
rally the outright secessionists, claim the 
allegiance of the doubtful mass, and coerce 
those who still remained recalcitrant. At 
the head of the senatorial group, and of 
its executive committee, was Jefl'erson 
Davis, Senator from Mississipjii, and natu- 
rally the first official step toward the for- 
mation of a new government came from 
the Mississippi Legislature, where a com- 
mittee reported, January 19th, 18G1, reso- 
lutions in favor of a congress of delegates 
from the seceding States to provide for a 
southern confederacy, and to establish a 
provisional government, therefore. The 
other seceding States at once accej'ted the 
proposal, through their State conventions, 
which also appointed the delegates on the -J 
ground that the people had intrusted the 
State conventions with unlimited pow- 
ers. The new government therefore be£:an 
its existence without any popular ratio of 
representation, and with only such popular 
ratification as popular acquiescence gave. 
The provisional congress met Feb. 4th,at 
Montgomery, Ala., with delegates from 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisi-J 
ana, Florida and Mississippi. The Texaaf 
delegates were not appointed until Feb. 
14th. Feb, 8th, a provisional constitution -J 
was adopted, being the constitution of the 
United States, with some changes, Feb. 
9th, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was 
unanimously chosen provisional president, 
and Alexander H, Stephens, of Georgia, 
provisional vice-president, each State hav- 
ing one vote, as in all other proceedings of 
the body. By acts of Feb. 9th and 12th, 
the laws and revenue officers of the United 
States were continued in the cnniederate 
States until changed. Feb. 18th, the 
president and vice-president were inaugu- 
rated. Feb. 20th-26th, executive depart- 
ments and a confederate regular army were 
organized, and provision was made for 
borrowing money. March llth, the per- 
manent constitution was adopted by 
Congress. 

The Internal legislation of the provi - 
sional congress was, at first, mainly the 
adaptation of the civil service in the South- 
ern Stat(>s to the uses of the new govern- 
ment. Wherever possible, judges, post- 
masters, and civil as well as military and 
nav.'il officers, who had resigned from the 
service of the United States, were given 



BUCHANAN'S VIEWS. 



99 



an cqu;il or higher rank in the confederate 
Bervice. Postmasters were direeted to make 
their fuiai aeeountiiig to thu United States, 
Mav lUst, thereafter aeeounting to tiui (Con- 
federate States. April 2:itii, tlie provi- 
fiionai eongre.ss, whieh hadadjourned Marcli 
IGth, re-assembled at Mi)iitgoinerv, liaviiig 
been convoked by I'resideiit Davis in con- 
sequence of President Lincoln's prepa- 
rat"on-t to enforce federal authority in the 
South. Davis' mt'ssage announced that 
all the seceding States had ratilied the 
piTmanent constitution ; that Virginia, 
which had not yet seceded and entered in- 
to alliance with theeonfederaey, and that 
other States, were expected to follow the 
same plan. He concluded by declaring 
that " all we ask is to be let alone." May 
0th, an act was passed recognizin<j the ex- 
istence of war with the United States. 
Con»re»ss adjourned May 22d, re-convened 
at Richmond, Va., July 20tli, and ad- 
journed August 22d, until November 18th. 
Its legislation had been mainly military 
and financial. Virginia, North Carolina, 
Tennessee and Arkansas, had passed ordi- 
nances of secession, and been admitted to 
the co!ifederacv. (See the States named, 
and secession.) Although Missouri and 
Kentucky had not seceded, delegates from 
these States were admitted in December 
18G1. Nov. 6, 18G1, at an election under 
the permanent constitution, Davis and 
Stephens were again chosen to their re- 
spective offices by a unanimous electoral 
vote. Feb. 18th, 18G2, the provisional con- 
gress (of one house) gave way to the per- 
manent congress, and Davis and Stephens 
were inaugurated February 22nd. The 
cabinet, with the successive Secretaries of 
ca-'.h tlepartment, was as follows, including 
both the provisional and permanent cabi- 
nets : 

State Department. — Robert Toombs, 
Georgia, February 21st, 18G1 ; R. M. T. 
Hunter, Virginia, July 30di, 18G1 ; Judah 
P. Benjamin, Louisiana, February 7th, 
1862. 

Treasuri/ Department. — Charles G. Mem- 
minger, South Carolina, February 21st, 
18G1, and M irch 22.1, 18G2 ; James L. 
Trenholm, South Carolina, June 13th, 
18Gt. 

JFijr Department. — L. Pope Walker, 
Jlississippi, Fel>ruary 21st. 18G1 ; Judah P. 
Benjamin, Louisiana, November 10th. 
18G1 ; James A. Seddon, Virginia, March 
22d, 18G2; .John C. Breckinridge, Ken- 
tucky, February L'ith, 18G5. 

Nary Department. — Stephen R. Mallorv, 
Florida, Mirch 4th, 18G1, and March 22d. 

Attornci/ General. — Judah P. Benjamin, 
Louisiima, February 21st, 18G1 ; Thomas 
H. Watts, Alabama^ September 10th. 18G1, 
and March 22nd, 1862; George Davis, 
North Carolina, NoA-ember 10th, 1863. 

Postmaster- General. — Henry J. Elliot, 



Mississippi, February 21st, 180.'); Joliii If. 
Reagan, Texas, March Glh, iMJl, and 
March 22d, 18(;2. 

The ])rovisional Congress held four Hf.-s- 
sions, ius follows: 1. Fcbruarv 4 Mar h 
Kith, 18G1 ; 2. April 2!)-Mav 22d, 1861 ; 3. 
July 2()-August22d, ISO] ; a",,,] 4. Novem- 
ber IKth, lK6i-February 17th, lS(i2. 

Under the permanent Constitution tiiere 
were two Congresses. The first, Con.rress 
held four sessions, as follows: 1. Feitrii- 
arv 18-April 21st, 1862; 2. Augu-t 12- 
October 13th, ]8<;2; 3. January 12-M:iy 
8th 18G3;and 4. December 7, iSG3-Fel>- 
ruary 18th, 18(54. The second Congres;! 
held two sessions, as follows : 1, May 2 ■ 
June 15th, 1864 ; and 2. From November 
7th, 1864, until the hasty and linal ad- 
journment, March 18th, 18(!o. 

In the first Congress members chosen by 
rump State conventions, or by regiments in 
the confederate service, sat for districts in 
Missouri and Kentucky, though theso 
States had never seceded. Tiierc were 
thus thirteen Stated! in all represented at 
the close of the first Congress ; but, as tlio 
area of the Confederacy narrowed befi ro 
the advance of the Federal armies, the v;V- 
cancies in the second Congress became 
significantly more numerous. At its best 
estate the Confederate Senate number.cl 
26, and the house lOG, as follows : Ala- 
bama, 9 ; Arkansas, 4 ; Florida, 2 ; Geor- 
gia, 10 ; Kentucky, 12 ; Louisiana, 6 ; Mis- 
sissippi, 1 ; Missouri, 7 ; North Carolina, 
10; South Carolina, 6; Tennessee, 11; 
Texas, 6 ; Virginia, 16. In both G»u- 
gresses Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, w:i3 
Speaker of the House.* 

For four months between the Presiden- 
tial election and the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln those favoring secession in the 
South had practical control of their sec- 
tion, for while President Buchanan hesi- 
tated as to his constitutional powers, tlie 
more active partisans in his Cabinet were 
aiding their Southern friends in every 
practical way. In answer to the visit- 
ing Commissioners from South Carolin.a, 
Messrs. R. AV. Barnwell. J. H. Adams and 
Jas. L. Orr, who formally submitted that 
State's ordinance of sece^ssion, and de- 
manded possession of the forts in Charles- 
ton harbor, Buchanan said : — 

"In answer to this communication, I 
have to say that my position as President 
of the United States was clearly defined in 
the message to Congress on the 3d inst. 
In that I stated that ' apart from the exe- 
cution of the laws, so far as this may be 
practicable, the Executive has no authority 
to decide what shall be the relations be- 
tween the Federal Government and South 
Carolina. He has been invested with no 
such discretion. He possesses no power t ) 

* From Tjilir'g fhtntclnprrtlia of PnUlieal Science, puV 
liehed by Rind 4 Mc.Nally, Clucagu, Ul. 



100 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



change the relations heretofore existing 
between them, much less to acknowledge 
the independence of that State. This 
would be to invest a mere executive othcer 
with the power of recognizing the dissolu- 
tion of the Confederacy among our thirty- 
three sovereign States. It bears no re- 
semblance to the recognition of a foreign 
de facto Government, involving no such 
responsibility. Any attempt to do this 
would, on his part, be a naked act of 
usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to 
submit to Congress the whole question in 
all its bearings.' 

" Such is my opinion still. I could, 
therefore, meet you only as private gentle- 
men of the highest character, and was en- 
tirely willing to communicate to Congress 
any proposition you might have to make 
to that body upon the subject. Of this you 
were well aware. It was my earnest desire 
that such a disposition might be made of 
the whole subject by Congress, who alone 
jiossess the power, as to prevent the inau- 
guration of a civil war between the parties 
in regard to the possession of the Federal 
forts in the harbor of Charleston." 

Further correspondence followed between 
the President and other seceding State Com- 
missioners, and the attitude of the former 
led to the following changes in his Cabi- 
net: December 12th, 18G0, Lewis Cass 
resigned as Secretary of State, because the 
President declined to reinforce the forts in 
Chai-leston harbor. December 17th, Jere- 
miah S. Black was appointed his suc- 
cessor. 

December 10th, Howell Cobb, resigned 
as Secretary of the Treasury — " his duty to 
Georgia requiring it." December 12th, 
Philip F. Thomas was appointed his suc- 
cessor, and resigned, January 11th, 1861, 
because differing Irom the President and a 
majority of the Cabinet, " in the measures 
which have been adopted in reference to 
the recent condition of things in South 
Carolina," especially "touching the au- 
thority, under existing laws, to enforce the 
collection of the customs at the port of 
Charleston." January 11th, 1861, John A. 
Dix appointed his successor. 

29th, John B. Floyd resigned as Secre- 
tary of War, because, after the transfer of 
Major Anderson's command from Fort 
Moultrie to Fort Sumter, the President de- 
clined "to withdraw the garrison from the 
harbor of Charleston altogether." 

December 31st, Joseph Holt, Postmas- 
ter-General, was entrusted with the tem- 
Sorary charge of the War Department, and 
anuarv 18th, 1861, was appointed Secre- 
tary of War. 

January 8th, 1861, Jacob Thompson 
resigned as Secretary of the Interior, be- 
cause "additional troops, he had hoard, 
irive been ordered to Charleston" in the 
Star of the West. 



December 17th, 1860, Jeremiah S. 
Black resigned as Attorney-General, and 
Edwin M. Stanton, December 20th, was 
appointed his successor. 

January 18th, 1861, Joseph Holt re- 
signed as Postmaster-General, and Ho- 
ratio King, February 12th, 1861, was ap- 
pointed his successor. 

President Buchanan, in his annual mes- 
sage of December 3d, 1860, appealed to 
Congress to institute an amendment to the 
constitution recognizing the rights of the 
Southern States in regard to slavery in the 
territories, and as this document embraced 
the views which subsequently led to such 
a general discussion of the right of seces- 
sion and the right to coerce a State, we 
make a liberal quotation from it : — 

" I have purposely confined my remarks 
to revolutionary resistance, because it has 
been claimed within the last few years that 
any State, whenever this shall be its 
sovereign will and pleasure, may secede 
from the Union in accordance with the 
Constitution, and without any violation of 
the constitutional rights of the other mem- 
bers of the Confederacy. That as each be- 
came parties to the LTnion by the vote of 
its own people assembled in convention, 
so any one of them may retire from the 
Union in a similar manner by the vote of 
such a convention. 

" In order to justify secession as a con- 
stitutional remedy, it must be on the prin- 
ciple that the Federal Government is a 
mere voluntary association of States, to be 
dissolved at pleasure by any one of the 
contracting parties. If this be so, the 
Confederacy is a rope of sand, to be pene- 
trated and dissolved by the fii-st adverse 
wave of public opinion in any of the States. 
In this manner our thirty-three States may 
resolve themselves into as many petty, 
jarring, and hostile republics, each one re- 
tiring from the Union without responsi- 
bility whenever any sudden excitement 
might impel them to such a course. By 
this process a Union might be entirely 
broken into fragments in a few weeks, 
which cost our loreiathers many years of 
toil, privation, and blood to establish. 

" Such a principle is wholly inconsistent 
with the history as well as the character of 
the Federal Constitution. Afler it was 
framed with the greatest deliberation and 
care, it was submitted to conventions of 
the people of the several States for ratifi- 
cation. Its provisions were discussed at 
length in these bodies, composed of the 
first men of the country. Its opponents 
contended that it conferred powers upon 
the Federal Government dangerous to the 
rights of the States, whilst its advocates 
maintained that, under a fair construction 
of the instrument, there was no foundation 
for such apprehensions. In that mighty 
struggle between the first intellects of this 



BUCHANAN'S VIEWS. 



101 



or any other country, it never occurred to 
any ituUvidual, eitlier among its opponents 
or advocates, to assert or even to intimate 
tliat their efibrts were all vain labor, be- 
cause the moment that any ►State felt lier- 
pclf ajrgrieved she might secede from the 
Union. What a crushing argument would 
this have proved against those who dreaded 
that the rights of the States would be en- 
dangered by the Const ituti< in. The truth 
is, that it was not until some years after 
the origin of the Federal (Joveriiment that 
sut'h a proposition wad first advanced. It 
was afterwards met and refuted by the 
conclusive arguments of General Jackson, 
wh), in his message of the l(3th of January, 
18:)"'.. transmitting the nullifying ordinance 
of South Carolina to Congress, employs the 
following Luv^uage : ' The right of the peo- 
ple of a single State to absolve themselves 
at will and without the consent of the 
other States from their most solemn obli- 
gations, anil hazard the liberty and happi- 
ness of the millions composing this Union, 
Ciinnot be acknowledged. Such authority 
is believed to be utterly repugnant both to 
the principles upon which the General 
Government is constituted, and to the ob- 
jects which it was expressly fcrraed to 
attain.' 

" It is not pretended that any clause in 
the Constitution gives countenance to such 
a theory. It is altogether founded upon 
inference, not from any language con- 
tiiined in the instrument itself, but from 
the sovereign character of the several 
Suites by which it was ratified. But it is 
beyond the power of a State like an indi- 
vidual, to yield a portion of its sovereign 
rights to secure the remainder? In the 
language of Mr, Madison, who has been 
called the father of the Constitution, ' It 
was formed by the States — that is, by the 

Eeople in each of the States acting in their 
ighest sovereign capacity, and formed con- 
sequently by the same authority which 
formed the State constitutions.' ' Nor is 
the Government of the United States, 
created by the Constitution, less a Govern- 
ment, in the strict sense of the term with- 
in the sphere of its powers, than the gov- 
ernments created by the constitutions of 
the States are within their several spheres. 
It is like them orranized into legislative, 
executive, and judiciary departments. It 
operates, like them, directly on persons 
and things; and. like them, it has at com- 
mand a physical force for executing the 
powers committed to it.' 

" It was intended to be perpetual, and 
not to be annulled at the pleasure of any 
one of the contracting parties. The old 
Articles of Confederation were entitled 
*Article-sof Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States ; ' and by the 
thirteenth article it is expres.sly declared 
that ' the articles of this confederation 



shall be inviolably observed by every 
Slate, and the Union tdiall be perpetual.' 
The preamble to the constitution of the 
United States, having express reference to 
the Articles of Confederation, recites that 
it was established 'in order to form a more 
jterfect union.' And yet it is contended 
that this * more perfect union ' does not in- 
clude the eassential attribute of perpe- 
tuity. 

" But that the Union wa.s designed to 
be jierpetual, appears conclusively from 
the nature ami extent of the powirs (.(in- 
ferred by the Constitution of the Federal 
Government. These powers embrace the 
very highest attributes of national sov- 
ereignty. They place both the sword and 
purse under its control. Congress hajj 
power to make war and to make peace; to 
raise and support armies and navies, and 
to conclude treaties with foreign govern- 
ments. It is invested with the power to 
coin money, and to regulate the value 
thereof, and to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations and among th(? several 
Sbites. It is not necessary to enumerate 
the other high powers which have been 
conferred upon the Federal Government. 
In order to carry the enumerated powers 
into effect. Congress possesses the exclusive 
right to lay and collect duties on import*), 
and, in common with the States, to lay 
and collect all other taxes. 

" But the Constitution has not only con- 
ferred these high powers upon Congreae, 
but it has adopted eflectual means to re- 
strain the States from interfering with their 
exercise. For that purpose it has in strong 
prohibitory laniruage expressly declared 
that 'no State shall enter into any treaty, 
alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of 
marque and reprisal; coin money; emit 
bills of credit; make anything but gold 
and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post 
facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts.' Moreover, ' without the con- 
sent of Congress no State shall lay any im- 
posts or duties on any imports or exports, 
except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws,' and if 
they exceed this amount, the excess shall 
belong to the United States. And 'no 
State shall, without the consent of Con- 
gress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troopa 
or ships of war in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another 
State, or with a foreign power, or engage 
in war, unless actually invaded or in such 
imminent danger as will not admit of 
delay.' 

" in order still further to secure the un- 
interrupted exercise of these high powers 
against State interposition, it is provided 
' that this Constitution and the laws of the 
United States which shall be made in pur- 
suance thereof, and all treaties made or 



102 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



which shall be made under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, any thing in 
the Constitutionor lawsof any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding.' 

" The solemn sanction of religion has 
been superadded to the obligations of 
official duty, and all Senators and Repre- 
sentatives of the United States, all mem- 
bers of State Legislatures, and all execu- 
tive and judicial officers, ' both of the 
United States and of the several States, 
shall be bound by oath or affirmation to 
support this Constitution.' 

In order to carry into effect these 
j)Owers, the Constitution has established a 
perxiect Government in idl its forms, legis- 
lative, executive, and judicial ; and this 
Government to the extent of its powers 
acts directly upon the individual citizens 
of every State, and executes its own de- 
crees by the agency of its own officers. In 
this respect it differs entirely from the 
Government under the old confederation, 
which was confined to making requisitions 
on the States in their sovereign character. 
This left it in the discretion of each 
v/hether to obey or refuse, and they otten 
declined to comply with such requisitions. 
It thus became necessary, for the purpose 
of removing this barrier, and ' in order to 
form a more perfect union,' to establish a 
Government which could act directly upon 
the people and execute its own laws with- 
out the intermediate agency of the States. 
This has been accomplished by the Con- 
stitution of the United States. In short, 
the Government created by the Constitu- 
tion, and deriving its authority from the 
sovereign people of each of the several 
States, has precisely the same right to 
exercise its power over the people of all 
these States in the enumerated cases, that 
each one of them possesses over subjects 
not delegated to the United States, but 
*^ reserved to the States respectively or to 
the people.' 

" To the extent of the delegated powers 
the Constitution of the United States is as 
much a part of the constitution of each 
Biate, and is as binding upon its people, 
as though it had been textually inserted 
therein. 

"This Government, therefore, is a great 
and powerful Government, invested with 
all the attributes of sovereignty over the 
special subjects to which its authority ex- 
teJids. Its framers never intended to im- 
plant in its bosom the seeds of its own 
destruction nor were they at its creation 
guilty of the absurdity of jiroviding for its 
own dissolution. It was not intended by 
its framers to be the baseless fabric of a 
vision, which, at the touch of the en- 
chanter, would vanish into thin air, but a 
substantial and mighty fabric, capable of 



resisting the slow decay of time, and of 
defying the storms of ages. Indeed, ■well 
may the jealous patriots of that day have 
indulged fears that a Government of such 
high power might violate the reserved rights 
of the States, and wisely did they adopt 
the rule of a strict construction of these 
powers to prevent the danger. But they did 
not fear, nor had they any reason to imagine 
that the Constitution would ever be so in- 
terpreted as to enable any State by her 
own act, and without the consent of her 
sister States, to discharge her people 
from all or any of their federal obliga- 
tions. 

"It may be asked, then, are the people 
of the States without redress against the 
tyranny and oppression of the Federal 
Government? By no means. The right 
of resistance on the part of the governed 
against the oppression of their govern- 
ments cannot be denied. It exists inde- 
pendently of all constitutions, and has been 
exercised' at all ];eriods of the world's his- 
tory. Under it, old governments have been 
destroyed and new ones have taken their 
place. It is embodied in strong and ex- 
press language in our own Declaration of 
Independence. But the distinction must 
ever be observed that this is revolution 
against an established Government, and 
not a voluntary secession from it by virtue 
of an inherent constitutional right. In 
short, let us look the danger fairly in the 
face; secession is neither more nor less 
than revolution. It may or it may not be 
a justifiable revolution ; but still it is rev- 
olution." 

The President having thus attempted to 
demonstrate that the Constituticn affords 
no warrant for secession, but that this was 
inconsistent both with its letter and spirit, 
then defines his own position. He says : 

" What, in the mean time, is the respon- 
sibility and true position of the Executive? 
He is bound by solemn oath, before God 
and the country, 'to take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed,' and from this 
obligation he cannot be absolved by any 
human power. But what if the perfor- 
mance of this duty, in whole or in part, 
has been rendered impracticable by events 
over which he could have exercised no 
control? Such, at the present moment, is 
the case throughout the State of South 
Carolina, so far as the laws of the United 
States to secure the administration of jus- 
tice by means of the Federal judiciary are 
concerned. All the Federal officers within 
its limits, through whose agency alone 
these laws can be carried into execution, 
have already resigned. We no longer 
have a district judge, a district attorney, 
or a marshal in South Carolina. In fact, 
the whole machinery of the Federal gov- 
ernment necessary for the distribution of 
remedial Justice among the people has been 



BUCHANAN'S VIEWS. 



103 



demolished, and it would be difficult, if 
iKjt impodsible, to replace it. 

"The only acts of Congress on the stat- 
ute book bearing upon this suhject arc 
those of the 28th Februrry, 171).'), and 3rd 
March, 1807. These authorize the Presi- 
dent, after he shall have ascertained that 
the marshal, with his posse cumitatxis, is 
unable to execute civil or criminal process 
in any particular case, to call forth the 
militia and employ the army and navy to 
aid him in performing this service, having 
first by proclamation comnumded the in- 
surgents ' to disperse and retire peaceably 
to their respective abodes within a limited 
time.' This duty cannot by possibility be 
performed in a State where no judicial au- 
thority exist* to issue process, and where 
there is no marshal to execute it, and 
where, even if there were such an officer, 
the entire population would constitute one 
solid combination to resist him. 

" The bare enumeration of these provi- 
sions proves how inadequate they are with- 
out further legislation to overcome a united 
opposition in a single State, not to speak 
of other States who may place themselves 
in a similar attitude. Congress alone has 
power to decide whether the present laws 
can or cannot be amended so as to carry 
out more effectually the objects of the 
Constitution. 

" Tlie same insuperable obstacles do not 
lie in the way of executing the laws for the 
collection of customs. The revenue still 
continues to be collected, as heretofore, at 
the custom-house in Charleston, and should 
the collector unfortunately resign, a suc- 
cessor may be appointed to perform this 
duty. 

" Then, in regard to the property of the 
United States in South Carolina. This has 
been purchased for a fair equivalent, ' by 
the consent of the Legislature of the 
State,' ' for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals,' &c., and over these the authority 
'to exercise exclusive legislation' has been 
expressly granted by the Constitution to 
Congress. It is not believed that any at- 
tempt will be made to expel the United 
States from this property by force; but if 
in this I should prove to be mistaken, the 
officer in command of the forts has re- 
ceived orders to act strictly on the defen- 
sive. In such a contingency the respon- 
sibility for consequences would rightfully 
rest upon the heads of the assailants. 

" Apart from the execution of the laws, 
so fariis this may be practicable, the Ex- 
ecutive has no authority to decide what 
shall be the relations between the Federal 
Crovernment and South Carolina. He has 
been invested with no such discretion. He 
possesses no power to change the relations 
heretofore existing between them, much 
less to acknowledge the independence of 
that State. This would be to invest a mere 



executive officer with the power of recog- 
nizing the iliss(tlution of the (-onfederacy 
among our thirty-tliree sovereign States. 
It bears no relation to the recognition of » 
foreign defuctn (Jovernment, involving no 
such responsibility. Any attempt to do 
this would, on his part, be a naked act of 
ustirpation. It is, therefore, my duty to 
submit to Congress the whole question in 
all its bearings." 

Then follows the opinion expressed in 
the message, that the Constitution has con- 
ferred no power on the Federal Govern- 
ment to coerce a State to remain in the 
Union. The following is the language : 
"The question fairly stated is, 'Has the 
Constitution delegated to Congress the 
power to coerce a State into submission 
which is attempting to withdraw, or has 
actually withdrawn from the Confedera- 
cy?' If answered in the affirmative, it 
must be on the principle that the power 
has been conferred upon Congress to make 
war against a State, 

" After much serious reflection, I have 
arrived at the conclusion that no such 
power has been delegated to Congress or 
to any other department of the Federal 
Government. It is manifest, upon an in- 
spection of the Constitution, that this is 
not among the specific and enumerated 
powers granted to Congress; and it is 
equally apparent that its exercise is not 
' necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution' any one of these powers. So far 
from this power having been delegated to 
Congress, it was expressly refused by the 
Convention which framed the Constitu- 
tion. 

" It appears from the proceeding? of that 
body that on the 31st May, 1787, the 
clause ' authorizing an exertioyi of the force 
of the whole against a delinquent State ' 
came up for consideration. Mr. Madison . 
opposed it in a brief but powerful speech, 
from which I shall extract but a single 
sentence. He observed : ' The use of force 
against a State would look more like a 
declaration of war than an infliction of 
punishment, and would probably be con- 
sidered by the party attacked as a dissolu- 
tion of all previous compacts by which it 
might be bound.' Upon his motion the 
clause was unanimously postponed, and 
was never, I believe, again presented. Soon 
afterwards, on the 8Lh June, 1787, when 
incidentally adverting to the subject, he 
said: 'Any government for the United 
States, formed on the supposed practica- 
bility of using force against the unconsti- 
tutional proceedings of the States, would 
prove as visionary and fallacious as the 
government of Congress,' evidently mean- 
ing the then existing Congress of the old 
confederation." 

At the time of the delivery of this mes- 
sage the excitement was very high. The 



104 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



extreme Southerners differed from it, in so 
far lis it disputed both the right of revolu- 
tion and secession under the circumstances, 
but quickly made a party battle-cry of the 
denial of the right of the National Gov- 
ernment to coerce a State — a view which 
for a time won the President additional 
friends, but which in the end solidified all 
friends of the Union against his adminis- 
tration. To show the dcmbt which this 
ingenious theory caused, we quote from the 
speech of Senator Andrew Johnson, of 
Tennessee (subsequently Vice-President 
and acting President), delivered Dec. 18th, 
1860, (Congressional Globe, page 119) : — 

" I do not believe the Federal Govern- 
ment has the power to coerce a State, for 
by the eleventh amendment of the Con- 
stitution of the United States it is exj^ressly 
provided that you cannot even put one of 
the States of this confederacy before one 
of the courts of the country as a party. 
As a State, the Federal Government has 
no power to coerce it ; but it is a member 
of the compact to which it agreed in com- 
mon with the other States, and this Gov- 
ernment has the right to pass laws, and to 
enforce those laws upon individuals within 
the limits of each State. While the one 
proposition is clear, the other is equally so. 
This Government can, by the Constitution 
of the country, and by the laws enacted in 
conformity with the Constitution, operate 
upon individuals, and has the right and 
power, not to coerce a State, but to enforce 
and execute the law upon individuals 
within the limits of a State." 

Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 
publicly objected to the message because of 
its earnest argument against secession, and 
the determination expressed to collect the 
revenue in the ports of South Carolina, by 
means of a naval force, and to defend the 
public property. From this moment they 
alienated themselves from the President. 
Soon thereafter, when he refused to with- 
draw Major Anderson from Fort Sumter, 
on the demand of the self-styled South 
Carolina Commissioners, the separation be- 
came complete. For more than two months 
before the close of the session all friendly 
intercourse between them and the Presi- 
dent, whether of a political or social cha- 
racter, had ceased. 



Tlie Crittenden Compromise. 

Congress referred the request in the 
message, to adopt amendments to the con- 
stitution recognizing the rights of the 
Slave States to take slavery into the terri- 
tories to a committee of thirteen, consisting 
of five Republicans : Messrs. Seward, Col- 
lamer, Wade, Doolittle, and Grimes ; five 
from slave-holding States: Messrs. Powell, 
Hunter, Crittenden, Toombs, and Davis ; 
and three Northern Democrats ; Messrs. 
Douglas, Bigler, and Bright. The latter 



three were intended to act as mediators 
between the extreme parties on the com- 
mittee. 

The committee first met on the 21st De- 
cember, 18(50, and preliminary to any other 
proceeding, they " resolved that no propo- 
sition shall be reported as adopted, unless 
sustained by a majority of each of the 
classes of the committee ; Senators of the 
Republican party to constitute one class, 
and Senators of the other {)arties to con- 
stitute the other class." This resolution 
was passed, because any report they might 
make to the Senate would be in vain unless 
sanctioned by at least a majority of the five 
Republican Senators. On the next day 
(the 22d), Mr. Crittenden submitted to the 
committee " A Joint Resolution " (the 
same which he had two days before pre- 
sented to the Senate), "proposing certain 
amendments to the- Constitution of the 
United States," now known as the Critten- 
den Compromise. This was truly a com- 
promise of conflicting claims, because it 
proposed that the South should surrender 
their adjudged right to take slaves into all 
our Territories, provided the North would 
recognize this right in the Territories south 
of the old Missouri Compromise line. 
The committee rejected this compromise, 
every one of its five Republican members, 
together with Messrs. Davis and Toombs, 
from the cotton States, having voted 
against it. Indeed, not one of all the Re- 
publicans in the Senate, at any period or 
in any form, voted in its favor. 

The committee, having failed to arrive 
at a satisfactory conclusion, reported their 
disagreement to the Senate on the 31st 
December, 18G0, in a resolution declaring 
that they had " not been able to agree 
upon any general plan of adjustment." 

Mr. Crittenden did not desjiair of 
ultimate success, notwithstanding his de- 
feat before the Committee of Thirteen. 
After this, indeed, he could no longer ex- 
pect to carry his compromise as an amend- 
ment to the Constitution by the necessary 
two-thirds vote of Congress. It was, 
therefore, postponed by the Senate on his 
own motion. As a substitute for it he 
submitted to the Senate, on the 3d 
January, 1861, a joint resolution, which 
might be passed by a majority of both 
Houses. This was to refer his rejected 
amendment, by an ordinary act of Con- 
gress, to a direct vote of the people of the 
several States. 

He offered his resolution in the following 
language : " Whereas the Union is in 
danger, and, owing to the unhaj)py divi- 
sion existing in Congress, it would be dif- 
ficult, if not impossible, for that body to 
concur in both its branches by the re- 
quisite majority, so as to enable it either 
to adopt such measures of legislation, or 
to recommend to the Statea such amend- 



THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE. 



105 



nieiits to the Constitution, a.s are doemod 
nccossjiry and prujuTto avert that danger ; 
and wluToas in so great an emergency tlie 
opinion and jndginent of the peopUi ought 
to be heard, and would he the best and 
surest guitle to tiu'ir lii-presentatives ; 
Therefore, Jiosn/veil, Tliat provision ouglit 
to be made by law without delay for tak- 
ing the sense of the pi'()[)le and submitting 
to their vote the following resolution |the 
sumo as in his former amendment], as the 
basis for the final and permanent settle- 
ment of those disputes that now disturb 
the peace of the country and threaten the 
exi-itence of the Union." 

Menu)rials in its favor poured into Con- 
gress from portions of tiie North, even 
from New England. One of these pre- 
sented to the Senate was from " the Mayor 
and members of the Board of Aldermen 
and the Common Council of the city of 
Boston, and over 22,000 citizens of the 
Suite of Massachusetts, praying the adop- 
tion of the compromise measures proi)osed 
by Mr. Crittenden." It may be proper 
here to observe that the resolution of Mr. 
Critt^-nden did not provide in detail for 
holding elections by which " the sense of 
the people " could be ascertained. To sup- 
ply this omission. Senator Bigler, of 
rennsylvania, on the 14th January, 18G1, 
brought in " A bill to provide for taking 
the sense of the people of the United 
States on certain proposed amendment.s to 
the Constitution of the United States;" 
but never was he able to induce the Senate 
even to consider this bill. 

President Buchanan exerted all his in- 
fluence in favor of these measures. In his 
special message to Congress of the 8th of 
January, l.Stil, after depicting the conse- 
quences which had already resulted to the 
country from the bare apprehension of 
civil war and the dissolution of the Union, 
he says : 

" Let the question be transferred from 
political assendjlies to the ballot-box, and 
the people themselves would speedily re- 
dress the serious grievances which the 
South have suffered. But, in Heaven's 
name, let the trial be made before we 
plunge into armed conflict upon the mere 
assumi)tion that there is no other alterna- 
tive. Time is a great conservative power. 
Let us pause at this momentous point, and 
afford the people, both North and South, 
an opportunity for reflection. Would that 
South Carolina had been convinced of this 
truth before her precipitate action ! I, 
therefore, appeal through you to the peo- 
ple of the country, to declare in tneir 
might that the Union must and shall be 
preserved by all constitutional means. I 
most earnestly recommend that you devote 
yourselves exclusively to the question how 
this can be accomplished in peace. All 
other questions, when compared with this, 



sink into insignificance. The i)rescnt is no 
time for palliatives; action, jirompt action 
is re<|nired. A delay in Congnss to pre- 
scribe or to recommend a distinct and 
practical {)rop(jsition for conciliation, may 
drive us to a jxiint from which it will be 
almost impossilile to recede. 

" A common ground on which concilia- 
tion and harmony can bi; produc(Ml is 
surely not unattaituible. The )iro|)osition 
to compromise by letting the North have 
I'xclusive control of the territory above a 
certain line, and to give Southern institu- 
tions protection below that line, ought to 
receive universal a|)probation. In itself, 
indeed, it may not be entirely satisfactory, 
])ut when the alternative is between a 
reasonable concession on both sides and a 
dissolution of the Union, it is an imputa- 
tion on the patriotism of Congress to assert 
that its members will hesitate for a mo- 
ment." 

This recommendation was totally disre- 
garded. On the 14th January, 18G1, Mr. 
Crittenden made an unsuccessful attempt 
to have it considered, but it was postjwned 
until the day following. On tliis day it 
was again postponed by the vote of every 
Republican Senator present, in order to 
make way for the Pacific Railroad bill. On 
the tliird attempt (Januarj' KJ,) he suc- 
ceeded, but by a majority of a single vote, 
in bringing his resolution before tlie body. 
Every Republican Senator present voted 
against its consideration. Mr. Clark, a 
Republican Senator from New Hampshire, 
moved to strike out the entire preamble 
and resolution of Mr. Crittenden, and in 
lieu thereof insert as a substitute a pream- 
ble and resolution in accordance with the 
Chicago platform. This motion prevailed 
by a vote of 25 to 23, every Republican 
Senator present having voted in its favor. 
Thus Mr. Crittenden's proposition to refer 
the question to the people was buried 
under the Clark amendment. This con- 
firmed to be its position for more than six 
weeks, until the day before the final ad- 
journment of Congress, 2d March, when 
the i)roposition itself was defeated by a 
vote of 1!) in the alhrmative against 20 in 
the negative. 

The Clark Amendment prevailed only 
in conse(juence of the refusal of six Seces- 
sion Senators to vote against it. These 
were Messrs. Benjamin and Slidell, of 
Louisiana; Mr. Iverson, of Georgia; 
Messrs. Hemphill and Wigfall, of Texas; 
and ]\Ir. Johnson, of Arkansas. Had these 
gentlemen voted with the border slave- 
holding States and the other Democratic 
Senators, the Clark Amendment would 
have been defeated, and the Senate would 
then have been brought to a direct vote 
on the Crittenden resolution. 

It is proper for reference that the names 
of those Senators v.'ho constituted the ma- 



106 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



jority on this question, should be placed 
upon record. Every vote given from the 
six New England States was in opposition 
to Mr. Crittenden's resolution. These con- 
sisted of Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire; 
Messrs. Sumner and Wilson, of Massachu- 
setts ; Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island; 
Messrs. Dixon and Foster, of Connecticut ; 
Mr. Foot, of Vermont ; and Mr. Fessen- 
den, of Maine. The remaining twelve 
votes, in order to make up the 20, were 
given by Messrs. Bingham and Wade, of 
Ohio; Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois ; Messrs. 
Bingham and Chandler, of Michigan ; 
Messrs. Grimes and Harlan, of Iowa ; 
Messrs. Doolittle and Durkee, of Wiscon- 
sin; Mr. Wilkinson, of Minnesota; Mr. 
King, of New York ; and Mr. Ten Eyck, 
of New Jersey. The Republicans not 
voting were Hale of New Hampshire ; 
Simmons of Rhode Island ; Collaraer of 
Vermont; Seward of New York, and 
Cameron of Pennsylvania. They rei'rained 
from various motives, but in the majority 
of instances because they disbelieved in 
any effc>rt to compromise, for nearly all 
were recognized leaders of the more radi- 
cal sentiment, and in favor of coercion of 
the South by energetic use of the war 
jjowers of the government. This was spe- 
cially true of Hale, Seward, and General 
Cameron, shortly after Secretary of War, 
and the first Cabinet officer who favored 
the raising of an immense army and the 
early liberation and arming of the slaves. 

On December 4th, 1860, on motion of 
Mr. Boteler of Virginia, so much of Presi- 
dent Buchanan's message as related to the 
perilous condition of the country, was re- 
ferred to a special committee of one from 
each State, as follows: 

Corwin of Ohio ; Millson of Virginia ; 
Adams of Massachusetts ; Winslow of 
North Carolina ; Humphrey of New York ; 
Boyce of South Carolina ; Campbell of 
Pennsylvania; Love of Georgia; Ferry of 
Connecticut; Davis of Maryland ; Robin- 
son of Rhode Island ; Whiteley of Dela- 
ware; Tappan of New Hampshire; Strat- 
ton of New Jersey ; Bristow of Kentucky ; 
Morrill of Vermont; Nelson of Tennessee; 
Dunn of Indiana; Taylor of Louisiana; 
Davis of IVIississippi ; Kellogg of Illinois; 
Houst(jn of Alabama; Morse of Maine; 
Phelps of Missouri ; Rust of Arkansas ; 
Howard of Michigan ; Hawkinsof Florida; 
Hamilton of Texas; Washburn of Wiscon- 
sin; Curtis of Iowa; Burch of California; 
Windom of Minnesota ; Stout of Oregon. 

Messrs. Hawkins and Boyce asked to be 
excused from service on the Committee, 
but the House refused. 

From this Committee Mr. Corwin report- 
ed, January 14tli, ISGl, a series of proposi- 
tions with a written statement in advocacy 
thereof. Several minorrity reports were 
presented, but the following Joint Reso- 



lution is the only one which secured the 
assent of both Houses. 

CONSTITUTIOXAL AMENDMENT. 

Be it resolved hy the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States oj 
America in Congress assembled., tvo-thirds 
(if both Houses concurring, That the fol- 
lowing article be j)roposed to the Legisla- 
tures of the several States as an amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United 
States, which, when ratified by three- 
fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, 
to all intents and purposes, as a part of the 
said Constitution, namely : 

Art. XII. No amendment shall be 
made to the Constitution which will auth- 
orize or give to Congress the power to 
abolish or interfere within any State, with 
the domestic institutions thereof, including 
that of persons held to labor or service by 
the laws of said State. 

The Legislatures of Ohio and Maryland 
agreed to the amendment prom])t]y, but 
events followed so rapidly, that the atten- 
tion of other States was drawn from it, and 
nothing came of this, the only Congres- 
sional movement endorsed which looked to 
reconciliation. Other propositions came 
from the Border and individual states, but 
all alike failed. 



The Peace Convention. 

Tlie General Assembly of Virginia, oa 
the ll>th of January, adopted resolutions 
inviting Representatives of the several 
States to assemble in a Peace Convention 
at Washington, which met on the 4th of 
February. It was composed of 133 Com- 
missioners, many from the border States, 
and the object of these was to prevail upon 
their associates from the North to unite 
with them in such recommendations to 
Congress as would prevent their own States 
from seceding and enable them to brin^ 
back six of the cotton States which had 
already seceded. 

One month only of the session of Con- 
gress remained. Within this brief period 
it was necessary that the Convention 
should recommend amendments to the 
Constitution in sufficient time to enable 
both Houses to act upon them before their 
final adjournment. It was also essential 
to success that these amendments should 
be sustained by a decided majority of the 
commissioners both from the Northern 
and the border States. 

On Wednesday, the 6th Februarj', a re- 
solution was adopted,* on motion of Mr. 
Guthrie, of Kentucky, to refer the rcsolu> 
tions of the General Assembly of Virginia, 
and all other kindred subjects, to a com- 
mittee to consist of one commissioner 

* OfficiuJ Journal of tho Convention, pp. 9 and 10. 



rUE PEACE CONVENTION. 



107 



from cnch State, to bo selected by the 
n-Hpectivc State delegations ; and to pre- 
vent delay they were instruLti-d to report 
on or before the Friday tbllowing (the 8th), 
" what they may deem right, necessary, 
and proper to restoro harmony and pre- 
serve the Union." 

This committee, instead of re])<)rting on 
the day appuJTited, did not report until 
Friday, the 15Ui February. 

Tile amendments reported by a majority 
of the committee, thnjugii Mr. Ciuthrie, 
their chairman, were substantially the 
same with the Crittenden Compromise; 
but on motion of Mr. Johnson, of Mary- 
land, thegeneral terms of tlie first and l)y far 
the mo>-t important section were restricted 
to the 2)rescnt Territories of the United 
States. On motion of I\Ir. Franklin, of 
Pennsylvania, this section was further 
amended, but not materially changed, by 
the adoption of the substitute offered by 
him. Nearly in this form it was afterwards 
adopted by the Convention. The follow- 
ing is a copy : " In all the present territory 
of the United States north of the parallel 
of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of 
nortli latitude, involuntary servitude, ex- 
cept in punishment of crime, is prohibited. 
In all the present territory south of tliat 
line, the status of persons held to involun- 
tary service or labor, as it now exists, shall 
not be changed ; nor shall any law be 
passed by Congress or the Territorial Le- 
gislature to hinder or prevent the taking 
of such persons from any of the States of 
this Union to said territory, nor to impair 
the rights arising from said relation; but 
the same shall be subject to judicial cogni- 
zance in the Federal courts, according to 
the course of the common law. When any 
Territory north or south of said line, with- 
in such boundary as Congress may pre- 
scribe, shall contain a population equal to 
that required for a member of Congress, it 
shall, if its tbrm of government be repub- 
lican, be admitted into the Union on an 
equal footing with the original States, with 
or without involuntary servitude, as the 
Constitution of such State may provide." 

Mr. Baldwin, of Connecticut, and Mr. 
Scddon, of Virginia, made minority re- 
ports, which they proposed to substitute 
for that of the majority. Mr. Baldwin's 
report was a recommendation " to the 
several States to unite with Kentuckv in 
her ajiplication to Congress to call a Con- 
vention for proposing amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States, to be 
submitted to the Legislatures of the several 
States, or to Conventions therein, for rati- 
fication, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by Congress, 
in accordance with the provisions in the 
fifth article of the Constitution." 

The proposition of Mr. Baldwin, re- 
ceived the votes of eight of the twenty-oue 



States. These consisted of ihc whole of 
the New Knglaiid States, except Khodo 
Island, and ul' lliiuoi-*, Iowa, uml New 
York, all being tree !^lates. 

The first annndment reported bv Mr. 
St'tldon dillered from that of the majority 
inasmuch as it embraced not only the 
present but all future Territories. This 
was rejected. His second amendment, 
which, however, was never voted upon by 
tlie Convention, went so far jts distinctly 
to recognize the right of secession. 

More than ten days were consumed in 
discussion and in voting upon various pro- 
positions offered by individual commis- 
sionei-s. The hnal vote was not reached 
until Tuesday, the 2t)th Feliruary, when 
it was taken on the first vitally important 
section, as amended. 

This section, on which all the rest de- 
pended, was negatived by a vote of eight 
States to eleven. Those which voti# in 
its favor were Delaware, Kentucky, Mary- 
land, New Jersey, Ohio, l*enn.sylvania, 
Rhode Island, and Tennessee. And those 
in the negative were Connecticut, Illinois, 
Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, 
New York, North Carolina, New llamj)- 
shire, Vermont, and Virginia. It is but 
justice to say that ]\Ie.ssra. Kuflin and 3Iore- 
head, of North Carolina, and Messrs. Rives 
and Summers, of Virginia, two of the five 
commissioners from each of these States, 
declared their dissent from the vote of 
their respective States. So, also, d:d 
Messrs. Bronson, Corning, Dodge, Wool, 
and Granger, five of the eleven New York 
commissioners, dissent from the vote of 
their State. On the other hand, Messrs. 
Meredith and Wilmot, two of the seven 
commissionei-s from Pennsylvania, dis- 
sented from the majority in v(jting in fnvor 
of the section. Thus would the Conven- 
tion have terminated but for the inter- 
position of Illinois. Immediately after 
the section had been negatived, the com- 
missioners from that State made a motion 
to reconsider the vote, and this prevailed. 
The Convention afterwards adjourned un- 
til the next morning. When they reassem- 
bled (February 27,) the first section was 
adopted, but only by a majority of nine to 
eight States, nine being less than a ma- 
jority of the States represented. This 
chanee was eiTected by a change of the vote 
of Illinois from the negative to the affirm- 
ative, by Missouri withholding her vote, 
and by a tie in the New York commis- 
sioners, on account of the absence of one 
of their number, rendering it im]io--sible 
for the State to vote. Still Virginii and 
North Carolina, and Connecticut, Maine, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, ami Ver- 
!nont, persisted in voting in the negative. 
From the nature of this vote, it was mani- 
festly impossible that tAvo-thirds of both 
ilouries of Congress should act favorably 



108 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



on the amendment, even if the delay had 
not already rendered such action imprac- 
ticable before the close of the session. 

The remaining sections of the amend- 
ment were carried by small majorities. 
The Convention, on the same day, through 
Mr. Tyler, their President, communicated 
to the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives the amendment they had adopted, 
embracing all the sections, with a request 
that it might be submitted by Congress, 
under the Constitution, to the several State 
Legislatures. In the Senate this was im- 
mediately referred to a select committee, 
on motion of Mr. Crittenden. The com- 
mittee, on the next day (28th Feb.), re- 
ported a joint resolution proposing it as an 
amendment to the Constitution, but he was 
never able to bring the Senate to a direct 
vote upon it. Failing in this, he made a 
motion to substitute the amendment of the 
Peace Convention for his own. 

Mr. Crittenden's reasons failed to con- 
vince the Senate, and his motion was re- 
jected by a large majority (28 to 7). Then 
next in succession came the memorable 
vote on Mr. Crittenden's own resolution, 
and it was in its turn defeated, as we have 
already stated, by a majority of 20 against 
19. 

In the House of Representatives, the 
amendment proposed by the Convention 
was treated with still less consideration 
than it had been by the Senate. The 
Speaker was refused leave even to present 
it. Every effort made for this purpose 
was successfully resisted by leading Repub- 
lican members. The consequence is that 
a copy of it does not even appear in the 
Journal. 

The refusal to pass the Crittenden or any 
other Compromise heightened the excite- 
ment in the South, where many showed 
great reluctance to dividing the Union. 
Georgia, though one of the cotton States, 
under the influence of conservative men 
like Alex. H. Stephens, showed greater 
concern for the Union than any other, and 
it took all the influence of spirits like that 
of Robert Toombs to bring her to favor 
secession. She was the most powerful of 
the cotton States and the richest, as she is 
to-day. On the 22d of December, 1860, 
Robert Toombs sent the following exciting 
telegraphic manifesto from Washington: 

lellow- Citizens of Georgia : I came here 
to secure your constitutional rights, or to 
demonstrate to you that you can get no 
guarantees for these rights from your North- 
ern Confederates. 

The whole subject was referred to a com- 
mittee of thirteen in the Senate yesterday. 
I wiis appoint<',d on the committee and ac- 
cepted the trust. I submitted propositions, 
which, so far from receiving decided sup- 

Eort from a single member of the Rcpub- 
can party on the committee, were all 



treated with either derision or contempt. 
The vote was then taken in committee on 
the amendments to the Constitution, pro- 
posed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden of Ken- 
tucky, and each and all of them were voted 
against, unanimouslj', by the Black Re- 
publican members of the committee. 

In addition to these facts, a majority of 
the Black Republican members of the 
committee declared distinctly that they 
had no guarantees to offer, which was si- 
lently accjuiesced in by the other members. 

The Black Republican members of this 
Committee of Thirteen are representative 
men of their party and section, and to the 
extent of my information, truly represent 
the Committee of Thirty-three in the House, 
which on Tuesday adjourned for a week 
without coming to any vote, after solemnly 
pledging themselves to vote on all proposi- 
tions then before them on that date. 

That committee is controlled by Black 
Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to 
amuse you with delusive hope until your 
election, in order that you may defeat the 
friends of secession. If you are deceived 
by them, it shall not be my fault. I have 
put the test fairly and frankly. It is de- 
cisive against you ; and now I tell you up- 
on the faith of a true man that all further dfl 
looking to the North for security for your <? 
constitutional rights in the Union ought to 
be instantly abandoned. It is fraught with 
nothing but ruin to yourselves and your 
posterity. 

Secession by the fourth of March next 
should be thtmdered from the ballot-box 
by the unanimous voice of Georgia on the 
second day of January next. Such a voice 
will be your best guarantee for liberty, 

SECUKITY, TllAXQUII.LITY and GLOKY, 

Robert Toombs, 

important telegraphic correspond- 
ENCE, 

Atlanta, Georgia, December 26th, 1860. 
Hon. 6'. A. Douglas or Hon. J. J. Critten- 
den : 

Mr, Toombs's despatch of the 22d inst. 
unsettled conservatives here. Is there any 
hope for Southern rights in the Union ? We 
are for the Union of our fathers, if South- 
ern rights can be preserved in it. If not, 
we are for secession. Can we yet hope 
the Union will be preserved on this prin- 
ciple? You are looked to in this emer- 
gency. Give us your views by despatch 
and oblige 

William Ezzard, 

Robert W. Sims. 

James P. Hambleton. 

Thomas S. Powell. 

S. G. Howell. 

J. A. Hayden. 

G. W. Adair. 

R. C. Honlesteb. 



SECESSION. 



109 



Washington, December 20th, ISGO. 
In reply to your inquiry, we have hopes 
that the rij^ht^ of the Houtli, and of every 
State and seition, may bejiroteeted within 
the Union. Don't pive up the shi]). Don't 
despair of the liepublic. 

J. J. Chittenden. 
S. A. Douglas. 

Congress, amid excitement which the 
above dispatdics indicate, and whidi wjus 
general, remained fur several weeks com- 
paratively inactive. Buchanan sent mes- 
siges, but his suggestions were distrusted 
by the Uej)ublicans, who stood firm in the 
conviction that when Lincoln took his seat, 
and the new Congress came in, they could 
pass measures calculated to restore the 
property of and protect the integrity of tlie 
Union. None of them believed in the 
right of secession ; all liad lost faith in 
compromises, and all of this party repudi- 
ated the theory that Congress had no right 
to coerce a State. The revival of these 
questions, revived also the logical thoughts 
of Webster in his great reply to Ilayne, 
and the wav in which he then expanded 
the constitution was now accepted as the 
proper doctrine of Republicanism on that 
question. Xo partisan sophistry could 
shake the convictions made by Webster, 
and so apt were his arguments in their 
application to every new development that 
they supplied every logical want in the 
Northern mind. Republican orators and 
newspapers quoted and endorsed, until 
nearly every reading mind was imbued 
with the same sentiments, until in fact the 
Northern Deniocrats, and at all times the 
Douglas Democrats, were ready to stand 
by the ilag of the Union. George W. 
Curtis, in Harper\s Weekly (a journal which 
at the time graphically illustrated the best 
Union thoughts and sentiments), in an 
Issue as late as January 12th, 1872, well 
described the power of Webster's grand 
ability * over a crisis which he did not live 
to see, Mr. Curtis says : — 

" The war for the Union was a vindica- 
tion of that theory of its nature which 
Webster had maintained in a memorably 
impregnable and conclusive manner. His 
second speech on Foot's resolution — the 
reply to Ilayne — was the most famous 
and effective speech ever delivered in this 
country. It stated clearly and fixed firmly 
in the American mind the theory of the 
government, which was not, indeed, origi- 
nal with Webster, but which is nowhere 
el83 presented with such complete and in- 
exorable reason as in this speech. If the 
poet be the man who is so consummate a 
master of expression that he only says per- 

* The text of Welmter's spppch In rt-ply toHayn'», now 
•i^Tt*-)! ug the crcutfst coiistitutiinml pxpositicm over 
maile by any AmericHn orator, will Iw fniind iu our book 
4«voted tu Great Spet'ches un Great Li^ue^ 



fectly what evert-hody tliinlrs, upon this 
great occasion tlie orator w:ls the poet. Ho 
spoke till- j)rof()und hutofli-h ohscure<l nnd 
dimly conceived conviction of a nation. 
He made the wliole argument (jf tlie civil 
war a generation Ix'fore the war oiteurred, 
and it has remained unanswered and un- 
answerable. Mr. lOvcrctt, in his diseourse 
at the dedication of tlie statute of Webster, 
in the State-House grounds in Jioston in 
IS.jfli^ described tlie orator at tlie delivery 
of this great speech. The evening before 
he seemed to be so careless that Mr. Ever- 
ett feared that he might not be fully aware 
of the gravity of the occa.sion. But when 
the hour came, the man was there. 'As I 
saw him in the evening, if I may borrow 
an illustration from his favorite amuse- 
ment,' said ]\Ir. Everett, *ho was as un- 
concerned and as free of spirit as some here 
have often seen him while floating in his 
fishing-boat along a hazy shore, gently 
rocking on the *ranquil tide, dropping his 
line here and there with the varying for- 
tune of the sport. The next morning ho 
was like some mighty admiral, dark and 
terrible, casting the long shadow of his 
frowning tiers far over the sea, that seemed 
to sink beneath him; his broad pennant 
streaming at the main, the Stars and Strii)e3 
at the fore, the mizzen, and the peak, and 
bearing down like a tempest upon his an- 
tagonist, with all his canvas strained to the 
wind, and all his thunders roaring from 
his broadsides.' This passage well sug- 
gests that indescribable imi>resr:ion of great 
oratory which Rufus Choate, in his eulogy 
of Webster at Dartmouth College, conveys 
by a felicitous citation of what Quintilian 
says of Hortensius, that there was some 
spell in the spoken word which the reader 
misses." 

As we have remarked, the Republicans 
were awaiting the coming of a near and 
greater power to themselves, and at the 
same time jealously watching the move- 
ments of the friends of the South in Con- 
gress and in the President's Cabinet. It 
needed all their watchfulness to j)revent 
advantages which the secessionists thought 
they had a right to take. Thus Jeflerson 
Davis, on January 9th, l^GO, introduced 
to the senate a bill " to autliorize the sale 
of public arms to the several States and 
Territories," and as secession became more 
probable he sought to press its passage, but 
failed. Floyd, the Secretary of War, was 
far more successful, and his conduct was 
made the subject of the following historic 
and most remarkable report : — 



Tranar«r of V. S. Arms Sontli In 1830-60. 

Report (Abstract of) made by Mr. B. 
Stanton, from the Committee on Militarj 



110 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



AflTairs, in House of Representatives, Feb. 

18th, 18G1. 

The Committee on Military Affairs, to 
whom was referred the resolution of the 
House of Rejiresentatives of 31st of De- 
cember last, instructing said committee to 
inquire and report to the House, how, to 
whom, and at what price, the public arms 
distributed since the first day of January, 
A. D. 1860, liave been disposed of; and 
also into the condition of the forts, arsenals, 
dock-yards, etc., etc., submit the following 
report : 

That it appears from the papers herewith 
submitted, that Mr. Floyd, the late Secre- 
tary of War, by the authority or under 
color of the laAvcf March 3d, 1825, author- 
izing the Secretary of War to sell any arms, 
ammunition, or other military stores which 
should be found unsuitable for the public 
service, sold to sundry persons and States 
31,610 flint-lock muskets, altered to per- 
cussion, at $2.50 each, between the 1st 
day of January, A. D. 1860, and the Ist day 
of January, A. D., 1861. It will be seen from 
the testimony of Colonel Craig and Captain 
JIaynadicr, that they dilTer as to whether 
the arms so sold had been found, "upon 
proper inspection, to be unsuitable for the 
public service." 

Whilst the Committtee do not deem it 
important to decide this question, they say, 
that in their judgment it would require a 
very liberal construction of the law to 
bring these sales within its provisions. 

It also appears that on the 21st day of 
November last, Mr. Belknap made applica- 
tion to the Secretary of War for the pur- 
chase of from one to two hundred and fifty 
thousand United States muskets, flint-locks 
and altered to percussion, at $2.15 each; 
but the Secretary alleges that the acceptance 
was made under a misapprehension of the 
pri'e bid, he supposing it was $2.50 each, 
instead of $2.15. 

Mr. Belknap denies all knoAvledge of any 
mistake or misapprehension, and insists 
upon the performance of his contract. 

The present Secretary refuses to recog- 
nize the contract, and the muskets have 
not been delivered to Mr. Belknap. 

Mr. Belknap testifies that the muskets 
were intended for the Sardinian govern- 
ment. 

It will appear bv the papers herewith 
submitted, that on the 20th of December, 
1859, the Secretary of War ordered the 
transfer of G5,000 ])ercussion muskets, 40- 
0!>0 muskets altered to percussion, and 10- 
000 percussion rifles, from the Springfield 
Armory and the Watertown and Water- 
vliet Arsenals, to the Arsen.als at Fayettc- 
ville, N. C, Cliarleston, S. C, Augusta, Ga., 
Mount Vernon, Ala., and Baton Rou're, 
La., and that these arms were distributed 
during the spring of 1860 as foliowe : 



Percussion AltorM 

iniisk'ts. niuskuia. Biflee. 

To Cfiarlosfon Arsenal, 0,'JSO b,l-IO i,000 

To Nun h Carolina Araenal, 15 480 'J,i)M 2,(XH1 

To ,A.ususta Arsenal, 12,380 7,''20 2,W)0 

To JIou tit Vernon Arsenal, 9,280 6,7-0 2,i)00 

To Baton Rouge Arsenal, 18,580 ll,4jO 2,'S(I0 

05,000 4U,000 10,000 

All of these arms, except those sent to 
the North Carolina Arsenal,* have been 
seized by the authorities of the several 
States of South Carolina, Alabama, Loui- 
siana and Georgia, and are no longer in 
possession of the United States. 

It will ajjpear by the testimony herewith 
presented, that on the 20th of October last 
the Secretary of War ordered forty colura- 
biads and four thirty-two pounders to be 
sent from the Arsenal at Pittsburg to the 
fort on Ship Island, on the coast of Missis- 
sippi, then in an unfinished condition, and 
seventy columbiads and seven thirty-two 
pounders to be sent from the same Arsenal 
to the fort at Galveston, in Texas, the 
building of which had scarcely been com- 
menced. 

This order was given to the Secretarj- of 
War, without any report from the Engineei 
department showing that said works were 
ready for their armament, or that the guns 
were needed at either of said jioints. 

It will be seen by the testimony of Cap- 
tain Wright, of the Engineer department, 
that the fort at Galveston cannot be ready 
for its entire armament in less than about 
five years, nor for any part of it in less than 
two ; and that the fort at Ship Island will 
require an appropriation of $85,000 and 
one year's time before it can be ready for 
any part of its armament. This last named 
fort has been taken possession of by the 
State authorities of Mississi|)pi. 

The order of the late Secretary of War 
(Floyd) was countermanded by the present 
Secretary (Holt) before it had been fully 
executed by the shipment of said guns from 
Pittsburg.f 

It will be seen by a communicf;tion from 
the Ordnance office of the 21st of January 
last, that by the last returns there were re- 
maining in the United States arsenals and 
armories the following small arms, viz : 
Percussion muskets and muskets 

altered to percussion of calibre 

69 499,554 

Percussion rifles, caiibre64. 42,011 

Total 541,565 

* Ttie-^e were afterwards eeized. 

+ Till' atteiiiiited removal of these heavy piinR from At- 
liplicnv Arsenal, late in December, 18(i(i, en^ateii intense 
excitement. A monster mass uieetiiif; asseinliled at tlie 
o.Jl of tlie Mayor of the city, and citizens of all parties 
aided in the effort to prevent the shiimiont. ThnniKh 
the interposition of lion. J K. Jloorliead, Uiui. R IMc- 
KiiiRlit, Jndfre SliaUr. .Tudpre Wilkinif. ,)M(lu;e Shannon, 
and others inquiry was inKtitntcd, and a revociitiin of 
the order ohtaine<i. Tlie Secwsionists in Congress hitterly 
omipI.tiiHHi of the"niiih law" which tliiiH interfensl with 
the routine of goverumental affairB.-Mcl'hersou'a Uistory. 



SECESSION, 



111 



Of these 00,878 were dopoHited in tho 
arsenals of 8auth Carolina, Alabama, ami 
Louisiana, ami are iu the po-session of the 
authoritie:s of those .States, reducing the 
number in possession of the United 8tutes 

to 4sa,(;s7. 

Sin -e the date of Raid communication, 
the foll')vrin^ additional forts ;ind military 
po-its have been taken possession of l)y 
parties a -ting under the authority of the 
States in which they are re.-'pectively situ- 
ated, viz : 

Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. 

Fort M <rgan, Alabama. 

B.iton Rouge Barracks, Louisiana. 

Fort Jackson, Louisiana. 

Fort St. Philip, 

Fort Pike, Louisiana. 

Oglethorpe Barracks, Georgia. 

And the d .apartment has been unofficially 
advised that the arsenal at Chattahoochee, 
Forts McRea and Barrancas, and Barracks, 
hive been seized by the authorities of 
Florida. 

To what further extent the small arms 
in po-jsession of the United States may 
have been reduced by these figures, your 
committee have not been advised. 

The whole number of the sea-board forts 
in the United States is fifty-seven; their 
appropriate garrison in war would require 
2o,420 men ; their actual garrison at this 
time is 1,3.3 i men, 1,308 of whom are in 
the forts at Governor's Island, New York ; 
Fort McHenr}', Maryland; Fort Monroe, 
Virginia, and at Alcatraz Island, California, 
in the harl)or of San Francisco. 

From the facts elicited, it is certain that 
the regular nailitary force of the United 
States, is wholly inadequate to the pro- 
tection of the forts, arsenals, dockyards, 
and other property of the United States 
in the present disturbed condition of 
the country. The regular army numbers 
only 1S,000 men when recruited to its 
maximum strength, and the whole of this 
force is required for the protection of the 
border settlements against Indian depreda- 
tions. Unless it is the intention of Con- 
gress that the forts, arsenals, dock-yards 
and other public property, shall be exposed 
to capture and spoliation, the President 
must be armed with additional force for 
their protection. 

In the opinion of the Committee the law 
of February 28th, 1795, confers upon the 
President ample power to call out tne mili- 
tia,to execute the laws and protect the public 

t)roperty. But as the late Attorney-General 
»as given a diflferent opinion, the Commit- 
tee to remove all doubt upon the subject, 
report the av.-companyiag bill, etc. 



OTHER ITEMS. 

Stittfmritt of Arnu dUtribtUed bi/ SaU linrf llir flrtt of 
J.iiiuarn, 1800, to whom toUl an I the place whence mtd 

IHriO. Artmnlt. 

To lohom »nl,l. tfo. UiU »/ SuU. Where tuld. 

A. W. yju ImriL- A Co 4,0iK) Feb A 8t. LouU. 

.Uiu.H T Aiiui) 1,U(H) Mar. 14 Now Vorll. 

I'lipuin G. Ilikrry so Juiiu U 8r. LouU. 

W. C. N. Swifl 400 Aug. ai 8iiriii(rni-J»L 

d.. HO Nov. l;» do. 

State of Alttbuiiia 1 OTKJ twji. 27 Baton lU/iige. 

do V'K) Nov. 14 do. 

SiHtp of Virtiiiiiii .S,0(M Nov. 6 Washinjtton. 

riiillips County, .\rk ... .M) Nov. Hi .St. l.oU'a. 

G. 11. Laiuar 10,000 Nov. 24 Wutcrvliet. 

The arms were all flintlock muskets 
altered to percussion, and were all sold at 
$J.oO each, except those purciia.sed by Cap- 
tain Ct. Barry and by the Phillips county 
volunteers, for which $2 each were paid. 

The Mobile Adrertiscr says: "L)uring 
the piu^t year 135,430 muskets have been 
quietly transferred from the Northern Ar- 
senal at Springfield alone, to those in the 
Southern States. We are much obliged to 
Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has 
thus displayed in disarming the North and 
equipping the SotUh for this emcnjency. 
There is no telling the quantity of arms 
and munitions which were sent South from 
other Northern arsenals. There is no doubt 
but that every man in the South who can 
carry a gun can now be supplied from pri- 
vate or public sources. The Springfield 
contribution alone would arm all the mili- 
tiamen of Alabama and Mississippi." 

General Scott, in his letter of December 
2d, 18(32, on the early history of the Rebel- 
lion, states that " Rhode Island, Delaware 
and Texas had not drawn, at the end of 
18G0, their annual quotiis of arms for that 
year, and Massachusetts, Tennessee, and 
Kentucky only in part; Virginia, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Mississippi and Kansas were, by 
order of the Secretary of War, supplied 
with their quotas for 1861 in advance, and 
Pennsylvania and Maryland in part." 

This advance of arms to eight Southern 
States is in addition to the transfer, about 
the same time, of 115,000 muskets to South- 
ern arsenals, as per Mr. Stanton's report. 

Governor Letcher of Virginia, in his 
Message of December, 18(51, says, that for 
some time prior to secession, he had been 
engaged in purchasing arms, ammunition, 
etc.; among which were 13 Parrott rifled 
cannon, and 5,000 muskets. He desired to 
buy from the United States Government 
10,000 more, when buying the 5,000, but 
he says " the authorities declined to sell 
them to us, although five times the number 
were then in the arsenil at WiLshington. " 

Had JeflTcrson Davis' bill relative to the 
purcha.«e of arms become a law, the result 
might have been difTerent. 

This and similar action on the part of 
the South, especially the attempted seizure 
and occupation of fortg, convinced many 



112 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of the Republicans that no compromise 
could endure, however earnest its advo- 
cates from the Border States, and this 
earnestness was unquestioned. Besides 
their attachment to the Union, they knew 
that in the threatened war they would be 
the greatest sufferers, with their people di- 
vided neighbor against neighbor, their 
lands laid waste, and their houses destroy- 
ed. They had every motive for earnest- 
' ness in the effort to conciliate the disagree- 
ing sections. 

The oddest partisan feature in the en- 
tire preliminary and political struggle was 
the attempt, in the parlance of the day, of 
" New York to secede from New York" — 
an oddity verified by Mayor Wood's recom- 
mendation in favor of the secession of New 
York city, made January 6th, 1861. The 
document deserves a place in this history, 
as it shows the views of a portion of the 
citizens then, and an exposition of their 
interests as presented by a citizen before 
and since named by repeated elections to 
Congress. 



Ma^or Wood's Secession Message. 

To the Honorable the Common Council : 

Gentlemen: — We are entering upon 
the public duties of the year under circum- 
stances as unprecedented as they are 
gloomy and painful to contemplate. The 
great trading and producing interests of 
not only the city of New York, but of the 
entire country, are prostrated by a mone- 
tary crisis; and although similar calami- 
ties have before befallen us, it is the first 
time that they have emanated from causes 
having no other origin than that which 
may be traced to political disturbances. 
Truly, may it now be said, " We are in the 
midst of a revolution bloodless as yet." 
Whether the dreadful alternative implied 
as probable in the conclusion of this pro- 
phetic quotation may be averted, " no hu- 
man ken can divine." It is quite certain 
that the severity of the storm is unexam- 
pled in our history, and if the disintegra- 
tion of the Federal Government, with the 
consequent destruction of all the material 
interests of the people shall not follow, it 
will be owing more to the interposition of 
Divine Providence, than to the inherent 
preventive power of our institutions, or 
the intervention of any other human 
agency. 

It would seem that a dissolution of the 
Federal Union is inevitable. Having been 
formed originally on a basis of general and 
mutual protection, but separate local inde- 
pendence — each State reserving the entire 
and absolute control of its own domestic 
affairs, it is evidently impossible to keep 
them together longer than they deem 
themselves fairly treated by each other, or 



longer than the interests, honor and fra- 
ternity of the people of the several States 
are satisfied. Being a Government created 
by opinion, its continuance is dependent 
upon the continuance of the sentiment 
which formed it. It cannot be preserved 
by coercion or held together by force. A 
resort to this last dreadful alternative 
would of itself destroy not only the Gov- 
ernment, but the lives and property of the 
people. 

If these forebodings shall be realized, 
and a separation of the States shall occur, 
momentous considerations will be pre- 
sented to the corporate authorities of this 
city. We must provide for the new re- 
lations which will necessarily grow out of 
the new condition of public affairs. 

It will not only be necessary for us to 
settle the relations which we shall hold to 
other cities and States, but to establish, if 
we can, new ones with a portion of our 
own State. Being the child of the Union, 
having drawn our sustenance from its 
bosom, and arisen to our present power 
and strength through the vigor of our 
mother — when deprived of her maternal 
advantages, we must rely upon our own 
resources and assume a position predicated 
upon the new phase which public affairs 
will present, and upon the inherent 
strength which our geographical, commer- 
cial, political, and financial pre-eminence 
imparts to us. 

With our aggrieved brethren of the 
Slave States, we have friendly relations 
and a common sympathy. We have not 
participated in the warfare upon their con- 
stitutional rights or their domestic insti- 
tutions. While other portions of our State 
have unfortunately been imbued with the 
fanatical spirit which actuates a portion 
of the people of New England, the city of 
New York has unfalteringly preserved the 
integrity of its principles in adherence to 
the compromises of the Constitution and 
the equal rights of the people of all the 
States. We have respected the local in- 
terests of every section, at no time oppress- 
ing, but all the while aiding in the devel- 
opment of the resources of the whole 
country. Our ships have penetrated to 
every clime, and so have New York capi- 
tal, energy and enterprise found their way 
to every State, and, indeed, to almost every 
county and town of the American Union. 
If we have derived sustenance from the 
Union, so have we in return disseminated 
blessings for the common benefit of all. 
Therefore, New York has a right to ex- 
pect, and should endeavor to preserve a 
continuance of uninterrupted intercourse 
with every section. 

It is, however, folly to disguise the fact 
that, judging from the past, New York may 
liave more cause of apprehension from the 
aggressive legislation of our own State 



I 



CONGRESS ON THE EVE OE THE UEliKLLION. 



113 



than from external danj^ers. We have 
already largely sullered Ironi this eause. 
F(ir the jnust five years, our interests and 
corporate rights have been reijeatedly 
trampled upon. Being an integral portion 
of the State, it has been assumed, and in 
elfeet Uuitly admitted on our part by non- 
resistant'e, that all politieal and govern- 
mental power over us rested iu tiie State 
Legislature. Even the eomnion right of 
taxing ourselves for our own government, 
lias been yielded, and we are not permit- 
ted to do so without this authority. * * * 

Thus it will be seen that the political 
connection between the peonle of the city 
and the State has been used by the latter 
to our injury. The Legislature, in which 
the present partizan majority has the 
power, hius become the instrument by 
vhich we are plundered to enrich their 
sj)eculators, lobby agent,s, and Abolition 
jioliticians. Laws are nassed through their 
malign inlluenee by which, under forms of 
legal enactment, our burdens have been 
increased, our substance eaten out, and 
our munici[)al liberties destroyed. Self- 
government, though guaranteed by the 
State Constitution, and left to every other 
county and city, has been taken from us 
by this foreign power, whose dependents 
have been sent among us to destroy our 
liberties by subverting our political sys- 
tem. 

How we shall rid ourselves of this odi- 
ous and oppressive connection, it is not 
for me to determine. It is certain that a 
dissolution cannot be peacefully accom- 
plished, except by the consent of the 
Legislature itself. Whether this can be 
obtained or not, is, in my judgment, doubt- 
ful. Deriving so much advantage from 
its power over the city, it is not probable 
that a partizan majority will consent to a 
separation — and the resort to force by vio- 
lence and revolution must not be thought 
of for an instant. We have been distin- 
guished as an orderly and law-abiding 
people. Let us do nothing to forfeit this 
character, or to add to the present dis- 
tracted condition of public affairs. 

Much, no doubt, can be said in favor of 
the justice and policy of a separation. It 
maybe said that secession or revolution in 
any of the United States would be subver- 
sive of all Federal authoritv, and, so far 
a'i the Central Government is concerned, 
the resolving of the community into it« 
original elements — that, if part of the 
States form new combinations and Gov- 
ernments, other States may do the same. 
California and her sisters of the Pacific 
will no doubt set up an independent Re- 
public and husband their own rich min- 
eral resources. The Western States, equally 
rich in cereals and other agricultural pro- 
ducts, will probably do the same. Then 
it may be said, why should not New York 



city, instead of su]»porting by her contri- 
butions in revenue two-thirds of the ex- 
pensi's of the United States, become also 
('(pially independent r As a free (-ity, with 
but nominal duty on imjiorts, her local 
(fovernment could be supportijd without 
taxation u[)on her i»eoph'. Thus we could 
live free from taxes, and have ehcai) good.s 
nearly duty free. In this she would have 
the whole and united suj>port of the 
Southern States, as well as all the other 
States to whose inleri'sts and rights under 
the Constitution she has always been true. 

It is well for individuals or communi- 
ties to look every danger square in the 
face, and to meet it calmly and bravely. 
As dreadful as the severing of the bonds 
that have hitherto united the Slates ha.1 
l)een in contemplation, it is now api)ar- 
ently a stern and inevitable fact. We 
have now to meet it with all the conse- 
quences, whatever they may be. If the 
Confederacy is broken up the Government 
is dissolved, and it behooves every distinct 
community, as well as every individual, to 
take care of themselves. 

^Vhcn Disunion has become a fixed and 
certain fact, why may not New York dis- 
rupt the bands which bind her to a venal 
and corruj)! master — to a people and a 
party that have plundered her revenues, 
attempted to ruin her commerce, taken 
away the power of self-government, and 
destroyed the Confederacy of which she 
was the proud Empire City? Amid the 
gloom which the present and prospective 
condition of things must cast over the 
country. New York, as a Free Cifj/, may 
shed the only light and hope of a future 
reconstruction of our once blessed Con- 
federacy. 

But I am not prepared to recommend 
the violence implied in these views. In 
stating this argument in favor of freedom, 
*' peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must,** 
let me not be misunderstood. The redress 
can be found only in appeals to the mag- 
nanimity of the people of the whole State. 
The events of the past two months have 
no doubt effected a change in the popular 
sentiment of the Stat<» and National poli- 
tics. This change may bring us the de- 
sired relief, and we may be able to obtain 
a repeal of the law to which I have re- 
ferred, and a consequent restoration of our 
corporate rights. 

Fernakdo Wood, Mayor. 

January 6th, 1861. 



ConffTfan en tli« Etc of the R«'b«lllon. 

It should be borne in mind that all of 
the propositions, whether for compromise, 
authority to su])press insurrection, or new 
laws to collect duties, hail to be considered 
by the Second Session of the 3t)th Con- 
gress, which was ihcn, with the exception 



114 



AMERICAN Politics. 



of the Republicans, a few Americans, and 
the anti-Lecompton men, supporting the 
administration of Buchanan. No Congress 
ever had so many and sucli grave proposi- 
tions presented to it, and none ever showed 
more exciting political divisions. It was 
composed of the following persons, some 
of whom survive, and most of whom are 
historic charactcre : 

SENATE. 

John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, 
Vice-President; 

Maine — H. Hamlin,* W. P. Fessenden. 

Keiv Hampshire — John P. Hale, Daniel 
Clark. 

Vrrmont — Solomon Foot, J. Collamer. 

Massachusetts — Henry Wilson, Charles 
Sumner. 

Rhode Island — James F. Simmons, H. 
B. Anthony. 

Connecticut — L. S. Foster, Jas. Dixon. 

New York — William H. Seward, Preston 
King. 

Nexc Jersey — J. C. Ten Eyck, J. R. Thom- 
son. 

Fennsi/Ivania — S. Cameron, Wm. Bigler. 

Delauare — J. A. Bayard, W. Saulsbury. 

Maryland — J. A. Pearce, A. Kennedy. 

Virginia— R. M. T. Hunter, James M. 
Mason. 

South Carolina — Jas. Chesnut,t James 
H. Hammond. t 

North Carolina — Thomas Bragg, T. L. 
Clingman. 

Alabama — B. Fitzpatrick, C. C. Clay, Jr. 

Mississippi — A. G. Brown, Jeff". Davis. 

Louisiana — J. P. Benjamin, John Sli- 
dell. 

Tennessee — A. O. P. Nicholson, A. John- 
son. 

Arkansas — R. W. Johnson, W. K. Se- 
bastian. 

Kentiichj — L. W. Powell, J. J. Critten- 
den. 

Missouri — Jas. S. Green, Trusten Polk. 

Ohio—K F. Wade, Geo. E. Pugh. 

Indiana— 3. D. Bright, G. N. Fitch. 

Tdinois — S. A. Douglas, L. Trumbull. 

Michigan — Z. Chandler, K. S. Bingham. 

Florida— D. L. Yulee, S. R. Mallory. 

Geon/ia — Alfred Iverson, Robt. Toombs, 

7Vxa'.9— John Hemphill, L. T. Wigfall. 

Winconsin — Charles Durkee, J. R. Doo- 
little. 

Fnra — J. M. Grimes, Jas. Harlan. 

California — M. S. Latham, William M. 
Gwin. 

Minnesota — H. M. Rice, M. S. Wilkin- 
son. 

Oregon — Joseph Lane, Edward D. Ba- 
ker. 

*R<?gipnf(l January ITth, 1861, and gucceoded by Hon. 
Lot M. Morrill. 

I I»i(i not attend. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

William Pennington, of New Jersey, 

Speaker. 

Maine — D. E. Somes, John J. Perry, E. 
B. French, F. H. Morse, Israel Washburn, 
Jr.,* S. C. Foster. 

New Hampshire — Gilman Marston, M. 
W. Tappan, T. M. Edwards. 

Vcrmont—E. P. Walton, J. S. Morrill, 
H. E. Royce. 

Massachusetts — Thomas D. Eliot, James 
Buffiuton, Charles Francis Adams, Alexan- 
der H. Rice, Anson Burlingame, John B. 
Alley, Daniel W. Ciooch, Charles R. Train, 
Eli Thayer, Charles Delano, Henry L. 
Dawes. 

Rhode Island — C. Robinson, W. D. 
Brayton. 

Connecticut — Dwight Loomis, John 
Woodruff, Alfred A. Burnham, Orris S. 
Ferry. 

Delaware— \M . G. Whiteley. 

New lorA— Luther C. Carter, James 
Humphreys, Daniel E. Sickles, W. B. Ma- 
clay, Thomas J. Barr, John Cochrane, 
Gorge Briggs, Horace F. Clark, John B. 
Haskin, Chas. H. Van Wyck, William S. 
Kenyon, Charles L. Beale, Abm. B. Olin, 
John H._Reynolds, Jas. B. McKean, G. W. 
Palmer, Francis E. Spinner, Clark B. 
Cochrane, James H. Graham, Richard 
Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. H. Duell, 
M. Dudley Lee, Charles B. Hoard, Chas. 

B. Sedgwick, M. Butterfield, Emory B, 
Pottle, Alfred Wells, William Irvine, Al- 
fred Ely, Augustus Frank, Edwin R. Rey- 
nolds, Elbridge G. Spaulding Reuben E. 
Fenton. 

New Jersey — John T, Nixon, John L. N. 
Slratton, Garnett B. Adrain, Jetur R. j 
Riggs, Wm. Pennington (Speaker). fl 

Pennsylvania — Thomas B. Florence, E. ^ 
Joy Morris, John P. Verree, William Mill- 
ward, John Wood, John Hickman, Henry 

C. Longnecker, Jacob K. McKenty, Thad- 
deus Stevens, John W. Kellinger, James 
H. Campbell, George W. Scranton, Wil- 
liam H. Dimmick, Galusha A. Grow, 
James T. Hale, Benjamin F. Junkin, M 
Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, tJ 
John Covode, William Montgomery, 
James K. Moorhead, Robert McKnight, 
William Stewart, Chapin Hall, Elij.nh 
Babbitt. 

Maryland — Jas. A. Stewart, J. M. Harris, 
H. W. Davis, J. M. Kunkcl, G. W. 
Hughes. 

Virginia — John S. Millson, Muscoe R. 
PI. Garnett, Daniel C. De Jarnette, Roger 
A. Pryor, Thomas S. Bocock, William 
Smith, Alex. R. Boteler, John T. Harris, 
Albert G. Jenkins, Shelton F. Leake, 
Henry A. Edmundson, Elbert S. Martin, 
Sherrard Clemens. 

* Rcsipnod and succeeded .Janiiarj- 2d, 18C1, by Ho*. 
Ste.phtn Coburii. 



SECESSION', 



115 



South Carolina — John McQueen, Wtn. 
Forvher Miles, Lawrcrifo M. Keitt, Mill- 
tvl'^e L. BauliHin, Jolm D. Ashmore, Wm. 
VV. [Joyce. 

y»rlh Carolina— W. N. II. Smith, Thos. 
liuffin, W. Winslow, L. O'lJ. Bniiieh, 
John A. Gilmer, Jius. M. Leuch, Burton 
Criiige, Z. 15. Viuice. 

Georqia — Peter E. Love, M. J. Crawford, 
Th )S. Ilanlciiuuj, Jr., L. J. Gartrell, J. W. 
II. Un. lerwooil, Junies Jackson, Joshua 
Hill, John J. Jones. 

Alaham-i — .Va^^. L. Pngh, David Clopton, 
S,-deiih. Moore, Geo. S. Houston, W. R. 
W. Col)b, J. A. Stallworth, J. L. M. Curry. 

Mississippi — L (i. C. Lamar, Reuben 
Divis, William Barksdale, O. R. Single- 
ton, John J. McRae. 

Louisidiia — John E. B<mligny, Miles 
Taylor, T.G. Davidson, John M. Landrum. 

b/iio—Lr. H. Pendleton, Jolm A. Gur- 
Ic'/, C. L. Vallandigham, William Allen. 
James M. Ashley, Wm. Howard, Thomas 
Corwin, I?enj. Stanton, John Carev, C. A. 
Trimble, Chas. D. Martin, Saml.'S. Cox, 
John Sherman, H. G. Blake, William Hel- 
mi(;k, C. B. Tompkins, T. C. Theakcr, S. 
E Igerton, Edward \Vade, John Hutchins, 
John A. Bingham. 

A'cviY«f'A-y— Henry C. Burnett, Green 
Adams, S.' O. Peyton, F. M. Bristow, W. 
C. Anderson, Robert ]\Iallory, Wm. E. 
Simms, L. T. Moore, John Y. Brown, J. 
W. Stevenson. 

Tennessee — T. A. R. Nelson, Horace 
Maynard, R. B. Brabson, William B. 
Stokes, Robert Hatton, James H. Thomas, 
.lohn V. Wright, James ]\I. (Juarles, Em- 
erson Etheridire, Wm. T. Avery. 

Indiana — Wm. E. Niblack, Wm. H. 
English, Wm. M'Kee Dunn, Wm. S. Hol- 
man, David Kilgore, Albert G. Porter, 
John G. Davis, James Wilson, Schuvlcr 
Colfax, Chas. Case, John U. Pettit. 

lllinuis — E. B. Washburne, J. F. Farns- 
worth, Owen Lc)vejoy, Wm. Kellogg, I. N. 
^lorris, .Tohn A. McClernand, James C. 
Robiitson, P. B. Fouke, John A. Logan. 

Arkansas — Thomas C. Hin Iman, Albert 
Rust, 

Missouri — .T. R. Barrett, T. L. Anderson, 
John B. Clark, James Craig, L. H. Wood- 
son, .John S. Phelps, .John W. Noell. 

Mirhigan — William A. Howard, Henry 
Waldron, F. W. Kellogg, De W. C. Leach. 

Florida — Crcorge S. Hawkins. 

Tenas — John H. Regan, A. J. Hamilton. 

Iowa — S. R. Curtis, Wm. Vandcver. 

California — Charles L. Scott, John C. 
Rurch. 

mscons in— John F. Porter, C. C. Wash- 
burne, C. H. Larrabee. 

Minnesota — Cyrus Aldrich, Wm. Win- 
dora. 

Oregon — Lansing Stout. 

Kansas — Martin F. Conway, (sworn Jan. 
SO'.h, 16G1). ' . 



yu:. I.IVCOLN'fi VIKWfi. 

While tliv various propositions abovo 
given were under considcr.itiun, .Mr. Lin- 
coln was of course an intcrc-tcd nbscrvcr 
from his iif)nie in Illinois, wiicre he 
awaited the legal time fr)r t:iking liis seat 
as President. His views on tlie eflbrts at 
compromise weri- sought by the editor of 
till' New York Tribune, and expressed as 
follows : 

'■ ' I will suffer death before I will con- 
sent or advise my friends to consent to 
any concession or comiiromise which look.*) 
like buying the privilege of taking posses- 
siiin of t!ic ( iovcrniiu'nt to which wi' liave 
a constitutional right ; because, wiiatijver 
1 might think of the merits of the various 
propositions before Congress, I should re- 
gard any concession in the face of menace 
as the destruction of the government it- 
.self, and a consent on all hands that our 
system shall be brought down to a level 
with the existing disorganized state of af- 
fairs in Mexico. But this thing will here- 
after be, as it is now, in the hands of the 
people; and if they desire to call a conven- 
tion to remove any grievances complained 
of, or to give new guarantees for the per- 
manence of vested rights, it is not mine to 
oppose.' " 

JUDGE black's views. 

Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, 
was then Buchanan's Attorney General, 
and as his position has since been made 
the subject of lengthy controversy, it is 
pertinent to give the following copious ex- 
tract from his "Opinion upon the Powers 
of the President," in response to anofScial 
inquiry from tlie Executive : — 

The existing laws put and keep the 
Federal Government .strictly on the defen- 
sive. You can use force only to repel an' 
aipsault on the public property, and aid the 
courts in the performance of their duty. 
If the means given you to collect the 
revenue and execute the other laws be in-' 
sufficient for that purpose. Congress may 
extend and make them more effectual to' 
that end. 

If one of the States should declare her 
independence, your action canuot depend 
upon the rightfulness of the catTse xipon 
which such declaration i.s based. Whether 
the retirement of a State from the Union' 
be the exercise of a right reserved in the 
Constitution or a revolutionarj' movement,' 
it is certain that you have not in cither 
case the authority to recognize her in- 
dependence or to absolve her from her' 
Federal obligations. Congress or the 
other States in convention a.ssemblcd must- 
take such measures as may be necessary 
and proper. In such an event I see no 
course for you bat to go straight onward 
in t!io path you have hitherto trodden, 
thtiv is, execute the luws to th«- exteat of 



116 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tlie defensive means placed in your hands, 
and act generally upon the assumption 
that the present constitutional relations 
between the States and the I'ederal Gov- 
ernment continue to exist until a new order 
of things shall be established, either by 
law or force. _ _ j 

Whether Congress has the constitutional 
right to make war against one or more 
States, and require the Executive of the 
Federal Government to carry it on by 
means of force to be drawn from the other 
States, is a question for Congress itself to 
consider. It must be admitted that no 
such power is expressly given ; nor are 
there any word* in the Constitution which 
imply it. Among the powers enumerated 
in article I. section 8, is that " to declare 
war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
and to make rules concerning captures on 
land and water.'' This certainly means 
nothing more than the power to commence, 
and carry on hostilities against the foreign 
enemies of the nation. Another clause in 
the same section gives Congress the power 
" to provide for calling forth the militia," 
and to use them within the limits of the 
State. But this power is so restricted by 
the words which immediately follow, that 
it can be exercised only for one of the fol- 
lowing purposes : 1. To execute the laws 
of the Union ; that is, to aid the Federal 
officers in the performance of their regular 
duties. 2. To suppress insurrections against 
the States ; but this is confined by article 
IV. section 4, to cases in which the State 
herself shall apply for assistance against 
her own people. 3. To repel the invasion 
of a State by enemies who come from 
abroad to assail her in her own territory. 
All these provisions are made to protect 
the States, not to authorize an attack by 
one part of the country upon another; to 
preserve their peace, and not to plunge 
Ihem into civil war. Our forefathers do 
not seem to have thought that war was 
calculated "to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity." There was undoubtedly a 
strong and universal conviction among the 
men who framed and ratified the Constitu- 
tion, that military force would not onlv be 
useless, but pernicious as a means of hold- 
ing the Stiites together. 

If it be true that war cannot be declared, 
nor a syst«m of general hostilities carried 
on by the central government against a 
State, then it seems to follow that an 
attempt to do so would be ipsofndo nn ex- 
pulsion of such State from the Union. 
Being treated :w an alien and an enemy, 
she would be compelled to act accordingly. 
And if Congress shall break up the present 
Union by unconstitutionally putting strife 



and enmity, and armed hostility, between 
difi'erent sections of the country, instead of 
the " domestic tranquillity " which the 
Constitution was meant to insure, will not 
all the States be absolved from their 
Federal obligations? Is any portion of 
the people bound to contribute their 
money or their blood to carry on a contest 
like that? 

The right of the Gentral Government to 
preserve itself in its whole constitutional 
vigor by repelling a direct and positive 
aggression upon its property or its officers, 
cannot be denied. But this is a totally 
dillerent thing from an offensive war to 
punish the people for the political mis- 
deeds of their State governments, or to 
prevent a threatened violation of the Con- 
stitution, or to enforce an acknowledgment 
that the Government of the United States 
is supreme. The States are colleagues of 
one another, and if some of them f-hall 
conquer the rest and hold them as sub- 
jugated provinces, it would totally destroy 
the whole theory upon which they are 
now connected. 

If this view of the subject be as correct 
as I think it is, then the Union must 
totally perish at the moment when Con- 
gress shall arm one part of the people 
against another for any purpose beyond 
that of merely protecting the General 
Government in the exercise of its proper 
constitutional functions. I am, very re- 
spectfully, yours, etc., 

J. S. Black. 
To the President of the United States. 

The above expressions from Lincoln and 
Black well state the position cf the Eepub- 
lican and the administration Democrats 
on the eve of the rebellion, and they are 
given for that purpose. The views of the 
original secessionists are given in South 
Carolina's declaration. Those ol the con- 
servatives of the Sorth who hesitated and 
leaned toward the Union, were best ex- 
] ressed before the Convention of Georgia 
in the 

SPEECH OF ALEX. H. STEPHENS. 

This step (of secession) once taken c^n 
never be recalled ; and all the baleiul and Jj 
withering consequences that must iollow, III 
will rest on the convention for all coming '^ 
time. When we and our posterity shall 
see our lovely South desolated by the de- 
mon of war, vhich thig act oj yotirs will in- 
eritahhj ivrite and call forth ; \\ hen our 
green fields of waving hrirvest shall be 
trodden down by the murderous soldiery 
and fiery car of war sweeping over our 
land ; our temples of justice hiid in ashes ; 
all the horrors and desolations of war upon 
us ; u-ho Imt this Convention iriJl he held re- 
sponsible for it? and who but him who 
shall have given his vote for thii unwise 



SECESSION. 



117 



and ill-timed mea=;iirp, a'? I honestly think 
iiml liclieve, slmll /«■ Inld to strict arroiint 
for I /lis siiiriilitl act lnj the present (jeiiera- 
lion, and prohiilili/ cursed ami execrated In/ 
posterity f<<r all comiinj time, for the wide 
and (U'solating ruin that will inevitably 
follow this act you now propose to perpe- 
trate? Pause, I entreat you, and eousider 
for a moment what reasons you can give 
that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer 
raoment-s — what reason you can give to 
your fellow sutforers in the calamity that 
it will bring upon us. fHiat rensons can ijmi 
aire to the nations of the earth to Just if/ it ? 
riiey will be the calm and deliberate 
judges in the case; .and what cause or one 
overt act can you name or i)()int, on which 
t^ rest the jdea of justilicati'tn? What 
ritfht has the Xorth assailed? What inter- 
est of the South h;i.s been invaded ? What 
justice has been denied? and what claim 
founded in justice and right has been 
withheld? Can either of you to-day name 
one governmental act of wrong, deliber- 
ately and purposely done by the govern- 
ment of Washington, of which the South 
hiuj a right to complain? I challenge the 
answer. While on the other hand, let me 
show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, 
I am not here the advocate of the North; 
but I am here the friend, the firm friend, 
and lover of the South and her institutions, 
and for this reason I speak thus plainly 
and faithfully for yours, mine, and every 
other man's interest, the words of truth 
and soberness), of which I wish you to 
judge, and I will only state facts which are 
clear and undeniable, and which now 
stand as records authentic in the history of 
our country. When we of the South de- 
manded the slave-trade, or the importation 
of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, 
did they not yield the right for twenty 
years? When we asked a three-fifths rep- 
resenti^tion in Congress for our slaves, was 
it not granted ? When we asked and de- 
manded the return of any fugitive from 
justice, or the recovery of those persons 
owing labor or allegiance, was it not incor- 
porated in the Constitution, and airain rat- 
ified and strengthened by the Fugitive 
Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply 
that in many instances they have violated 
this compact, and have n')t been faithful 
to their engagements? As individual and 
local communities, they may have done so ; 
but not by the sanction of Government; 
for that has always been true to Southern 
interests. Again, gentlemen, look at 
another act : when we have asked that 
more territory should be added, that we 
might spread the institution of slavery, 
have they not yielded to our demands in 
givin'^ us Ivouisian 1, Florida and Texas, 
out of which four States have been carved, 
and ample territory for four more to be add- 
ed in due lime, if you by this unwise and 



] impolitic act do not destrov this hope, and 

, perhajys, by it litse all, and have your lust 

I slave wrenched from you bv stern military 

rule, as South .Vnu'rica and Mexico were; 

or III/ the vindietire decree of a universal 

emancipation, irhick may reasonably be ex- 

\ pected to follow ? 

j lUit, again, gentlemen, what liave we to 
gain by this pro[)osed change of our rela- 
. tion to the (Jeneral (Jovernment? Wo 
j have always had the control of it, and can 
yet, if we remain in it, and are as unit<;d 
as we have been. We have had a majority 
j of the Presidents chosen from the South; 
las well as the control and management of 
I most of those chosen from the North. We 
I have had sixty years of Southern Presi- 
dents to their twenty-four, thus controlling 
the Executive department. So of the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, we have had 
eighteen from the South, and but eleven 
from the North; although nearly four- 
fifths of the judicial business has arisen in 
the Free States, yet a majority of the Court 
has always been from the South. This we 
have required so as to guard against .any 
interpretation of the Constitutif)n unfa- 
vorable to us. In like manner we have 
been equally watchful to guard our inter- 
ests in the Legislative branch of Govern- 
ment. In choosing the presiding Presi- 
dents (pro tern.) of the Senate, we have 
had twenty-four to their eleven. Speaker.^ 
of the House we have had twenty-three; 
and they twelve. While the majority of 
the Representatives, from their greater 
population, have always been from the 
North, yet we have so generally secured 
the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, 
shapes and controls the legislation of the 
country. Nor have we had less control in 
every other department of the General 
Government. Attorney-Generals we have, 
had fourteen, while the North have had 
but five. Foreign ministers we have had 
eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While 
three-fourths of the business which de- 
mands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly 
from the Free States, from their greater 
commercial interest, yet we have had the 
principal embassies so as to secure the 
world-markets for our cotton, tobacco, and 
sugar on the best possible t<>rms. We have 
had a vast majority of the higher offices of 
both army and navy, while a larger pro- 
portion of the soldiers and sailors were 
drawn from the North. Equally so of 
Clerks, Auditors, and Comptrollers filling 
the executive department, the records show 
for the last fifty years that of the three 
thousand thus employed, we have had 
more than two-thirds of the same, while 
we have but one-third of the white popu- 
lation of the Republic. 

Again, look at another item, and one, hi 
assured, in which we have a great anc 
vital interest; it is that of revenue, oi 



H8 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



means of supporting Government. From of- 
ficial document,-:;, we learn that a fraction 
over three-fourths of the revenue collected 
for the support of the Government has 
uniformly been raised from the North. 

Pause now while ycm can, gentlemen, 
and contemplate carefully and candidly 
these important items. Look at another 
necessary branch of Government, and 
learn from stern statistical facts how mat- 
ters stand in that de})artinent. I mean the 
mail and Post-Office privileges that we 
now enjoy under the General Government 
as it has been for years past. The expense 
for the transportatiiin of the mail in the 
Free States was, by the report of the Post- 
master-General for the year 18G0 a little 
over §13,000,000, while the income was 
$19,000,000. But in the Slave States the 
transportation of the mail was $14,710,000, 
while the revenue from the same was $8,- 
001,026, leaving a deficit of $6,704,974, to 
be supplied by the North for our accom- 
modation, and without it we must have 
been entirely cut otl'from this most essen- 
tial branch of Government. 

Leaving out of view, f'/T the present, the 
countless millions of dollars you must ex- 
pend in a war with the North; with tens 
of thousands of your sons and brothers 
slain in battle, and otfered up as sacrifices 
upon the altar of your ambition— and for 
what, v.-e ask again ? Is it for the over- 
throw of the American Government, es- 
tablished by our comnu)n ancestry, cement- 
ed and built up by their sweat and blood, 
and founded on the broad principles of 
Rigid, Justice and Humanity? And as, 
such, I must declare here, as I have often 
done before, and which has been repeated 
by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and 
patriots in this and other lands, that it is 
the best and freest Government — the most 
equal in its rights, the most just in its de- 
cisions, the most lenient in its measures, 
and the most aspiring in its principles to 
elevate the race of men, that the sun of 
heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to 
attempt to overthrow such a government 
as this, under which we have lived for 
more than three-quarters of a century — in 
which we have gained our Avealth, our 
standing as a nation, our domestic safety 
while the elements of peril are around us, 
with peace and tranquillity accompanied 
with unbounded prosperity and rights un- 
assailed — is the heiglit {)'l madness, folly, 
and wickedHcss, to which 1 can neither 
lend my sanction nor my vote." 

The seven seceding Slates (South Caro- 
Jina, Miesissipj)i, Georgia, Florida, Ala- 
,bama, Louisiana and Texas,) as sliown l)y 
data previously given, organized their 
Provisional Government, with Jefferson 
Davis, the most radical secession leader, as 
President J and Alex. H. Stephens, tlio 
most coneervative leader, as Vice Presi- 



dent. The reasons for these selections 
were obvious; the first met the views of 
the cotton States, the other example was 
needed in securing the secession of other 
States. The Convention adopted a consti- 
tution, the substance of which is given 
elsewhere in this work. Stephens delivered 
a speech at Savannah, March 21st, 1861, in 
ex})lanation and vindication of this instru- 
ment, which says all that need be said 
about it : 

" The new Constitution has put at rest 
forever all the agitating questions relating 
to our peculiar institutions — African 
slavery as it exists among us — the proper 
status of the negro in our form of civiliza- 
tion. This was the immediate cause of the 
late 7'upture and ])resent revolution. Jeffer- 
son, in his forecast, had anticipated this as 
the ' rock upon which the old Union would 
split.' He was right. What was conjec- 
ture with him, is now a realized fact. But 
whether he fully comprehended the great 
truth upon which that rock stood and 
stands, may be doubted. The prevailing 
ideas entertained by him and most of the 
leading statesmen at the time of the for- 
mation of the old Constitution, were that 
the enslavement of the African was in 
violation of the laws of nature: that it 
was wrong in principle, socially, morally, 
and politically. It was an evil they knew 
not well how to deal with, but the general 
opinion of the men of that day was, that 
somehow or other, in the order of Provi- 
dence, the institution would be evanescent 
and pass away. This idea, though not in- 
corporated in the Constitution, was the 
prevailing idea at the time. The Constitu- 
tion, it is true, secured every essential 
guarantee to the institution while it should 
last, and hence no argument can be justly 
used against the constitutional guarantees 
thus secured, because of the common sen- 
timent of the day. Those ideas, however, 
were fundamentally wrong. They rested 
upon the assumption of the equality of 
races. This was an error. It was a san<ly 
foundation, and the idea of a government 
built upon it ; when the ' storm came and 
the wind blew, it fell.' 

"Our new Government is founded upon 
exactly the opposite idea; its foundations 
are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the 
great truth that the negro is not equal to 
the white man. That slavery — subordina- 
tion to the superior race, is his natural and 
normal condition. This, our new Govern- 
ment, is the first, in the history of the 
worl(l, based upon this great physical and 
moral trutli. This truth has been slow in 
tlie process of its development, like all 
other truths in the various departments of 
science. It has been so even amongst us. 
Many M'ho hear me, perhaps, can recollect 
well, that this truth was u'lt generally ad- 
mitted, even within their d;;y. The errors 



SECESSION 



no 



of the past generation still clung to many 
as lute as twenty years ago. TIidsc at the 
North who still cling to these errors, with 
a zeal above knowiedgeil, we ju.slly denom- 
inate fanatics. * '* * 

" In the conflict thus far, success has 
hceii, on our side, conij)loto throughout the 
lesigth and hreadth of the Confederate 
JStates. It is upon this, as I have stated, 
our actual fabric is tirinly jdanted; and I 
cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate 
success of a full recognition of this prin- 
ciple throughout the civilized and enlight- 
ened world. 

" As I have stated, the truth of this prin- 
ciple may be slow in development, as all 
truths are, and ever have been, in the var- 
ious branches of science. It was so with 
the principles announced by Galileo — it 
was so with Adam Smith and his principles 
of political economy — it was so with Har- 
vey and his theory of the circulation of 
the blood. It is state<l that not a single one 
of the medical profession, living at the 
time of the announcement of the truths 
made by him, adnxitted them. Now they 
are universally acknowledged. May we not, 
therefore, look with confidence to the ulti- 
mate universal acknowledgment of the 
truths upon which our system rests. It is 
the fii-st government ever instituted upon 
l»rinciples of strict conformity to nature, 
and the ordination of Providence, in fur- 
nishing the materials of human society. 
Many governments have been founded 
upon the principle of certain classes; but 
the classes thus enslaved, were of the same 
race, and in violation of the laws of nature. 
Our system commits no such violation of 
nature's laws. The negro, by nature, or by 
the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that 
condition which he occupies in our sys- 
tem. The architect, in the construction of 
buildings, lays the foundation with the 
proper materials, the granite ; then comes 
the brick or the marble. The substratum 
of our society is made of the material 
fitted by nature for it, and by experience 
we know that it is best, not only for the 
superior, but for the inferior race that it 
should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity 
with the ordinance of the Creator. It is 
n it for us to inquire into the wisdom of 
His ordinances, or to question them. For 
His own purposes He has made one race 
to diflTer from another, as lie has made 
'one star to differ from another star in 
glory.' 

"The gre.at objects of humanity are best 
attained when conformed to His laws and 
decrees, in the f )rmalion of governments, 
as well ;ls in all things else. Our Confed- 
eracy is founded upon principles in strict 
conformity with tliese laws. This s*^one 
which was first rejected by the first builders 
' h become the chief stone of the corner ' in 
our new edifice. 



"The progrcs.s of disintegration in the 
old Union may be expected to go on with 
almost absolute certainly. Wc are now 
the nucleus of a growing jjower, wiiieh, if 
we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and 
high mission, will become the controlling 
power on this continent. To what extent 
accessions will go on in the i)rocessof lime, 
or where it will end, the future will deter- 
mine." 

It was determined by the secession of 
eleven States in all, the Border States ex- 
cept Mi souri, remaining in the Union, and 
West Virginia dividing trom old Virginia 
for the pur^jose of kee])ing her place in the 
Union. 

The leaders of the Confederacy relied to 
a great extent upon the fact that President 
lUahanan, in his several messages and rc- 
j)lies to commissioners, and in the exjda- 
nationof the law by his Attorney-General, 
had tied his own hands against any attempt 
to reinforce the garrisons in the Southern 
forts, and they acted upon this faith and 
made preparations for their ca[)ture. The 
refusal of the administration to reinforce 
Fort Moultrie caused the resignation of 
General Cass, and by this time the Cabinet 
was iar from harmonious. As early as the 
10th of December, Howell Cobb resigned 
as Secretary of the Treasury, because of 
his "duty to Georgia;" January 2(3th, 
John B. Floyd resigned because Buchanan 
would not withdraw the troo])s from South- 
ern forts; and before that, Attorney Gene- 
ral Black, without publicly expressing his 
views, also resigned. Mr. Buchanan saw 
the wreck around him, and his adminis- 
tration closed in profound regret on the 
Sart of many of his northern friends, and, 
oubtless, on his own part. His early 
policy, and indeed up to the close of 18G0, 
must have been unsatisfactory even to 
himself, for he supplied the vacancies in 
his cabinet by devoted Unionists— by Philip 
F. Thomas of Maryland, Gen'l Dix of New 
York, Joseph Holt of Kentucky, and Fd- 
winM. Stanton of Pennsylvania — men who 
held in their hands the key to nearly ever}' 
situation, and who did much to protect and 
restore the Union of the States. In the 
eyes of the North, the very last acts of 
Buchanan were the best. 

With the close of Buchanan's adminis- 
tration all eyes turned to Lincoln, and 
fears were entertained that the date fixed 
by law for the counting of the electoral 
vote — February loth, 1861 — would inau- 
gurate violence and bloodsheil at the seat 
of government. It pa.ssed, however, peact- 
ably. Both Houses met at 12 hiirh noon 
in the hall of the House, Vice-President 
Breckinridge and Speaker Pennington, 
both democrats, sitting side by side, and 
the count was made without serious chal- 
lenge or question. 
Oa the 11th of February Mr. Lincoln 



120 



AMERICAN I'OLITICS. 



left his home for Washington, intending 
to perform the journey in easy stages. On 
parting with his friends at Springticld, he 
said; 

" My Friends : No one, in my position, 
can realize the sadness I I'eel at this part- 
ing. To this people I owe ail that I am. 
Here I have lived more than a quarter of 
a century. Here my children were born, 
and here one of them lies buried. I know 
not how soon I shall see you again. I go 
to assume a task more difficult than that 
which has devolved upon any other man 
since tlie days of Washington. He never 
would have succeeded except for the aid 
of Divine Providence, upon which he at 
all times relied. I feel that I cannot suc- 
ceed without the same Divine blessing 
which sustained him; and on the same 
Almighty Being I place my reliance for 
support. And I hope you, my friends, 
will all pray that I might receive that Di- 
vine assistance, without which I cannot 
succeed, but with which success is certain. 
Again, I bid you all an affectionate fare- 
well." 

Lincoln passed through Indiana, Ohio, 
New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
on his way to the Capitol. Because of 
threats made that he should not reach the 
Capitol alive, some friends in Illinois em- 
ployed a detective to visit Washington and 
Baltimore in advance of his arrival, and 
he it was who discovered a conspiracy in 
Baltimore to mob and assassinate him. He 
therefore passed through^ Baltimore in the 
night, two days earlier than was antici- 
pated, and reached Washington in safety. 
On the 22d of February he spoke at Inde- 
pendence Hall and said : 

" All the political sentiments I entertain 
have been drawn, so far as I have been 
able to draw them, from the sentiments 
which originated in, and were given to the 
world from, this hall. I never had a feel- 
ing, politically, that did not spring from 
the sentiments embodied in the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 
******** 

"It was not the mere matter of the sepa- 
ration of the Colonies from the mother- 
land, but that sentiment in the Declaration 
of Independence, which gave liljcrty, not 
alone to the people of this country, but, I 
hope, to the world for all future time. It 
was that which gave promise that, in due 
time, the weight would be lifted from the 
shoulders of men. This is the sentiment 
embodied in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Now, mv friends, can this country 
be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will 
consider myself one of the happiest men 
in the world, if I can help to save it. If it 
cannot be saved upon that principle, it 
will be truly awful ! But if this country 
cannot be saved without giving up the 
principle, I was about to say, ' I would 



rather be assassinated on the spot than 
surrender it.' ***** 
I have said nothing but what I am willing 
to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Al- 
mighty God, to die by I " 



Lilncoln'a First Administration. 

Such was the feeling of insecurity that 
the President-elect was followed to Wash- 
ington by many watchful friends, while 
Gen'l Scott, Col. Sumner, Major Hunter 
and the members of Buchanan's Cabinet 
quickly made such arrangements as secured 
his safety. Prior to his inauguration he 
took every opportunity to quell the still 
rising political excitement by assuring the 
Southern people of his kindly feelings, and 
on the 27th of February,* "when waited 
upon by the Mayor and Common Council 
of Washington, he assured them, and 
through them the South, that he had no 
disposition to treat them in any other way 
than as neighbors, and that he had no dis- 
position to withhold from them any consti- 
tutional right. He assured the people that 
they would have all of their rights under 
the Constitution — ' not grudgingly, but 
freely and fairly.' " 

He was peacefully inaugurated on the 
4th of March, and yet Washington was 
crowded as never before by excited multi- 
tudes. The writer himself witnessed the 
military arrangements of Gen'l Scott for 
preserving the peace, and with armed ca- 
valry lining every curb stone on the line 
of march, it would have been difficult in- 
deed to start or continue a riot, though it 
was apparent that many in the throng were 
ready to do it if occasion offered. 

The inaugural ceremonies were more 
than usually impressive. On the eastern 
front of the capitol, surrounded by such of 
the members of the Senate and House who 
had not resigned their seats and entered 
the Confederacy, the Diplomatic Corps, the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, headed by 
Chief Justice Taney, the author of the 
Dred Scott decision ; the higher officers of 
Army and Navy, while close by the side of 
the new President stood the retiring one — 
James Buchanan — tall, dignified, reserved, 
and to the eye of the close observer ajtpa- 
rently deeply grieved at the part his party 
and position had compelled him to play in 
a National drama which was now reaching 
still another crisis. Near by, too, stood 
Douglas (holding Lincoln's hat) more 
gloomy than was his wont, but determined 
as he had ever been. Next to the two 
Presidents he was most observed. 

If the country could then have been 
pacified, Lincoln's inaugural was well cal- 
culated to do it. That it exercised a 
wholesome influence inbehalf of the Union, 

* From tlie " ITistriry of Abraliam TJiicoln and th« 
Overtlirow of Slavery," by lion. Isaac N. Arnold. 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 



121 



anrl especially in the border .State><, soon 
became apparent. Indeed, its .sentinu'nis 
seemed for weeks to cheek the wild ppirit 
of secession in tlie cotton States, and it 
took all tiie eflbrts of their most fiery ora- 
tors to rekimlhi the (lame which seemed to 
have been at its hijj;hest wdien Major An- 
(K'rson was comjjelled to evacuate Fort 
Moultrie. 

It is l)ut proper in this connection, to 
make a few (juotations from the inauu;ural 
addres-5, t\)r Lincoln then, as he did (hiring 
the remainder of his life, better reflected 
the more popular Kepublican sentiment 
than any other leader. The very first 
thought was upon the theme uppermost in 
the minds of all. We (luote : 

" Apprehension seems to exist among 
the j)eople of the Southern States that l>y 
the accession of a Republican Administra- 
tion their i)roperty and their peace and 
personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause 
for snc!i api)rehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the 
while existed and been open to their in- 
spection. It is found in nearly all the pub- 
lished speeches of him who now addresses 
you. I do but ciuote from one of those 
speeches when I declare that ' I have no 
purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it exists. I believe I have no law- 
ful right to do so, and I have no inclina- 
tion to do so.' Those who nominated and 
elected me did so with full knowledge that 
I had made this and many similar de da- 
rations, and had never recanted them. And 
more than this, they jilaced in the platforna 
for my acceptance, and as a law to them- 
selves and to me, the clear and emphatic 
resolution which I now read : 

' Hesitlced, That the maintenance invio- 
late of the rights of the States, and es- 
pecially the right of each State to order 
and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgmentexclusively, 
is essential to the balance of power on which 
the perfection and endurance of our politi- 
cal fabric depend, and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil 
of any State or Territory, no matter under 
what pretext, as among the gravest of 
crime?.' 

I now reiterate these sentiments; and in 
doing so, I only press up')n the public at- 
tention the most conclusive evidence of 
which the case is susceptible, that the ])rop- 
erty, peace, and security of no section are 
to be in anywise endangered by the now 
incoming Administration. I add, too, that 
all the protection which, consistently with 
the Constitution and the laws, can be given, 
will be cheerfully given to all the States 
when lawfully rlemanded, for whatever 
cause — as cheerfully to one section as to 
another." 



After conveying this peaceful a.s.snranco, 
he argued tiie iiuestion in his own way, and 
in a way matchless for its iicjuiely forcn : 

" Physically speaking, we cannot .-epa- 
rate. We cannot remove our res])eclivo 
sections from each other, nor build an im- 
pa.->sal»U! wall between them. A liu>band 
and wife may be divorced, and go out of 
the jiresence and beyond the reach of each 
other; but the ditlerent parts of our (■oun- 
try cannot do this. They cannot but re- 
nuiin face to lace ; and interi-ourse, either 
amicable or hostile, must continue between 
them. Is it possible, then, to make that in- 
tercourse more advantageous or more satis- 
factory aj'ta- separation than hrforc? Can 
aliens make treaties easier than friends ean 
make laws? Can treaties be more faith- 
fully enforced between aliens than laws can 
among friends? Suppose you go to war, 
you cannot fight always ; and when after 
much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
either, you cease fighting, the identical old 
questions, as to terms of intercourse, are 
again upon yon. 

" This country, with its institutions, be- 
longs to the peojjle wdio inhabit it. When- 
ever they shall grow weary of the existing 
Government they can exercise their con- 
stitutional right of amending it, or their 
revdlulionarij right to dismember or over- 
throw it. 1 cannot be ignorant of the fact 
that many worthy and patriotic citizens are 
desirous of having the National Ci.nstitu- 
tion amended. While I make no recom- 
mendation of amendments, I fully recog- 
nize the rightful authority of the people 
over the whole sixbject, to be exercised in 
cither of the modes prescribed in the in- 
strument itself; and I should under exist- 
ing circumstances, favor rather than op- 
pose a fair opportunity being afforded the 
people to act upon it. I will venture to add 
that to me the convention mode seems pref- 
erable, in that it allows amendments to ori- 
ginate with the i)eople themselves, instead 
of only permitting them to take or reject 
propositions originated by others, not es- 
pecially chosen for the purpose, and which 
might not be i)recisely such as they would 
wish to either accept or refuse. I under- 
stand a proposed amendment to the Con- 
stitution — which amendment, however, I 
have not seen — has ])assed Congress, to the 
effect that the Federal Government shall 
never interfere with the domestic in ^titu- 
tions of the States, including that of per- 
sons held to service. To avoid misconstruc- 
tion of what I have said, I dejiart from my 
purpose not to speak of ])articular amend- 
ments so far as to say that, holding such a 
provision now to be implied constitutional 
law, I have no objection to its being made 
express and irrevocable. 

"The Chief Magistrate derives all liis 
authoritv from the people, and they have 
conferred none uiion him to lix terms for 



122 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the separation of the States. The people 
themselves can do this also if they choose ; 
but the Executive, as such, has nothing to 
do with it. His duty is to administer the 
present Government, as it came to his hands, 
and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to 
his successor. * * * 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and not in inine, is the mo- 
mentous issue of civil war. The Govern- 
juent will not assail you. You can have no 
conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You have no oath registered in 
heaven to destroy the Government, while I 
shall have the most solemn one to 'pre- 
serve, protect and defend it.' 

"I am loth to close. We are not ene- 
mies but friends. VVe must not be ene- 
mies. Though passion may have strained, 
it must not break our bonds of affection. 
The mystic chords of memory, stretching 
from every battle-held and patriot grave to 
every living heart and hearth-.itone, all 
over this broad land, will yet swell the 
chorus of the union, when again touched, 
as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature." 

Lincoln appointed a Cabinet in thorough 
accord with his own viev/s, and well suited 
to whatever shades of difference there were 
in the Republican party. Win. II. Seward, 
Secretary of State, and Salmon P. Chase 
represented the more advanced anti-slavery 
element ; General Simon Cameron, Secre- 
tary of War, from the first saw only a pro- 
longed war in which superior Northern 
resources and appliances would surely win, 
while Seward expressed the view that " all 
troubles would be over in three months ;" 
Gideon Vv'^elles, Secretary of the Xavy ; 
Caleb B. Smith of the Interior; Edward 
Bates, Attorney General, and ]Montgoniery 
Blair, Postmaster General, represented the 
more conservative Republican view — the 
two last named being well adapted to 
retaining the National hold on the Border 
States. 

Political events now rapidly succeeded 
each other. As early as March 11, John 
Forsyth of Alabama and Martin J. Craw- 
ford of Georgia, submitted to the Secretary 
of State a proposition for an unofficial inter- 
view. Mr. Seward the next day, from 
" purely public considerations," declined. 
On the loth the same gentlemen sent a 
sealed communication, saying they had 
been duly accredited by the Confederate 
government as Commissioners, to negotiate 
for a speedy adjustment of all questions 
growing out of tlie political senaralion of 
seven States, which had formed a govern- 
ment of their own, etc. They closed this 
remarkable document by requesting the 
Secretarv of State to appoint as early a day 
as possible in order that they mav present 
to the President of the United States the 
credentials which they boar, and the objects 



1 of the mission with which they are charged. 

Mr. Seward's reply in substance, said 
j that his " official duties were confined, 
^ subject to the direction of the President, to 
the conducting of the foreign relations of 
the country, and do not at all embrace 
domestic questions or questions arising be- 
tween the several States and the J'ederal 
Government, is unable to comply with the 
request of Messrs. Forsyth andCrawlbrd, 
to appoint a day on which they may pre- 
sent the evidences of their authority and 
the object of their visit to the President of 
tlie United States. On the contrary, he is 
obliged to state to Messrs. Forsyth and 
Crawford that he has no authority, nor is 
he at liberty to recognize them as di])loma- 
tic agents, or hold correspondence or other 
communication with them." 

An extended correspondence followed, 
but the administration in all similar cases, 
refused to recognize the Confederacy as a 
government in any way. On the 13th 
of April the President granted an inter- 
view to Wm. Ballard Preston, Alex. H. 
Stuart, and George W. Randolph, who had 
been sent by the Convention of Virginia, 
then in session, under a resolution recited 
in the President's reply, the text of A\hich 
is herewith given : — 

Gentlemen : As a committee of the 
Virginia Convention, now in session, you 
present me a preamble and resolution in 
these words: 

'* Whereas, in the opinion of this Con- 
vention, the uncertainty which prevails in 
tlie public mind as to the policy which the 
Federal Executive intends to pursue toward 
the seceded States is extremely injurious 
to the industrial and conmiercial interests 
of the country, tends to keep up an excite- 
ment which is unfavorable to the adjust- 
ment of pending difficulties, and threatens a 
disturbance of the public peace : Therefore, 

" Jh^solved, That a committee of three 
delegates be appointed to wait on the Pre- 
sident of the United States, present to him 
this preamble and resolution, and respect- 
fully ask him to communicate to this Con- 
vention the policy which the Federal Exe- 
cutive intends to ]-ursue in regard to the 
Confederate States." 

" In answer I have to say, that, having 
at the beginning of my oflicial term ex- 
pressed my intended policy as plainly as I 
was able, it is with deep regret and some 
mortification I now learn that there is 
great and injurious uncertainty in the pub- 
lic mind as to what that policy is, and 
what course I intend to pursue. 

" Not having as yet seen occasion to 
change, it is now my ]mrpose to j)ursuethe 
course marked out in the inaugural address. 
I commend a careful consideration of the 
whole document as the best expression I 
can give of my purposes. As I then and 
therein said, I now repeat : 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST A D MI N ISTH ATI N. 



123 



" The power confideil to nic will bo used 
t ) hold, occupy, and po-«sed.s the property 
and places belonjijinf^ to the (lovernnierit, 
and to collect the duties ami impo-stn ; but 
beyond what is neeessary lor these objects 
there will bo no invasion, no usin.r of I'oroe 
against or anionic the people anywhere." 

" By the words ' property and places be- 
lon^inji to the (loverninent ' 1 chielly 
allude to t!ie military posts and property 
which were in the possession oftlu' (govern- 
ment when it came into my hands. 

" But if, as now appears to be true, in 
pursuit of a purpose tj drive the United 
otates authority from these places, an un- 

Srovokctl iuj-^ault has been made U|>on Fort 
^umtcr, I shall hold myself at liberty to 
repossess, if I can, like places which had 
been seized before the Government was 
devolved upon mi;. And, in any event, I 
.shall, to the best of my ability, repel force 
by force. 

" In case it jjroves true that Fort Sum- 
ter has been assaulted, as is reported, I 
shall perhaps cause the United States mails 
to be withdrawn from all the States which 
claim to have seceded, believing that the 
commencement of ai;tual war a'jjainst the 
Government justifies and possibly demands 
it." 

" I scarsely need to siy that I consider 
the militiry posts and property situated 
within the States which claim to have 
seceded iis yet belou'^ing to th,; Govern- 
m?nt of the United States as much^is they 
did belbre the supposed secession. 

" Whatever else I may do for the pur- 
pose, I shall not attempt to collect the 
duties and im;) )stb by any armed invasion 
of any part of the c )untry — not meaning 
by this, howe.-er, that I may not land a 
force deemed n.^cessary to relieve a fort 
upon the border of the country. 

■' From the fa;t that I have quoted a 
part of the inaugural address, it must not 
inferred that I repu lixta any other part, 
the whole of which I reaffir.n, except so 
far as what I now say of the mails may be 
re^^arded as a modification." 

We have given the above as not onlv 
fair but interestiu'^ samples of the semi- 
otBcial and offi ?ial trinsactious and corre- 
spondence of the tim3. To give more 
could not a Id to the interest of what is but 
a description of the political situation. 

The Bjrder states and some others were 
"halting between two opinion <." North 
Carolina at fir^t voted dov,-n a proposition 
to secede by 4'J,G71 for, to 47,3';3 against, 
but the secessionists called another con- 
vention in May, the work of which the 
peoole ratified, the minority, however, 
being very large. 

Bafore Lincoln had entered offi -e most 
of the Southern forts, arsen.als, docks, cus- 
tom houses, etc., had been .<5eized. and now 
that pi eparations were being mad^ for ac- 



tivc warfare by the Hoire leracv, nriny offi- 
cers of the army and navv resigned or de- 
serted, and jcdned it. The mo^t notable 
were General Robert E. Lee, who ff)r a 
time hesitated as to his " duty," and (Jcne- 
ral David K. Twiggs, the sec(n»d olficer in 
rank in the Uniti'il States Army, but who 
had purposely been placed i)y Secretary 
Floyd in command of tiie Dcpartmeui rif 
Texas to ficilitatc Iiis joining the Con- 
federacy, whiih he intended to do I'rom 
the bi'ginning. All olfuerswere p(>rmitt(.d 
to go, tlie adminislr.Uion not seeking to 
restrain any, under the belief tliat until 
some open act of war was commitleil it 
ought to remain on the defensive. This 
was wise ])olitical policy, for it rlid more 
than all else to hold the Border States, the 
I>osition of which Douglas understood I'ully 
as well lus any statesman of that hour. It 
is remarked of L^ouglas ( in Arn(dd'fl " Ilis- 
tiirt/ of Aliruhu))! Lincoln") that as early 
as January 1, I'^Gl, he said to General 
Charles Stewart, of New York, who had 
made a New Year's call at his residence in 
Washington, and in'|uired, " ^Vhat will be 
the result of the efforts of Jeirei"son Davis, 
and his a.ssociates, to divide the Union?" 
" Rising, and looking," says my informant, 
"like one insi)ired, Douglas replied, 'The 
cotton States are making an efibrt to draw 
in the border States to their schemes of 
secession, and I am but too fearful th;-/ 
will succeed. If they do succeed, there 
will be the most terrible civil war the 
world has ever seen, lasting for year-.' 
Pausing a moment, he exclaimed, ' Vir- 
ginia will become a charnel house, but th i 
end will be the triumph of the Union 
cause. One of their first elforts will be t > 
take possession of this Cajtitol to give them 
prestige abroad, but thev will never sik- 
ceed in taking it — the North will ri-^e en 
7nasse to defend it; — but Washington will 
become a city of hospitals — the churclies 
will be used for the sick and wounded — 
even this house (Minnesota block, after- 
wards, and during the war, the Douglxs 
Hospital) may be devoted to that purpose 
before the end of the war.' The friend to 
whom this was said inquired, ' What justi- 
fication for all this?' Douglas rej^lied, 
'There is xo justification, nor any pretense 
of any — if they remain in the I'nion, I will 
go as far as the Constitution will ])crmit, to 
maintain their just rights, and I di not 
doubt a majority of Congress would do the 
same. But,' said he, again rising on his 
feet, and extending his arm, ' if the South- 
ern States attempt to secede from thia 
Union, without further cause, I am in fa- 
vor of their having just so many slaves, 
and just so much slave territory, as tliev 
can hold at tlie point of the bayonet, and 
NO MORE.' " 

In the border states of Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Mid- 



124 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Bouri there were sharp political contests 
between the friends of secession and of 
the Union. Ultimately the Unionists tri- 
umphed in Maryland, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri — in the latter state by the active aid 
of U. S. troops — in Marj'land and Ken- 
tucky by military orders to arrest any mem- 
bers of the Legislature conspiring to take 
their states out. In Tennessee, the Union 
men, under the lead of Andrew Johnson, 
Governor ("Parson") Brownlow, Horace 
Maynard and others, who made a most gal- 
lant tiglit tf) keep the state in, and they had 
the sympathy of the majority of the people 
of East Tennessee. The Secessionists took 
Virginia out April 17th, and North Caro- 
lina May 20th. The leading Southerners 
encouraged the timid and hesitating by 
saying the North would not make war; 
that the political divisions would be too 
great there, and they were supported in this 
view by the speeches and letters of lead- 
ers like Clement L. Vallandigham. On 
the other hand they roused the excitable 
by warlike preparations, and, as we have 
stated, to prevent reconsideration on the 
part of those who had seceded, resolved 
to fire upon Sumter. Beauregard acted 
under direct instructions from the govern- 
ment at Montgomery when he notified Ma- 
jor Anderson on the 11th of April to sur- 
render Fort Sumter. Anderson replied that 
he would evacuate on the loth, but the 
original summons called for surrender by 
the l:ith, and they opened their fire in ad- 
vance of the time fixed for evacuation — a 
fact which clearly established the purpose 
to bring about a collision. It was this ag- 
gressive spirit which aroused and united 
the North, and made extensive political 
division therein impossible. 

The Southern leaders, ever anxious for 
the active aid of the Border States, soon 
saw that they could only acquire it through 
higher sectional excitement than any yet 
cultivated, and they acted accordingly. 
Roger A. Pryor, in a speech at Richmond 
April 10th, gave expression to this thought, 
when he said in response to a serenade : — 

" Gentlemen, I thank you, especially 
that you have at last annihilated this ac- 
cursed Union, [applause,] reeking with 
corruption, and insolent with excess of 
tyranny. Thank God, it is at last blasted 
and riven by the lightning wrath of an 
outraged and indignant people. [Loud 
applause.] Not only is it gone, but gone 
forever. [Cries of * You're right,' and ap- 
plause.] In the expressive language of 
Scripture, it is water spilt upon the ground, 
which cannot be gathered up [Applause.] 
Like Lucifer, son of the morning, it has 
fallen, never to rise again. [Continued 
applause. | For mj/part, gaiflrmpn, if Abra- 
ham, Linc'iln and Jlonnihnl IlnmJin to- 
morrow were to abdicate their offices and 
were to give me a blank sheet of paper to 



write the conditions of reannexation to the 
defunct Lhiion, I would scornfully spurn 
the overture. * * * * I invoke 
you, and I make it in some sort a pei-sonal 
appeal — personal so far as it tends to our 
assistance in Virginia — I do invoke you, 
in j'our demonstrations of popular opinion, 
in your exhibitions of official intent, to 
give no countenance to this idea of recon- 
struction. [Many voices, emphatically, 
' Never,' and applause.] In Virginia they 
all say, if reduced to the dread dilemma of 
this memorable alternative, they will es- 
pouse the cause of the South as against the 
interest of the Northern Coniederacy, but 
they whisper of reconstruction, iind they 
say Virginia must abide in the Union, with 
the idea of reconstructing the LTnion which 
you have annihilated. IjJrai/ you, gentle- 
men, rob them of that idea. Proclaim to 
the world that upon no condition, and 
under no circumstance, will South Carolina 
ever again enter into political association 
with the Abolitionists of New England. 
[Cries of ' Never," and applause.] 

" Do not distrust Virginia. As sure as 
to-morrow's sun will rise upon us, just so 
sure will Virginia be a member of this 
Southern Confederation. [Applause.] And 
I will tell you, gentlemen, what will jnit her 
in the Southe^-n Confederation in less than 
an hour by tihreu'slnn-y clock — STRIKE A 
BLOW! [Tremendous applause.] 'The very 
moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will 
make common cause ivith her sisters of the 
South. [Applause.] It is impossible she 
should do otherwise." 

Warlike efforts were likewise used to 
keep some of the states firmly to their pur- 
pose. Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, formerly 
United States Senator from Alabama, and 
a member of the Alabama Seceding Con- 
vention who resisted the movement until 
adopted by the body, at an adjourned Re- 
construction meeting held at Huntsville, 
Ala., March 13, 1864, made this significant 
statement : — 

Mr. Clemens, in adjourning the meeting, 
said he would tell the Alabamians how 
their state was got out of the Union. " In 
1861," said Mr. C, " shortly after the Con- 
federate Government was put in operation, 
I was in the cit^v' of Montgomery. One 
day I stepped into the office of the Secre- 
tary of War, General Walker, and found 
there, engaged in a verj' excited discu-^sion, 
Mr. Jefierson Davis, Mr. Memminger, ^Ir. 
Benjamin, Mr. Gilchrist, a member of our 
Legislature from Loundes county, and a 
number of other prominent gentlemen 
They were discussing the propriety of im- 
mediately openino: fire on Fort Sumter, to 
which General Walker, the Secretary ofj 
War, appeared to be opposed. Mr. (HI 
Christ said to him, ' Sir, unless you sprinkle 
blood in the face of the people of Alabama 
they will be back in the old Union in less 



I 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 



125 



than ten days ! ' The next day ( leneral 
Beaurof^ard opened his batteries on Sumter, 
and Ahibama wad saved to the Coul'ed- 
eracy." 

When the news flashed along the wires 
that Sumter had been tired upon, i^itieohi 
immetliately usetl his war powers and is- 
sued a eail for 7"),()U0 tr<K)ps. All of the 
northern governors responded with ])ronii)t- 
ness and enthusiasm ; but this Wiis not true 
of the governoi-s of the southern states 
whieh at that time had not seceded, and 
the liorder States. 

We U\kc from McPhwson's admirable 
cnnden<ation, the evasive or hostile replies 
of the (.iovernors referred to, and tbllow it 
with his statement of the military eills and 
legislation of both governments, but for 
the j>uri)oses of this work omit details 
whieli are too extended. 

REPLIES OF SOUTH ERX STATE GOVERNORS 

TO Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops. 

Governor Burton, of Delaware, i;sued 
a proehimation, April 2(5, reeommending 
the formation of volunteer companies for 
the protection of the lives and property of 
the people of Delaware against violence of 
any sort to which they may be exposed, 
the companies not being subject to be or- 
dered by the Executive into the United 
States service, the law not vesting him 
with such authority, but having the option 
ofotFcring their services to the General 
Government for the defence of its capital 
and the support of the Constitution and 
laws of the country. 

Governor HiCKS, of Maryland, May 14, 
issued a proclamation for the troops, st.at- 
ing that the four regiments would be de- 
tailed to serve within the limits of Mary- 
land or for the defence of the capital of the 
United States. 

Governor Letcher, of Virginia, replied 
that "The militia of Virginia will not be 
furnished to the powers of Washington for 
any such use or purpose a.s they have in 
view. Your object is to subjugate the 
soutkern States, and a requisition made 
upon me for such an ol)ject — an object, in 
my judgment, not within the purview of 
the Constitution or the act of 1795 — will 
not be complied with. You have chosen 
to inaugurate civil war, and having done 
»o we will meet it in a spirit as determined 
as the .Administration hiis exhibited to- 
ward the .South." 

Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, re- 
plied April 15: 

"Your dispatch is received, and if gen- 
uine — which its extraordinary character 
leads me to doubt — I have to say in reply 
that I regard the levy of troops made by 
the .\ilniiiiistration, for the purpose of sub- 
juiriitin:! the States of the South, ns in vio- 
latiou of the Constitution and a iHurpation 
of power. I can be no party to tliLi wicked 



violation of the laws of the country, and 
to this war upon thw libertiesof ;i free pco- 
l)le. You can get no tn^ops from Nortii 
Carolina. 1 will reply more in detail when 
your call is received by mail.'' 

Governor MAGOFFIN, of Kentucky, rc- 
plieii, .\pril 15: 

" Yt)ur dispatch is received. In answer 
I say emjihatically, Kentucky will furnish 
no troops for the wicketl purjiose of subdu- 
ing her sister S(»uthern States." 

( iovernor ilAiiUis, of Tennessee, replied, 
April 18: 

" Tennessee will not furnish a single man 
for coercion, but lifiy thous:ui<l, if necessa- 
ry, for the defence of our rights or those of 
our southern brethren." 

Governor .Iacicso.n, of Missouri, replied: 

" Your rcijuisition is illegal, unc(m.stitu- 
tional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, 
and cannot be complied with." 

Governor Hector, of Arkansas, replied, 
April 22 : 

"None will be furnished. The demand 
is only adding insult to injury." 

ALL other calls FOR TROOPS. 

May 3, ISGl— The President called for 
thirty-nine volunteer regiments of infantry 
and one regiment of cavalry, with a mini- 
mum aggregate of 3 4,50(3 officers and en- 
listed men, and a maximum of 42,034; and 
for the enlistment of 18,000 seamen. 

May 3, 18(51— The President directed an 
increase of the regular army by eight regi- 
ments of infantry, one of cavalry, and ono 
of artillery — minimum aggregate, 18,054; 
maximum, 22,714. 

August G — Congress legalized this in- 
crease, and all the acts, orders, and pro- 
clamations respecting the Army and Navy. 

July 22 and 25, 1861 — Congress author- 
ized tiie enlistment of 500,000 volunteers. 

September 17, 18(31— Commanding offi- 
cer at Hatteras Inlet, N. C, authorized to 
enlist a regiment of loyal North Carolini- 
ans. 

November 7, 1861 — The Governor of 
Missouri was authorized to raise a force of 
State militia for State defence. 

December 3, 1861 — The Secretary of 
War directed that no more regiments, bat- 
teries, or independent companies be raised 
by the Governors of States, except u{)on 
the special requisition of the War Depart- 
ment. 

July 2, 1862— The President called for 
three hundred thousand volunteers. 

Under the act of July 17, 1862. 

August 4, 1862 — The President ordered 
a draft of three hundred thousand militia, 
for nine months unless sooner discharged ; 
and directed that if any State shall not, by 
the 15th of Augu-t, furnish its quota of the 
additional 3i>0,<i()0 authorized by law, the 
deficiency of volunteers in that State will 
also be uiade up by special draft from the 



126 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



militia. Wednesday, September 3, was 
i-ub.>equently fixed lor the draft. 

3Iuy 8, 1863 — Proclamation issued, de- 
fining the relations of aliens to the con- 
scription act, holding all aliens who have 
declared on oath their intention to become 
citizens and may be in the country within 
sixty-five days from date, and all who have 
declared their intention to become citizens 
and have voted. 

June 15, 1863 One hundred thousand 
men, for six months, called to repel the 
invasion of Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, 
and Pennsylvania. 

October 17, 1863 — A proclamation was 
issued lor 300,0(X> volunteers, to serve for 
three years or the war, not, liowever, ex- 
ceeding three years, to fill the places of 
those whose terms expire "during the 
corning year," these being in addition to 
the men raised by the present draft. In 
States in default under this call, January 5, 
1S64, a draft shall be made on that day. 

February 1, 1864— Draft for 500,000 men 
for three years or during the war, ordered 
for March ](», 1864. 

March 14, 18G4— Draft for 200,000 ad- 
ditional for the army, navy and marine 
corps, ordered for April 15, 1864, to supply 
tlie force required for the navy and to jjro- 
vide an adequate reserve force for all con- 
tingencies. 

April 23, 1804—85,000 one hundred day 
men accepted, tendered by the Governors 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wis- 
consin ; 30,000, 20,000, 20,000, 10,000 and 
5,000 being tendered respectively. 

UMOX MILITARY LEGISLATION. 

1861, July 22— The President was au- 
thorized to accept the services of volun- 
teers, not exceeding five hundred thousand, 
f'r a period not exceeding three years. 
July 27, this authority was duplicated. 

1861, July 27 — Nine regiments of in- 
fantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery, 
added to the regular army. 

Aucrust 5 — Passed bill approving and 
legalizing the orders of the President re- 
snecting the army and navy, issued from 
4th of March to that date. 

1862, July 17— Authorized the President, 
when calling forth the militia of the States, 
to specify the period of such service, not 
exceeding nine months; and if by reason 
of defects in existing laws or in the execu- 
tion of them, it shall be found necessary 
to provide for enrolling the militia, the 
I'resident was authorized to make all 
necessary regulations, the enrollment to in- 
clude all able bodied male citizens between 
eighteen and forty-five, and to be appor- 
tioned according to representative popula- 
tion, lie was authorized, in addition to 
the v.-)hint(>ers now authorized, to accept 
100 000 infantrv, for nine months; also, for 
twelve months, to fill up old rcginicuts, as 



many as may be presented for the put 
pose. i 

1863, February 7 — Authorized the Gov- 
ernor of Kentucky, by the consent and 
under the direction of the President, to 
raise twenty thousand volunteers, for 
twelve months, for service within the 
limits of the State, for repelling invasion, 
sui>pressing insurrection, and guarding and 
protecting the public property — two regi- 
ments to be mounted riflemen. With the 
consent of the President, these troops may 
be attached to, and become a part of, the 
body of three years' volunteers. 

1863, March 3 — The conscription act 
passed. It included as a part of the na- 
tional forces, all able bodied male citizens 
of the United States, and persons of for- 
eign birth who shall have declared on oath 
their intention to become citizens under 
and in pursuance of the laws thereof, be- 
tween the ages of twenty-one and forty- 
five years, except such as aie rejected as 
physically or mentally unfit for the service ; 
also, the Vice President, the judges of the 
various coui;ts of the United States, the 
heads of the various executive departments 
of the Government, and the Governors of 
the several States; also, the only son liable 
to military service, of a widow dej endent 
upon his labor for support ; also, the only 
son of aged or infirm parent or parents, 
dependent upon his labor for support ; 
also, where there are two or more sons of 
aged or infirm parents, subject to draft, the 
father, or if he be dead, the mother, may 
elect which son shall be exempt; also, the 
only brother of children not twelve years 
old, having neither father nor mother, de- 
pendent upon his labor for support ; also, 
the lather of motherless children under 
twelve years of age, dependent upon his 
labor for support; also, where there area 
father and sons in the same lamily and 
household, and two of them are in military 
service of the United States as non-com- 
missioned ofiicers, musicians, or privates, 
the residue of such family; provided that 
no person who has been convicted of any 
felony shall be enrolled or permitted to 
serve in said forces. It divided the forces 
into two classes : 1st, those between twenty 
and thirty-five and all unmarried persons 
above thirtv-five and under forty-five ; 2d, 
all others liable to military duty. It di- 
vided the countiy into districts, in each of 
which an enrollment board was established. 
The persons enrolled were made subject to 
be called into the militarj' service lor two 
years from .Tuly 1, 1863, and continue in 
service for three years. A drafted i>erson 
was allowed to furnish an acceptable sub- 
stitute, or pay i^300, and be discharged 
from further liability under that draft. 
Persons failing to report, to be considered 
deserters. All persons drafted shall be as- 
signed by the Prcsid . nt to military d-uty 



MR. LINCOLN'S FlitST AD M INISTII ATI X. 



127 



in such corps, regiments, or braruhes of 
Uie service as the exigeucies of the .service 
uiay require. 

ISll-t, Feb. 21 — Provided for equalizing 
tlie draft by calculating the quota of eacii 
district or precinct and counting the num- 
ber previously furnished by it. Any per- 
son enrolled may I'urnish an acceptable 
substitute who is not liable to draft, nor, 
at any time, in the military or naval ser- 
vice of the United States; and such per- 
son so furnishing a substitute shall be ex- 
empt from draft during the time for which 
such substitute shall not be liable to draft, 
not exceeding the time for which such sub- 
stitute shall have been accepted. If such 
.'4u!)stitute is lial)le to draft, the name of 
the person furnishing him shall again be 
pla-'cd on the roll and shall be liable to 
draft in future calls, but not until the pre- 
sent enrollment shall be exhausted. The 
exe!n|)tions are limited to such as are re- 
jected lus physically or mentally unlit for the 
service; to persons actually in the military 
or naval service of the Government, and 
all persons who have served in the military 
or naval service two years during the pre- 
sent war and been honorably discharged 
th 're from. 

The separate enrollment of classes is rc- 
peded and the two classes consolidated. 

Members of religious denominations, 
who shall by oath or affirmation declare 
that they are conscientiously opposed to 
the bearing of arms, and who are pro- 
hibited from doing so by the rules and 
articles of faith and practice of said re- 
ligious denomination, shall when drafted, 
be considered non-combatants, and be as- 
signed to duty in the hospitals, or th'3 care 
of freedmen, or shall pav $300 to the 
beiefi!: of sick and wounded soldiers, if 
they give proof that their deportment has 
been uniformly consistent with their de- 
claration. 

No alien who has voted in county. State 
or Territory shall, because of alienage, be 
exempt from draft. 

" All able-bodied male colored persons 
between the age^ of twenty and forty-live 
years, resident in the United States, shall 
be enrolled according to the provisions of 
this act, and of the act to which this is an 
amendment, and form part of the national 
forces ; and when a slave of a loyal mjuster 
shall be drafted and mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United States, his master shall 
have a certificate thereof; and thereupon 
su',;h slave shall be free, and the bounty of 
one hundred dollars, now payable by law 
for each drafted man, shall be paid to the 
ptr-ioa to whom such drafted person was 
owing service or labor at the time of his 
muster into the service of the United States, 
The Secretary of War shall appoint a com- 
mission in each of the slave States rei»re- 
unted in Congress, charged to award to 



each loyal person to whom a colored volun- 
teer may owe service a just (•omi)ensatioti, 
not exceeding three hundred dollars, Ibr 
each such colored volunteer, payable out 
of the fund derived from commuta- 
tion-*, and every such colored volunteer 
on being mustered into the service shall bo 
free. And in all cases where men of col()r 
have been enlisted, or have volunteered in 
the military service of the United States, 
all the provisions of this act so far as the 
l)ayment of bounty and ciimpensation are 
provided, shall be equally applicable, as t » 
those who may be hereafter n'cruited. Uut 
men (tf color, drafted or eidisted, or whi 
may volunteer into the military service, 
while they shall be credited on the quotas 
of th(! several States, or sul)-di visions of 
States, wherein they are respectively draft- 
ed, enlisted, or shall volunteer, shall not 
be assigned as State troops, but shall 
be mustered into regiments or companies 
as United States colored troops." 

1864, Feb. 29 — Bill passed reviving the 
grade of Lieutenant General in the army, 
and Major General Ulysses S. Grant was 
appointed March 2d. 

1864, June 15 — All persons of color shall 
receive the same pay and emoluments, ex- 
ce;)t bounty, as other soldiers of the regular 
or volunteer army from and after Jan. 1, 
1864, the President to fix the bounty for 
those hereafter mustered, not exceeding 
$100. 

1864, June 20 — The monthly pay of pri- 
vates and non-commissioned officers was 
fixed as follows, on and after May 1 : 

Sergeant majors, twenty-six dollars ; 
quartermaster and commissary sergeant* of 
Cavalry, artillery, and infantry', twenty- 
two dollars ; first sergeants of cavalry, 
artillery, and infantry, twenty-four dollars; 
sergeants of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, 
twenty dollars ; sergeants of ordnance, 
sappers and miners, and pontoniers, thirty- 
four dollars; corporals of ordnance, sap- 
pers and miners, and pontoniers, twenty 
dollars ; privates of engineers and ordnance 
of the first class, eighteen dollars, and of 
the second class, sixteen dollars ; corporals 
of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, eiarhteen 
dollars; chief buglers of cavalry, twenty- 
three dollars ; buglers, sixteen dollars; far* 
riers and blacksmiths, of cavalry, and arti- 
ficers of artillery, eighteen dollars; private^ 
of cavalry, artillery and infantry-, sixteen 
dollars; principal musicians of artillery 
and infantr}', twenty-two dollars; leaders 
of brigade and regimental bands, seventy- 
five dollars; musicians, sixteen dollars; 
hospital steward^ of the first cla<s, thirty- 
three dollars; hospital stewards of the 
second class, twenty-five dollars ; hospital 
stewards of the third class, twenty-three 
dollars." 

July 4 — This bill became a law : 

Be it enacted, tfcc. That the President of 



128 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the United States may. at his discretion, ut 
any time hereafter call I'or any nunibcr of 
men as volunteers for the respective terms 
of one, two, and tliree years for military 
service ; and any such volunteer, or, in case 
of draft, as hereinafter jirovided, any sub- 
stitute, shall be credited to the town, town- 
ship, ward of a city, precinct, or election 
district, or of a county not so subdivided 
towards the (juota of which he may have 
V!)lunteered or engajjed as a substitute; 
and every volunteer who is accepted and 
mustered into the service for a term of one 
vear, unless sooner discharged, shall re- 
ceive, and be paid by the United States, a 
bounty of one hundred dollars ; and if for 
a term of two years, unless sooner dis- 
charged, a bounty of two hundred dollars; 
and if for a term of three years, unless 
sooner discharged, a bounty of three hun- 
dred dollars ; one third of which l)ounty 
shall be paid to the soldier at the time of 
hi? being mustered into the service, one- 
third at the expiration of one-half of his 
term of service, and one-third at the expi- 
ration of his term of service. And incase 
of his death while in service, Ihe residue of 
his bounty unpaid shall be ]iaid to his 
widow, if he shall have left a widow ; if 
not, to his children ; or if there be none, to 

his mother, if she be a widow. 

* * ■)(• -A- * * * 

Sec. 8. That all persons in the naval 
service of the United States, who have en- 
tered said service during the present rebel- 
lion, wdio have not been credited to the 
quota of any town, district, ward, or State, 
by reason of their being in said service and 
not enrolled prior to February twenty-four, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-tour, shall be 
enrolled and credited to the quotas of the 
town, ward, district, or State, in which 
they respectively reside, upon satisfoctory 
proof of their residence made to the Secre- 
tary of War. 

"confederate" military legislation. 

February 28, 1861, (four days before the 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln) — The "Con- 
federate " Congress passed a bill jjrovid- 
ing — 

1st. To enable the Government of the 
Confederate States to maintain its jurisdic- 
tion over all questions of peace and war, 
and to provide for the public defence, the 
President be, and he is hereby authorized 
and directed to assume control of all mili- 
tary operations in every State, having re- 
ference to a connection with questions be- 
tween the said States, or any of them, and 
Powers foreign to themselves. 

2d. The President was authorized to re- 
ceive from the several States the arms and 
munitions of war which have been ac- 
(piired from the United States. 

3d. He was authorized to receive into 
Government service such forces in the ser- 



vice of the States, as may be tendered, in 
such number as he may require, for any 
time not less than twelve months, unless 
sooner discharged. 

March 0, 1861 — The President Avas au- 
thorized to employ the militia, military and 
naval forces of the Confederate States to 
repel invasion, maintain rightful possession 
(d' the territory, and sectire public tran- 
quillitv and independence against threat- 
ened 'assault, to the extent of 100,000 
men, to serve for twelve months. 

May 4, 1861 — One regiment of Zouaves 
authorized. 

May 6, 1861 — Letters of marque and re- 
prisal authorized. 

1861, August 8 — The Congress author- 
ized the President to accept the services of 
400,000 volunteers, to serve for not less 
than twelve months nor more than three 
years alter they shall be mustered into ser- 
vice, unless sooner discharged. 

The Kichmond Enquirer of that date an- 
nounced that it was ascertained from ofR- 
cial data, before the passage of the bill, 
that there were not less than 210,000 men 
then in the field. 

August 21 — Volunteers authorized for 
local defence and special service. 

1862, January — Publishers of newspa- 
pers, or other printed matter are prohibited 
from giving the number, disposition, move- 
ment, or destination of the land or naval 
forces, or description of vessel, or battery, 
fortification, engine of war, or signal, un- 
less first authorized by the President or 
Congress, or the Secretary of War or Navy, 
or commanding officer of post, district, or 
expedition. The penalty is a fine of $1,000 
and imprisonment not over twelve months. 

1862, February — The Committee on Na- 
val Allairs were instructed to inquire into 
the expediency of placing at the disposal 
of the President five millions of dollars to 
build gunboats. 

1.S62 — Bill passed to " regidate the de- 
struction of property under military neces- 
sity," referring particularly to cotton and 
tol)ac(o. The authorities are authorized to 
destroy it to keep it from the enemy ; and 
owners, destroying it tor the same j)urpose, 
are to be indemnified upon proof or the 
value and the circumstances of the de. 
struction. 

1862, April 16— The first "conscription" 
bill became a law. 

1864, February. The second conscription 
bill became a law. 

The Eichmond Sentinel of February 17, 
1864. contains a synopsis of what is called 
the military bill, heretofore forbidden to be 
printed : 

The first section provides that all white 
men residents of the Coni'ederate States, 
between the ages of seventeen and fifty, 
shall be in the military service for the war. 

The second section provides that all be- 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 



129 



twcen ciditoen :in(l forty-five, now in ser- 
vice, shiill he eoiitirme'l durini; the \v:ir in 
the same rci^iiiu'iils, battalions, and com- 
panies to wiiich they helonj:^ at the passage 
of" this act, with tiie organization, olli<-frs, 
&e., proviiknl tliat companies Irom one State 
organized against their consent, exj)res<ed 
at the time, with reg-ets, &c., from another 
State, sliall liave the privilege of being 
transferred to the same arm in a regiment 
from their own State, and men can be trans- 
ferreil to a company from their own State. 

Section three gives a bounty eight months 
hence of $100 in rebel bonds. 

Section lour provides that no person 
shall be relieved from the operations of this 
act heretofore discharged for disability, nor 
thall those who funiished substitutes be eos- 
empted, where no disabiJity now exists ; but 
exempts religious persons who have paid 
an exemption tax. * * * 

The tenth section provides that no per- 
son shall be exempt except the following : 
ministers, superintendents of deaf, dumb, 
and blind, or insane a-sylums; one editor to 
each newspaper, and such employees as he 
may swear to be indispensable ; the Con- 
federate and State public printers, and the 
journeymen printers necessary to perform 
the public printing ; one apothecary to each 
drug store, who was and has been contin- 
uously doing business as such since Octo- 
ber 10, 18()2; physicians over 30 years of 
age of seven years' practice, not including 
dentists ; presidents and teachers of col- 
leges, academies and schools, who have not 
less than thirty pupils ; superintendents 
of public hospitals est.ablished by law, and 
such physicians and nurses as may be in- 
dispensable for their efficient management. 

One agriculturist on such farm where 
there is no white male adult not liable to 
duty employing fifteen able-bodied slaves, 
between sixteen and fifty years of age, up- 
on the following conditions : 

The party exempted shall give bonds to 
deliver to the Government in the next 
twelve mon'.hs, 100 pounds of bacon, or itw 
equivalent in salt pork, at Government se- 
lection, and 100 poundsof beef for each such 
able-bodied slave employed on said farm 
at commissioner's rates. 

In certain cases this may be commuted 
in grain or other provisions. 

The person shall further bind himself to 
Bell all surplus provisions now on hand, or 
which he may raise, to the Government, or 
the families of soldiers, at commissioner's 
rates, the person to be allowed a credit of 
2-5 per cent, on any amount he may deliver 
in three months from the passage of this 
act; Provided that no enrollment since Feb. 
1, 18(54, shall deprive the person enrolled 
from the benefit of this exemption. 

In addition to the above, the Secret.ary 
of War is authorized to make such details 
as the public security requires. 



Tlie vote in the House of Representa- 
tives was — yeas, 41 ; nays, 31. 

GUERRILLAS. 

1802, April 21— The President wa.s au- 
thorized to commission such ollicers a.s he 
may deem pro[)er, with authority to form 
hands of partisan rangers, in companies, 
battalions or regiments, either as infantry 
or cavalry, to receive the same pay, rations, 
and quarters, and be sut)ject to the sanio 
regulations as other soldiers. For any arms 
and munitions of war captured from the 
enemy by any body of partisan rangers, 
and delivered to any quartermaster at des- 
ignated place, the rangers shall pay their 
full value.* 

The following resolution, in relation to 
partisan service, wa-s adopted by the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, May 17, 18G2: 

Whereas, this General Assembly places 
a high estimate upon the value of the ran- 
ger or partisan service in prosecuting the 
present war to a successful issue, and re- 
gards it as perfectly legitimate ; and it be- 
ing understood that a Federal commander 
on the northern border of Virginia has in- 
timated his purpose, if such service is not 
discontinued, tolay wa.ste by fire the por- 
tion of our territory at present under his 
power. 

Resolved by the General Assembly, That 
in its opinion, the policy of employing such 
rangers and partisans ought to be carried 
out energetically, both by the authorities 
of this State and of the Confederate States, 
without the slightest regard to such threats. 

By another act, the President was au- 
thorized, in addition to the volunteer force 
authorized under existing laws, to accept 
the services of volunteers who may offer 
them, without regard to the place of en- 
listment, to serve for and during the exist- 
ing war. 

18G2, May 27— Major General John B. 
Floyd was authorized by the Le^i.slature of 
Virginia, to raise ten thousand men, not 
now in service or liable to draft, for twelve 
months. 

18G2, September 27— The President was 
authorized to call out and place in the mil- 
it.ary service for three years, all white men 
who are residents, between the ages of 
thirty-five and forty-five, at the time the 
call may be made, not legally exempt. And 
such authority .shall exist in the President, 
during the present war, as to all j)er3on8 
who now are, or hereafter may become 
eighteen years of age, and all persons be- 
tween eighteen and forty-five, once en- 
rolled, shall serve their full time. 

• l.sfi4, Fchniary I'i — Ror'^'^''''' '^" above act, bnt i>ro- 
Tidfd for runtiniiinK orpanizstiuns of partisan ranjferi 
.Tcfiiij^ :\a ri'Kular ravalrv and sotu continue; and anthor- 
iilic tho S<HTctary of SVar to provide for uniting all 
bands of partisan rancers with othnr orp:ini/j>iion« and 
bringing thorn under tha general dwcipline of th-- pro- 
TuuoDiil nrmy. 



130 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



THE TWENTY-NEGRO EXEMPTION LAW. 

1862, October 11 — Exempted certain 
classes, described in the repealing law of 
the next session, as follows : 

The dissatisfaction of the people with an 
act passed by the Confederate Congress, at 
its last session, by which persons owning a 
certain number of slaves were exempted 
from the operation of the conscription law, 
has led the members at the present session 
to reconsider their work, and already one 
branch has passed a bill for the repeal of 
the obnoxious law. This bill provides as 
follows : 

" y/ic Congress of the Confederate States 
do enact, That so much of the act ap- 
proved October 11, 1862, as exempts from 
military service ' one person, either as 
agent, owner, or overseer, on each planta- 
tion on which one wliite person is required 
to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any 
Stat?, and on which there is no white male 
adult not liable to military service, and in 
States having no such law, one person, as 
agent, owner, or overseer on such planta- 
tion of twenty negroes, and on which there 
is no white male adult not liable to mili- 
tary service ;' and also the following clause 
in said act, to wit: 'and furthermore, for 
additional police of every twenty negroes, 
on two or more plantations, within five 
miles of each other, and each having less 
than twenty negroes, and on which there 
is no white male adult not liable to military 
duty, one person, being the oldest of the 
owners or overseers on such plantations,' 
be and the same are hereby repealed ; and 
the persons so hitherto exempted by said 
clauses of said act are hereby made subject 
to military duty in the same manner that 
they would be liad said clauses never been 
embraced in said act." 

THE POSITION OF DOUGLAS. 

After the President had issued his first 
call, Douglas saw the danger to which the 
Capitol was exposed, and he promptly 
called upon Lincoln to express his full 
approval of the call. Knowing his politi- 
cal value and that of his following Lin- 
coln asked him to dictate a despatch to the 
Associated Press, which he did in these 
words, the original being left in the posses- 
sion of Hon. George Ashraun of Massachu- 
setts \ 

"April 18, 1861, Senator r>ouglas, called 
on the President, and had an interesting 
eonversation, on the present condition of 
the country. The substance of it was, on 
the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was 
unalterably opposed to the administration 
in all its political issues, he was prepared 
to fully sustain the President, in the exercise 
of all his Constitutional functions, to pre- 
eerve the Union, maintain the Government, 
and defend the Federal Capitol. A firm po- 
licy and prompt action was necessary. The 



Capitol was in danger, and must be de- 
fended at all hazards, and at any expense 
of men and money. He spoke of the pre- 
sent and future, without any reference to 
the i^ast." 

Douglas followed this with a great speech 
at Chicago, in which he uttered a sentence 
that was soon quoted on nearly every 
Northern tongue. It was simply thi.s, 
" tliat there now could be but two j)arties, 
patriots and traitors." It needed nothing 
more to rally the Douglas Democrats by 
the side of the Administration, and in the 
general i'ecling of patriotism awakened not 
only this class of Democrats, but many 
Northern supporters of Breckinridge also 
enlisted in the Union armies. The leaders 
who stood aloof and gave their sympathies 
to the South, were stigmatized as " Copper- 
heads," and these where they were so im- 
pudent as to give expression to their hos- 
tility, were as odious to the mass of North- 
erners as the Unionists of Tennessee and 
North Carolina were to the Secessionists — 
with this difference — that the latter were 
compelled to seek refuge in their moun- 
tains, while the Northern leader who 
sought to give " aid and comibrt to the 
enemy " was either j^laced under arrest by 
the government or proscribed politically 
by his neighbors. Civil war is ever thus. 
Let us now pass to 

THE POLITICAL LEGISLATION INCIDENT TO 
THE WAR. 

The first session of the 37th Congress 
began July 4, 1861, and closed Aug. 6. 
The second began December 2, 1861, and 
closed July 17, 1862. The third began 
December 1, 1862 and closed March 4, 
1863. 

All of these sessions of Congress were 
really embarrassed by the number of vol- 
unteers offering from the North, and suffi- 
ciently rapid provision could not be made 
for them. And as illustrative of how 
political lines had been broken, it need 
only be remarked that Benjamin F. Butler, 
the leader of the Northern wing of Breck- 
inridge's supporters, was commissioned aa 
the first commander of the forces which 
Massachusetts sent to the field. New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio — the great West— -all 
the States, more than met all early require- 
ments. So rapid were enlistments that no 
song was as popular as that beginning 
with the lines : 

" Wo uro cnminp, Fathor Abraham, 
Six hundred tliousand stronp;." 

The first session of the 37th Congress 
was a special one, called by the President. 
McPherson, in his classification of the 
membership, shows the changes in a body 
made historic, if such a thing can be, not 
only by its membership present, but that 
which had gone or maae itself subject to 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION 



131 



expul^ion by sidinf^witli the (>)nff(lcr:ioy. 
We qu )te tlie list so concisely iiiiil correct- 
ly presented : 

MEMBERS OF THE 37TH CONGRESS. 
March 4, 1801, to March 4, 18C3. 

IIan'Nibal Hamlin, of Maine, Presi- 
dent ol' the iSenute. 

SENATORS. 

Maine— hot M. Morrill, Wm. Pitt Fes- 
gcnden. 

AVu' Jldinpshire — John P. Hale, Daniel 
Clark. 

Vermont — Solomon Foot, Jacob CoUa- 
mor. 

M'tssachusefts — Charles Sumner, Henry 
Wilson. 

Rhode Island — James F. Simmons,* 
Henry B. Anthony. 

Connecticut — James Dixon, Lafayette S. 
Foster. 

Neip York — Preston Kinjr, Ira Harris. 

Neic JerKei/ — John B. Thomson,* John 
C. Ton Eycic. 

renusi/h-ania — David Wilraot, Edgar 
Cowan. 

Ihiaicare — James A. Bayard, Willard 
Saulsbury. 

Maryland — AnthonyKennedy, James A. 
Pearce.* 

Virgiriia* 

Ohio — Benjamin F. Wade, John Sher- 
man. 

Kenfuchj — Lazarus W. Powell, John C. 
Breckinridge.* 

Tenne-isee — Andrew Johnson, 

Indiana — Jesse D. Bright,* Henry S. 
Lane. 

Illinois — O. H. Browning,* Lyman 
Trumbull. 

Missouri — Trusten Polk,* Waldo P. 
Johnson.* 

Michigan — Z. Chandler, K. S. Bing- 
ham.* 

lofca — James W. Grimes, James Harlan. 

Wisconsin — James R. Doolittle, Timothy 
0. Howe. 

California — Milton S. Latham, James 
A. McDougall. 

Minnesota — Henry M. Rice, Morton S. 
Wilkinson. 

Oregon — Edward D. Baker,* James W. 
Nesmith. 

Kansas — James H. Lane, S. C. Pomeroy. 

REPRESENTATIVES. 

Galusha a. Grow, of Pennsylvania, 
Speaker of the House. 

Maine — John N. Goodwin, Charles W. 
Walt<^)n,* Samuel C. Fessenden, Anson P. 
Morrill. John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. 

New Hampshire — Gil man Marston, Ed- 
ward H. Rollins, Thomas M. Edwards. 

Vermont— E. P. Walton, Jr., Justin S. 
Morrill, Portus Baxter. 

* 8m memorandum at the end of list. 



Massachusetts — Thomas I). Eliot, Jamcfi 
Bulliiiton, Bcnjarnin V. Thomas, Alexan- 
der H. Rice, VVilliam Aj)j)k'toii,* John U. 
Alley, Daniel W. Goocli, v 'liarlcs R.'i'iaiii, 
(iohlsinith F. Bailey,* Charles Delano, 
Henry L. Dawes. 

Rhode Isl,ni<l — \W\\\\:\m P. Sheffield, 
George H. Browne. 

('(iiinrrtinit — Dwight Loomis, James E. 
Fngli>h, Alfred A. Burnham,* George C 
Woodriitr. 

Nciv Yurk — Edward H. Smith, Moses F. 
Odell, Benjamin Wood, James E. Kerri- 
gan, William Wall, Frederick A. Conk- 
ling, Elijah Ward, Isaac C. Dclaplaine, 
Edward Haight, Charles H. Van Wyck, 
.lohn B. Steele, Stephen Baker, Abrnhain 
B. Olin, Krastus Corning, James B. Mc- 
Ivean, William A. Wheeler, Socrates N. 
Sherman, Chauncey Vibbard, Richard 
Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. Holland 
Duell, William E. Lansing, Ambrose W. 
Clark, Charles B. Sedgwick, Tiieodore M. 
Pomeroy, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Alexan- 
der S. liiven, Robert B. Van Valkenburgh, 
Alfred Ely, Augustus Frank, Burt Van 
Horn, Elbridge G. Spalding, Reuben E. 
Fenton. 

Neio Jersqf — John T. Nixon, John L. N. 
Stratton, William G. Steele, George T. 
Cobb, Nehemiah Perr\'. 

Pennsylvania — William E. Lehman, 
Charles J. Biddle,* John P. Verree, Wil- 
liam D. Kelley, William ^lorris Davis, 
John Hickman, Thomas B. Cooper,* Syd- 
enham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, John 
W. Killinger, James H. Campbell, Hen- 
drick B. Wright, Philip Johnson, Galusha 
A. Grow, James T. Hale, Joseph Baily, 
Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, .Tohn 
Covode, Jesse Lazear, .Tames K. Moorhead, 
Robert McKnight, John W. Wallace, John 
Patton, Elijah Babbitt. 

Delaware — George P. Fisher. 

Maryland — John W. Crisfield, Edwin H. 
Webster, Cornelius L. L. Leary, Henry 
May, Francis Thomas, Charles B. Calvert. 

Virginia — Charles H. Upton,* William 
G. Brown, John S. Carlile,* Kellian V. 
Whaley. 

Ohio — George H. Pendleton. ,Tohn A. 
Gurley,ClementL.Vallandigham, William 
Allen, James M. Ashley, Chilton A. Wliite, 
Richard A. Harrison, Samuel Sholla- 
barger, Warren P. Noble, Carey A. Trim- 
ble, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel S. Cox, 
Samuel T. Worcester, Harrison G. Blake, 
Robert H. Nugen, William P. Cutler, 
James R. Morris, Sidney Edgcrton, Albert 
G. Riddle, John Hutchins, John A. Bing- 
ham. 

Kentucky — Henry C. Burnett,* James S. 
.Tackson,* Henry Grider, Aaron Harding, 
Charles A. WicklifTe, Georce W. Dunlan, 
Robert Mallorv', John J. Crittenden, Wil- 
liam H. Wadsworth, John W. Menzies. 

Sec mcmurandum at oud of list. 



132 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Tennessee — Horace ^laynard,* Andrew 
J. Clements,* ( Jodrgo W. Bridges.* 

Indiana — John Law, James A. Craven.s, 
W. MfKee Dunn, William S. Molman, 
George. W. Julian, Albert G. INjrtcr, Dan- 
iel W. Voorhees, Albert S. White, Schuyler 
Collax, W^illiam Mitchell, John P. C. 
Shanks, 

Illinois — EHhu B. Washburne, Isaac N. 
Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, AVilliam Kellogg, 
Williani A. liiehardson,* John A. Me- 
Clernand,* James C. Robinson, Philip B. 
F<)uke, John A. Logan.* 

Missouri — Francis P. Blair, Jr., James 
S. Rollins, John B. Clark,* Elijah H. Nor- 
ton, John W. Reid,* John S. Phelps,* 
John W. Noell. 

Michigan— Bradley F. Granger, Fer- 
nando C. Beaman, Francis W. Kellogg, 
Rowland E. Trowbridge. 

Iowa — Samuel R. Curtis,* William Van- 
dever. 

Wisconsin — John F. Potter, Luther Han- 
chett,* A, Scott Sloan. 

Min /icsota— Cyrus Aldrich, William Win- 
dom. 

Oregon — Andrew J. Thayer.* 

Kansas — Martin F. Conway. 

MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES. 

The following changes took place during 
the Congress : 

IN SENATE, 

Ehode Island— 18G2, Dec. 1, Samuel G. 
Arnold succeeded James F. Simmons, re- 
signed. 

New Jersei/— 1862, Dec, 1, Richard S. 
Field succeeded, bv appointment, John R. 
Thompson, deceased Sept. 12, 18G2. 1863, 
Jan. 21, James, W. Wall, succeeded, by 
election, Richard S. Field. 

Maryland — 18G3, Jan. 14, Thomas H. 
Hicks, first by appointment and then by 
election succeeded James A. Pearce, de- 
ceased Dec. 20, 1862. 

Virginia— li^C,l, July 13, John S. Carlile 
and Waitman T. Willey, sworn in place of 
Robert M. T. Hunter and James M, Mason, 
withdrawn and al)dicated. 

Kentiichj—mn, Dec. 23, Garrett Davis 
succeeded John C. Breckinridge, expelled 
December 4. 

Indiana— 18r,2, March 3, Joseph A. 
Wright sucxeccled Jesse D. Bright, expelled 
Feb. 6, 18G3, Jan. 22, David furpie, super- 
seded, bv election, Joseph A. Wright. 

Illinois— im^, .Lan. 30, William A. Rich- 
ardson superseded, by election, O. PI. 
Browning. 

Missouri — 18G1, Jan. 24, R. AVilson suc- 
ceedetl Waldo P. Johnson, expelled Jan. 
10. 18G2, Jan. 2i), .Tohn B. Henderson suc- 
ceeded Trusten Polk, expelled .Ian. 10. 

Michigan — 18G2, Jan. 17, Jacob M. How- 
ard succeeded K. S. Bingham, deceased 
October 5, 18G1. 

* Sec memorasdum at ond of list. 



Oregon— lS(i2, Dec. 1, Benjamin F. Hard- 
ing succeeded Edward D, Baker, deceased 
Oct. 21, 1862. 

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Maine — 18G2, December 1, Thomas A. 
D. Fessenden succeeded Charles W. Wal- 
ton, resigned May 2G, 1862. 

Massachusetts — 1861, December l,Amasa 
Walker succeeded Goldsmith F. Bailey, 
deceased May 8, 1862; 1861, December 2, 
Samuel Hooper succeeded William Apple- 
ton, resigned. 

Connecticut — 1861, December 2, Alfred 
A. Burnham qualified. 

Pennsylvania — 1861, December 2,Charle3 
J. Biddle qualified ; 1862, June 3, John D. 
Stiles succeeded Thomas B. Cooper, de- 
ceased April 4, 1862. 

Virginia, — 1861, July 13, John S. Carlile 
resigned to take a seat in the Senate ; 1861, 
December 2, Jacob B. Blair, succeeded John 
S. Carlile, resigned ; 1862, February 28, 
Charles H. Upton unseated by a vote of 
the House; 1862, May 6, Joseph Segar 
qualified. 

Kentucky — 1862, December, 1, George H. 
Ycaman succeeded James S. Jackson, de- 
ceased ; 1862, March 10, Samuel L. Casey 
succeeded Henry C. Burnett, expelled De- 
cember 3, 1861. 

Tennessee — 1861, December 2, Horace 
Maynard qualified ; 1862, January 13, An- 
drew J. Clements qualified ; 1863, Febru- 
ary 25, George W\ Bridges qualified. 

/ZKnojs— 1861, December 12, A. L. Knapp 
qualified, in place of J. A. McClernand, re- 
signed; 18G2, June 2, William J. Allen 
qualified, in place of John A. Logan, re- 
signed ; 18G3, January 30, William A. Rich- 
ardson withdrew to take a seat in the 
Senate. 

Missouri — 1862, January 21, Thomas L. 
Price succeeded John W. Reid, expelled 
December 2, 1861 ; 1862, January 20, Wil- 
liam A. Hall succeeded John B. Clark, ex- 
pelled July 13, 1861 ; 1862, May 9, John S, 
Phelps qualified. 

/ott-a— 1861, December 2, James F. Wil- 
son succeeded Samuel R. Curtis, resigned 
August 4, 1861. 

Wisconsin — 1863, January 26, Walter D. 
Mclndoe succeeded Luther Hanchett, de- 
ceased November 24, 18G2. 

Oregon— \8Ql, July 30, George K. Shiel 
succeeded Andrew J. Thayer, unseated. 

Louisiana— \8CyZ, February 17, Michael 
Ilahn qualified ; 1863, February 23, Ben- 
jamin F, Flanders qualified. 

Lincoln, in his message, recited the 
events which had transpired since his 
inauguration, and asked Congress to con- 
fer upon him the power to make the conflict 
short and decisive. He wanted 400,000 
men, and four hundred millions of money, 
remarking that " the people will save their 



MR. LINCOLN'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION 



1'66 



government if the <^ovc'riuncnt itself will 
do its pint only indiiri'itiilly well." Con- 
j^re-(8 responded by udding a.n hundred 
thousand to eiich recjuest. 

There were cxeilinj; di'butes und scenes 
durinji; this session, for many of tlic South- 
era leaders remained, either (hrouiz:h hesi- 
tancy or witli a view to check lej^islation 
and aid tlu-ir section Ity adver-e criticism 
on the measures proposed. Most promi- 
nent in the latter list was John (■. Breckin- 
ri<li;e, late Vice President and now Senator 
from Kentucky. With singular boldness 
und elo(punee he onposed every war niea- 
hure, and spoke witli the undisguised pur- 
pose of aiding the South. He continued 
this course until the close of the extra 
session, when he acce}>ted a (u'lieral's 
commission in the Confederate army. IJut 
before itvs close, Senator Baker of Oregon, 
angered at his general course, said in reply 
to one of Breckinridge's speeches, Aug. 1st: 

" What would the Senator from Ken- 
tucky, have? These sj)eeches of his, sown 
broadcast over the land, wliat clear distinct 
meaning have they? Are they not intend- 
ed for dis(n-ganization in our very midst? 
Are they not intended to destroy our zeal ? 
Are they not intended to animate our 
enemiciS ? Sir, are they not words of bril- 
liant polished treason, even in the very 
Capitol of the Rej)ublic ?" [ Here there were 
such manifestations of applause in the gal- 
leries, a> were with dillieulty suppressed.] 

Mr. Baker resumed, and turning directly 
to Mr. Breckinridge, incpiired: 

" What would have been thought, if, in 
another Capitol, in another republic, in a 
yet more martial age, a Senator as grave, 
not more elo(iuent or dignitied than the 
Senator from Kentucky, yet with the 
Roman purple flowing over his shoulders, 
had risen in his place, surrounded by all 
the illustrations of Roman glory, and de- 
clared that the cause of the advancing 
Hannibal wasjust, and that Carthage ought 
to be dealt wiili in terms of peace? What 
would have been thought if, after the bat- 
tle of Canna?, a Senatfir there had risen in 
his place, and denounced every levy of the 
Roman people, every expenditure of its 
treo-sure, and every app-^al to the old recol- 
lections and the old glories ?" 

There was a silence so profound through- 
out the Senate and galleries, that a pinfall 
could have been heard, while every eye 
was fixed upon Breckinridge. Fessenden 
exclaimed in deep low tones, " he would 
have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock !" 

Baker resumed : 

" Sir, a Senator himself learned far more 
than myself, in such lore, (Mr. Fessenden i 
tells me, in a low voice, "he would havt; 
been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.'" 
It is a grand commentary upon the 
American Constitution, that we permit 
these words of the Senator from Ken- 



tucky, to be uttered. I ask the Senator 
to recollect, to what, save to send aid 
and comfort to the enemy, <lo these f)re- 
dictions amount to? lOvery word thus utter- 
ed, falls iis a note (jf inspiration upon every 
Confederate ear. I-A'ery soinid thus utter- 
ed, is a word, (and lalling from bin lifw, a 
miglity word ) of kindling an<l triunijili to 
the foe that determines to advance." 

The Republii-ans of the North were the 
distinctive " war party," i. >'., tluty gave 
unqualiiied sujiport to every dennind made 
by the Lincoln administration. Most of 
the Democrats, acting as citizens, did like- 
wise, but many of those in otJicial pr.sition, 
assuming the jirerogative of a niiri irity, 
took the liberty in Congress and State 
Legislature to critic^ise the more important 
war measures, and the extremists went so 
far, in many instances, as to organize oppo- 
sition, and to encourage it among their 
constiUients. Thus in the States borderinff 
the Obio and Mississi[(pi rivers, organized 
and individual clibrts were made to encour- 
age desertions, and the " Knights of the 
Golden Circle," and the "Sons of Liberty," 
secret societies composed of Northern sym- 
pathizers with the South, formed many 
troublesome conspiracies. Through their 
action troops were even enlisted in Soutl>- 
ern Indiana, Illinois and Missouri for the 
Confederate armies, while the border States 
in the Union sent wliole retrimcnts to bat- 
tle for the South. The "Knights of the 
(Jolden Circle " conspired to release Con- 
federate prisoners of war, and invited Mor- 
gan to raid their States. One of the worst 
forms of opposition took shape in a con- 
spiracy to resist the draft in Now York 
city. The lliry of the mob was several 
days beyond control, and troops had to be 
recalled from the front to su[)press it. The 
riot was really political, the prejudices of 
the mob under cover pf resistance to the 
draft, being vented on the negroes, many 
of whom were killed before adequate num- 
bers could be sent to their suvcor. The 
civil authorities of the city were charged 
with winking at the occurrence, and it was 
afterwards ascertained that Confederate 
agents really organized the rint :us a move- 
ment to " take the enemy in the rear." 

The Republican w;vs as distinctively the 
war party during the Great Rebellion, as 
the Whigs were during the Revolution, the 
Democratic-Republiciins during the War 
of 1812, and the Democrats during the 
War with I\Iexico, and, as in all of the-se 
war decades, kept the majority sentiment 
of the country with them. Tliis is such a 
plain statement of facts that it is neither 
I)artisan to assert, nor a mark of party- 
fealty to deny. The history is indelibly 
written. It is stamped upon nearly every 
war measure, and certainly upon every 
p(ditical me:i-*ure incident to growing out 
of the rebellion. 



134 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



These were exciting and memorable 
scenes in the several sessions of the 37th 
Coiiirress. During the first many Southern 
Senators and Kepreseutatives withdrew 
alter angry statements of their reasons, 
eroncTidly in obedience to calls i'rom their 
fctates or immediate homes. In this way 
the majority was changed. Others re- 
mained until the close of the first session, 
and then more quietly entered the rebellion. 
W'g have shown that of this class was 
Breckinridge, who thought he could do 
more good for his cause in the Federal 
Congress thnn elsewhere, and it is well tor 
the Union that most of his colleagues dis- 
agreed with him as to the propriety and 
■wisdom of his policy. If all had followed 
his lead or imitated his example, the war 
Wc)uld in all probability have closed in an- 
other c()mj)romise, or possibly in the ac- 
complishment of southern separations. 
These men could have so obstructed legis- 
lation as to make all its early periods far 
more discouraging than they were. As it 
was the Confederates had all the advan- 
tages of a free and fair start, and the efi'eet 
was traceable in all of the early battles 
and negotiations with foreign powers. 
There was one way in which these advan- 
tages could have been supported and con- 
tinued. Breckenridge, shrewd and able 
politician as he was, saw that the way was 
to keep Southern Representatives in Con- 
gress, at least as long as Northern senti- 
ment would abide it, and in this way win 
victories at the very fountain-head of 
power. But at the close of the extra ses- 
sion this view had become unpopular at 
both ends of the line, and even Brecken- 
ridge abandoned it and sought to hide his 
original purpose by immediate service iu 
tlie Confederate armies. 

It will be noted that those who vacated 
their seats to enter the Confederacy were 
afuerwards expelled. In this connection a 
curious incident can be related, occuring 
as late as the Senate session of 1882 : 

The widow of the late Senator Nichol- 
son, of Tennessee, who was in the Senate 
when Tennessee seceded, a short time ago 
nent a petition to Congress asking that the 
salary of her late husband, after he return- 
ed to Tennessee, might be paid to her. 
Mr. Nicholson's term would have expired 
in 1865 had he remained in his seat. He 
did not appear at the special session of 
CoTigress convened in July, 1861, and with 
other Senators from the South was expelled 
from the Senate on July 11th of that year. 
The Senate Committee on Claims, after 
examining the case thoroughly, submitted 
to the Senate an adverse report. After 
giving a concise history of the ease the 
committee say : " We do not deem it 
proper, after the expiration of twenty years, 
.to j)ass special acts of Congress to compen- 
sate the Senators and Ilepreseutativcs who 



seceded in 1861 for their services in the 
early part of that j'ear. We recommend 
that the claim of the petitioner be disal- 
lowed." 

The Sessions of the 37th Congress 
changed the political course of many pub- 
lie men. It made the Southern believera 
in secession still more vehement ; it sepa- 
rated the Southern Unionists from their 
former iriends, and created a wall of fire 
between them ; it changed the temper of 
Northern Abolitionists, in so far as to drive 
from them all spirit of fixction, all pride of 
methods, and compelled them to unite with 
a republican sentiment which was making 
sure advances from the original declara- 
tion that slavery should not be extended 
to the Territories, to emancipation, and, 
finally, to the arming of the slaves. It 
changed many Northern Democrats, and 
from the ranks of these, even in represen- 
tative positions, the lines of the Repub- 
licans were constantly strengthened on 
pivotal questions. On the 27th of July 
Breckinridge had said in a speech : " When 
traitors become numerous enough treason 
becomes respectable." Senator Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, replied to this, and 
said : " God being willing, whether traitors 
be many or few, as I have hitherto waged 
war against traitors and treason, I intend 
to continue it to the end." And yet John- 
son had the year before warmly supported 
Breckinridge in his presidential campaign. 
Among the more conspicuous Rejjubli- 
cans and anti-Lecompton Democrats in 
this session were Charles Sumner, a man 
who then exceeded all others in scholarly 
attainments and as an orator, though lie 
was not strong in current debate. Great 
care and preparation marked every impor- 
tant efl:brt, but no man's speeches were 
more admired throughout the North, and 
hated throughout the South, than those of 
Charles Sumner. An air of romance sur- 
rounded the man, because he was the first 
victim of a senatorial outrage, when beaten 
by Brooks of South Carolina ; but, sneered 
his political enemies, " no man more care- 
fully preserved his wounds for exhibition 
to a sympathetic world." He had some 
minor weaknesses, which were constantly 
displayed, and these centred in egotism 
and high personal pride — not very popular 
traits — but no enemy was so malicious as 
to deny his greatness. 

Fessenden of Maine was one of the great 
lights of that day. He was apt, almost 
beyond example, in debate, and was a re- 
cognized leader of the Rejadilicans until, 
in the attempt to impeach President John- 
son, he disagreed with the majority of his 
party and stepi)ed " down and out." Yet 
no one questioned his integrity, and all be- 
lieved that his vote was cast on this ques- 
tion in a line with his convictions. The 
leading character in the House was Thad- 



MR. LINCOLN'S B'IRST ADMINISTRATION. 



l;]5 



deus Stevens, an original Abolitionist in 

sentiment, but a man oniiiuiitly practical 
and shrewd in all his methods. 

Tlie ehanee-i of" politics often carry men 
into tlie I'residential t'liair, into ('abinets, 
and with later and demoralizing^ Ire lUency 
into Senate seats ; hut chance never makes 
a C'ommoner, and Tiiadtleus Stevens was 
throui:;hout the war, and uj) to the hour ol' 
his ileuth, recof^nized a.s the great Com- 
moner of the Northern ncoj)lc. lie led in 
every House battle, ana a more unllineh- 
ing party leader was never known to par- 
liamentary bodies. Limp and infirm, he 
was not liable to personal assault, even in 
days when such assaults were common; 
but when on one occasion his fiery tongue 
had so exasperated the Southerners in 
Congress as to make thi'm show their 
knives and pistols, he stepped out inio the 
aisle, and facing, bid them defiance, lie 
was a Radical of the Radicals, and con- 
stantly contended that the government — 
the better to preserve itself — could travel 
outside of the Constitution. What cannot 
be said of any other man in history, can 
be said ofTli.iddeus Stevens. When he 
lay dead, carried thus from Wiisliington to 
his home in Lancaster, with all of his 
people knowing that he was dead, he was, 
on the day foil )\ving the arrival of his 
corpse, and within a few squares of his re- 
sidence, unanimously renominated by tbe 
Rei)ublicans for Congress. If more poetic 
and less practical sections or lands than the 
North bad such a hero, hallowed by such 
an incident, both the name and the inci- 
dent would travel down the ages in song 
and story.* 

The " rising " man in the 37th Congress 
was Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, elected 
Speaker of the 38th, and subsequently 
Vice President. A great parliamentarian, 
he was gifted with rare eloquence, and 
with a kind which won friends without 
ofTending enemies — something too rare to 
last. In the House were also Justin S. 
Morrill, tlie author of the Tariff Bill which 
supplied the "sinews of war," Henry L. 
Dawes of Massachusetts, then " the man of 
Statistics " and the " watch-dog of the 
treasury." Roscoe Conkling was then the 
admitted leader of the New York delega- 
tion, as he was the admitted mental 
superior of any other in subsequent terms 
in the Senate, up to the time of his resigna- 
tion in 1881. Reuben E. Fenton, his 
factional opponent, was also there. Ohio 
was strongly represented in both parties — 
Pendleton, Cox and Vallandigham on the 
side of the Democrats ; Bingham and Ash- 
ley on the part of the Republicans. Illi- 
nois showed four prominent anti-Lccomp- 
ton supporters of the administration — 

♦This incid"nt was rplatod to the writor by Cio]. \. K. 
McCluro of I'liihulelpbia, who was iu Louuialer ut the 
timo. 



Douglas in the Senate; Logan, McCler- 
nanil and Richardson in the lIou-.e ; wliilo 
prominent among the lu'publicans were 
Lovejoy (an original .\b .ilitionist), WjlsIi- 
hurne, a candidate for the Presidi lUial 
nomination in iS.st) — Kellogg and Arnold, 
.lohn F. Pottir was one of tlie prominent 
Wisconsin men, who had W(<n additional 
fame by accepting the challenge to duel of 
Roger A. Pryor of Virginia, and naming 
I he American rille as the weapon. F<jrtu- 
nately the duel did not come off. Penn- 
sylvania had then, as she still ha.s. Judge 
Kelley c/f i'hiladelphia, (chairman of Ways 
and ^Ieans in the KJlh (Jongress ; also 
Fdward McPherson, frequently since Clerk 
of the House, temporary President of the 
Cincinnati Convention, who~c decision 
overthrew the unit rule, and author of 
several valuable jtolitical works, some of 
which we iieely quf)te in this history. 
John Hickman, subsequently a Republi- 
can, but one of the earliest of the anti- 
Lccompton Democrats, was an admitted 
leader, a man of rare force and eloquence. 
So radical did he become that he refused 
to support the re-election cf Lincoln. He 
was succeeded by John M. Broomall, who 
made several fine speeches in favor of 
the constitutional amendments touching 
slavery and civil rights. Here also were 
James Campbell, Hendricks B. Wright, 
John Covode, James K. Morehead, and 
Speaker Grow — the father of the Home- 
stead Bill, which will be found in Book 
v., giving the Existing Political Laws. 
At this session Senator Trumbull of 
Illinois, renewed the agitation of the 
slavery question, by reporting from the 
Judiciary Committee of which he was 
Chairman, a bill to confiscate all property 
and free all slaves used for insurrectionary 
purposes.* Breckinridge fought the bill, 
as indeed he did all bills coming from the 
Republicans, and said if passed it would 
eventuate in "the loosening of all bonds." 
Among the facts stated in support of the 
measure was this, that the Confederates 
had at Bull Run used the negroes and 
slares against the Union army — a stiite- 
ment never well established. The bill 
passed the Senate by 33 to G, and on the 
3d of August passed the House, though 
several Republicans there voted against it, 
fearing a too rapid advance would preju- 
dice the Union cause. Indeed this fear 
was entertained by Lincoln when he re- 
commended 

COMPEXSATED EMANCIPATION 

in the second session of the 37th Congress, 
which recommendation excited oftieial ilis- 
cussion almost up to the time the emanci- 
pation proclamation was issued as a war 
necessity. The idea of compensated emaa- 

* Arnold's "Ilidtory of .Vbrahaui Lincoln." 



136 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



cipation originated with or was first form- 
ulated by James B. McKean of New York, 
who on Feb. 11th, 18G1, at the 2d session 
of the 36th Congress, introduced the fol- 
lowing resohition : 

WuEiiEAS, The "Gulf States" have as- 
sumed to secede from the Union, and it is 
deemed important to prevent the " border 
slave States " from following their exam- 
ple ; and whereas it is believed that those 
who are inflexibly opposed to any measure 
of compromise or concession that involves, 
or may involve, a sacrifice of principle or 
the extension of slavery, would neverthe- 
less cheerfully concur in any lawful 
measure for the emancipation of the slaves : 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That the select committee of 
five be instructed to inquire whether, by 
the consent of the people, or of the State 
governments, or by compensating the 
slaveholders, it be practicable for the Gen- 
eral Government to procure the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves in some, or all, of the "bor- 
der States;" and if so, to report a bill for 
that purpose. 

Lincoln was so strongly impressed with 
the fact, in the earlier struggles of the war, 
that great good would follow compensated 
emaucii)ation, that on March 2d, 1862, he 
sent a special message to the 2d session of 
the 37th Congress, in which he said : 

" I recommend the adoption of a joint 
resolution by your honorable bodies, which 
shall be substantially as follows : 

Eesolced, That the United States ought 
to co-oj)erate with any State which may 
adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giv- 
ing to such State pecuniary aid, to be used 
by such State in its discretion, to compen- 
sate for the inconveniences, public and 
private, produced by such change of sys- 
tem. 

" If the proposition contained in the 
resolution does not meet the approval of 
Congress and the country, there is the end ; 
but if it does command such approval, I 
deem it of importance that the States and 
people immediately interested should be 
at once distinctly notified of the fiict, so 
that they may begin to consider whether 
to accept or reject it. The Federal Govern- 
ment would find its highest interest in such 
a measure, as one of the most efficient 
means of self-preservation. The leaders of 
the existing insurrection entertain the hope 
that this Government will ultimately be 
forced to acknowledge the independence 
of some part of the disaffected region, and 
that all the slave States north of such part 
will then say, ' the Union for which we 
have struggled being already gone, we now 
choose to go with the southern section.' 
To deprive them of tliisho|)e, substantially 
ends the rcbellidii; and the initiation of 
emancipation completely deprives them of 
it aa to all the States initiating it. The 



point is not that all the States tolerating 
slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate 
emancij)ation ; but that, while the offer 
is equally made to all, the more northern 
shall, by such initiation, make it certain 
to the more southern that in no event will 
the former ever join the latter in their pro- 
posed confederacy. I say ' initiation,' be- 
cause, in my judgment, gradual, and not 
sudden emancipation, is better for all. In 
the mere financial or pecuninry view, any 
member of Congress, with the census 
tables and Treasuiy reports before him, 
can readily see lor himself how very soon 
the current expenditures of this war would 
purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves 
in any named State. Such a proposition 
on the part of the General Government 
sets up no claim of a right by Federal 
authority to interfere with slavery within 
State limits, referring, as it does the abso- 
lute control of the subject in each case to 
the State and its people immediately in- 
terested. It is proposed as a matter of per- 
fectly free choice with them. j^ 

" In the annual message last December, M 
I thought fit to say, ' the Union must be ■^ 
preserved; and hence all indispensable 
means must be employed.' I said this not 
hastily, but deliberately. War has been 
made, and continues to be an indispensa- 
ble means to this end. A practical reac- 
knowledgment of the national authority 
would render the war unnecessary, and it 
would at once cease. If, however, resist- 
ance continues, the war must also continue; 
and it is impossible to foresee all the inci- 
dents which may attend, and all the ruin 
which may follow it. Such as may seem 
indispensable, or may obviously promise 
great efficiency toward ending the strug- 
gle, must and will come. 

" The proposition now made, though an 
offer only, I hope it may be esteemed no 
offence to ask whether the ])ecuniaiy con- 
sideration tendered would not be of more 
value to the States and private persons 
concerned, than are the institution, and 
property in it, in the present aspect of 
affairs ? 

" While it is true that the adoption of 
the proposed resolution would be merely 
initiatory, and not within itself a i)ractical 
measure, it is recommended in the hope 
that it would soon lead to important prac- 
tical results. In full view of my great re- 
sponsibility to my God and to my country, 
I earnestly beg the attention of Congress 
and the pco])le to the subject." 

Mr. Conk ling called the question up in 
the House March 10th, and under a sus- 
y)ension of the rules, it was passed by 97 to 
36. It passed the Senate April 2, by 32 to 
10, the Republicans, as a rule, voting for 
it, the Democrats, as a rule, voting against 
it ; and this was true even of those in the 
Border States. 



COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. 



137 



The fact last stated excited the notice of 
Pre^iident Lincoln, and in July, ISliii, he 
Bouglit an interview with the Border State 
Conj^ressnien, tlie result of which is cun- 
tiiiued in McF/icrso)i\s I'olitiral Jlistury uf 
the Great liebellion, aa follows: 



Tlie Pre»ldeut'» Appeal to tUe Bordtr 

The Representatives and Senat<^)rs of 
the border slavcholdint;; States, haviii";, by 
special invitation of the President, heen 
convened at the Executive Mansion, on 
Saturday morning hu^t, (July 12,) Mr. 
Lincohxadilressed them as follows from a 
written paper held in his hand : 

" Gentlemen : After the adjournment 
of Congress, now near, I shall have no 
opportunity of seeing you for several 
months. Believing that you of the border 
iStates hold more power for good than any 
other e(|ual number of members, I feel it 
a duty whioh 1 cannot justifiably waive, to 
make this appeal to you. 

" I intend no reproach or complaint 
when I ;ussure you that, in my opinion, if 
you all had voted for the resolution in the 
gradual emancipation message of last 
Marcii, the war would now be substantially 
ended. And the plan therein proposed is 
yet one of the most potent and swift means 
of ending it. Let the States which are in 
rebellion see definitely and certainly that 
in no event will the States you represent 
ever join their proposed Confederacy, and 
tliey cannot much longer maintain the 
onte-t. But you cannot divest them of 
their hope to ultimately have you with 
them so long as you show a determination 
to perpetuate the institution within your 
own States. Beat them at elections, as 
you liave overwhelmingly done, and,noth- 
nijc daunted, they still claim you as their 
own. You and I know what the lever of 
their power is. Break that lever before 
their faces, and they can shake you no 
more forever. 

'"Most of you have treated me with 
kindness and consideration, and I trust 
you will not now think I improperly touch 
what is exclusively your own, when, for 
the sake of the whole countrj', I ask, ' Can 
you, for your States, do better than to take 
the course I urge? ' Discarding punctilio 
and maxims adapted to more manageable 
times, and looking only to the unprece- 
dentedly stern facts of our case, can you do 
better in any possible event? You prefer 
that the constitutional relations of the 
States to the nation shall be practically 
restored without disturbance of the insti- 
tution ; and, if this were done, my whole 
duty, in this respect, under the Constitu- 
tion and mv oath of office, would be per- 
formed. But it is not done, and we are 



trying to accomplish it by war. The 
incidents of the war cannot be avoided. 
If the war continue.^ long, aa it nmst, if 
the object be not sooner attained, tlie in- 
stitution in your States will be ex- 
tinguished by mere friction and abra-sion 
— by the mere incidents of the war. It 
will be gone, and you will have nothing 
valuable in lieu of it. Mui'h of its value 
is gone already. How much better for 
you and for your people to take the step 
which at once shortens the war and 
secures substantial compensation for that 
which is sure to be wholly lost in any 
other event! How much better to thus 
save the money which else we .sink forever 
in the war! How much better to do it 
while wc can, lest the war ere long render 
us pecuniarily unable to do it! How much 
better for you, iis seller, and the nation, as 
buyer, to sell out and buy out that without 
which the war could never have been, 
than to sink both the thing to be sold and 
the i)rice of it in cutting one another's 
throats ! 

" I do not speak of emancipation at once, 
but of a decision at once to emancipate 
fjradaufti/. Room in South America for 
colonization can be obtained cheaply and 
in abundance, and when numbers shall be 
large enough to be company and encour- 
agement for one another, the freed people 
will not be so reluctant to go. 

"lam pressed with a difficulty not yet 
mentioned, one which threatens division 
among those who, united, are none too 
strong. An instance of it is known to 
you. General Hunter is an honest man. 
He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I 
valued him none the less for his agreeing 
with me in the general wish that all men 
everywhere could be freed. He proclaimed 
all men free within certain States, and I 
repudiated the proclamation. He expected 
more good and less harm from the measure 
than I could believe would follow. Yet, 
in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if 
not offence, to many whose support the 
country cannot afford to lose. And this is 
not the end of it. The pressure in this 
direction is still upon me, and is increas- 
ing. By conceding what I now ask you 
can relieve me, and, much more, can re- 
lieve the country in this important point. 

" Uj)on these considerations I ha%'e 
again begged your attention to the mes- 
sage of March last. Before leaving the 
Capitol, consider and discuss it among 
yourselves. You are patriots and states- 
men, and as such I pray you consider this 
proposition ; and at the least commend it 
to the consideration of your States and 
people. As you would perpetuate popular 
government for the best people in tho 
world, I beseech you that you do in no- 
wi.se omit this. Our common country ia 
in great peril, demanding the loftiest 



138 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



views and boldest action to bring a speedy 
relief. Once relieved, its form of govern- 
ment is saved to the world, its beloved 
history and cherished memories are vin- 
dicated, and its happy future fully assured 
and rendered inconceivably grand. To 
you, more than to any others, the privi- 
lege is given to assure that happinebs and 
swell that grandeur, and to link your own 
names therewith forever." 

At the conclusion of these remarks 
some conversation was had between the 
President and several members of the 
delegations from the border States, in 
which it was represented that these States 
could not be expected to move in so great 
a matter as that brought to their notice in 
the foregoing address while as yet the 
Congress had taken no step beyond the 
passage of a resolution, expressive rather 
of a sentiment than presenting a substan- 
tial and reliable basis of action. 

The President acknowledged the force 
of this view, and admitted that the border 
States were entitled to expect a substantial 
pledge of pecuniary aid as the condition 
of taking into consideration a proposition 
so important in its relations to their social 
system. 

It was further represented, in the con- 
ference, that the people of the border 
States were interested in knov/ing the 
great importance which the President 
attached to the policy in question, while it 
was equally due to the country, to the 
President, and to themselves, that the 
representatives of the border slave-holding 
States should publicly announce the mo- 
tives under which they were called to act, 
and the considerations of public policy 
urged upon them and their constituents by 
the President. 

With a view to such a statement of their 
position, the members thus addressed met 
in council to deliberate on the reply they 
should make to the President, and, as the 
result of a comparison of opinions among 
themselves, they determined upon the 
adoption of a majority and minority an- 
swer. 

EEPLY OF THE MAJORITY. 

The following paper was yesterday sent to 
the President, signed by the majority of 
the Representatives from the border slave- 
holding States : — 

Washington, July 14, 1862. 
To the President : 

The undersigned, Representatives of 
Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and Mary- 
land, in the two Houses of Congress, have 
listened to your address with the profound 
Bensil)ility naturally inspired by the high 
source from which it emanate^, the earn- 
estness wliich marked its deliverv, and 
the overwhelming importance of the sub- 



ject of which it treats. We have given it 
a most respectful consideration, and now 
lay before you our response. We regret 
that want of time has not permitted us to 
make it more perfect. 

We have not been wanting, Mr. Presi- 
dent, in respect to you, and in devotion to 
the Constitution and the Union. We 
have not been indifferent to the great dif- 
ficulties surrounding you, compared with 
which all former national troubles have 
been but as the summer cloud ; and we 
have freely given you our sympathy and 
support. Repudiating the dangerous here- 
sies of the secessionists, we believed, with 
you, that the war on their part is aggressive 
and wicked, and the objects for which it 
was to be prosecuted on ours, defined by 
your message at the opening of the pres- 
ent Congress, to be such as all good men 
should approve. We have not hesitated 
to vote all supplies necessary to carry it on 
vigorously. We have voted all the men 
and money you have asked for, and even 
more ; we have imj)Osed onerous taxes on 
our people, and they are paying them 
with cheerfulness and alacrity ; we have 
encouraged enlistments and sent to the 
field many of our best men ; and some of 
our number have offered their persons to 
the enemy as pledges of their sincerity and 
devotion to the country. 

We have done all this under the most 
discouraging circumstances, and in the 
face of measures most distasteful to us 
and injurious to the interests we repre- 
sent, and in the hearing of doctrines 
avowed by those who claim to be your 
friends, must be abhorrent to us and our 
constituents. But, for all this, we have 
never faltered, nor shall we as long as we 
have a Constitution to defend and a Gov- 
ernment which protects us. And we are 
ready for renewed efforts, and even greater 
sacrifices, yea, any sacrifice, when we are 
satisfied it is required to preserve our 
admirable form of government and the 
priceless blessings of constitutional li- 
berty. 

A few of our number voted for the 
resolution recommended by your message 
of the 6th of March last, the greater por- 
tion of us did not, and we will briefly 
state the prominent reasons which in- 
fluenced our action. 

In the first place, it proposed a radical 
change of our social system, and was hur- 
ried through both Houses with undue 
haste, without reasonable time for consid- 
eration and debate, and with no time at 
all for consultation with our constituents, 
whose interests it deeply involved. It 
seemed like an interference by this Gov- 
ernment with a question which peculiarly 
and exclusively belonged to our respective 
States, on which tliey had not sought ad- 
vice or solicited aid. Many of us doubted 



COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. 



139 



the constitutional power of this Oovorn- 
ment to niuke u[>i)roj)ri;ilions of" money for 
the ol)jo(.'t tlesigimtc^d, iind all of us thoui^ht 
our finances were in no condition to bear 
the immonse outlay which its udoptioii 
and faithful execution would inqjose upon 
the national Treasury. If we i)ause out 
a nionient to think of the debt its accept- 
ance would have entailed, we are ajjpuUed 
by its mignitudc. The proposition was 
addressed to all the States, and embraced 
the whole number of slaves. 

Accordinj^ to the census of 18G0 there 
were then nearly four million slaves in the 
country; from natural increase they exceed 
that number now. At even the low average 
of $300, the price fixed by the emancipa- 
tion act for the slaves of this District, anil 
greatly below their real worth, their value 
runs up to the enormous sum of $1,200,- 
000,000 ; and if to that we add the cost of 
deportation and colonization, at $100 each, 
which is but a fraction more than is ac- 
tuallv paid bv the I\Iarvlap.d Colonization 
Society, we have $400,000,000 more. AVe 
were njt willing to impose a tax on our 
people sudi.'ient to pay the interest on that 
sum, in addition to the vast and daily in- 
creasing debt already fixed upon them by 
the exigencies of the war, and if we had 
been willing, the country could not bear it. 
Stated in this form the proposition is noth- 
ing less than the deportation from the 
country of $1,600,000,000 worth of produc- 
ing labor, and the substitution in its place 
of an interest-bearing debt of the same 
amount. 

But, if we are told that it was expected 
that only the States we represent would 
accept the proposition, we respectfully 
submit that even then it involves a sum 
too great for the financial ability of this 
Government at this time. According to 
the census of ISGO — • 

Slaves. 

Kentucky had 225,490 

Maryland 87,188 

Virginia 400,887 

Delaware 1,798 

Missouri 114,905 

Tennessee 275,784 

Making in the whole 1,196,112 

At the same rate of valuation 

these would amount to... .$358,933,500 

Add for deportation and colo- 
nization $100 each 118,244,533 

And we have the enormous 
sum of. $478,038,133 

We did not feel that we should be justi- 
fied in voting for a measure which, if car- 
ried out, would add this vast amount to 
our public debt at a moment when the 
Treasury was reeling under the enormous 
expenditure of the war. 



Again, it seemed to as that this resolu- 
tion w:us but the annunciati(jii of a Henti- 
luent which could not or was not likely to 
be reduced to an actual tangible proposi- 
tiitii. No movement was tlien iiiadt! to 
provide and appropriate tlu- funds reipiired 
to carry it into ed'ect ; and we wi re not en- 
couraged to believe that funds w(ju1<1 bo 
provided. And our belief luw been fully 
justified by subse<iuent event.s. Not to 
mention (tther circumslances, it is quite 
suilicient for our j)uri)o>e to bring to your 
notice the fact that, while this re.-olution 
was under consideration in the Senate, our 
colleague, the Senator lioin Kentucky, 
moved an amendment appropriating .$50(),- 
OOO to the object therein designated, and it 
was voted down with great unanimity. What 
confidence, then, could we rea>onably feel 
that if we comniittcd ourselves to the 
policy it projjosed, our constituents would 
reap the fruits of the promise held out; 
and on what ground could we, as fair men, 
ajjproach them and challenge their sup- 
port? 

The right to hold slaves is a right apper- 
taining to all the States of this Union. 
They have the right to cherish or abolish 
the institution, as their tastes or their in- 
terests may prompt, and no one is autho- 
rized to question the right or limit the en- 
joyment. And no one has more clearly 
ailirmed that right than you have. Your 
inaugural address does you great honor in 
this resj)ect, and inspired the country with 
confidence in your fairness and respect for 
the law. Our States are in the enjoyment 
of that right. We do not feel called on to 
defend the institution or to affirm it is one 
which ought to be cherished; pjerhajjs, if 
Ave were to make the attempt, we might 
find that we dill'er even among ourselves. 
It is enough for our purpose to know that 
it is a right; and, so knowing, we did not 
see why we should now be expected to 
yield it. We liad contributed our full 
share to relieve the country at this terrible 
crisis ; Ave had done as much as had been 
required of others in like circumstances ; 
and Ave did not see Avhy .sacrifices should 
be expected of us from Avhich othei-s, no 
more loyal, Avere exempt. Nor could avo 
see Avhat good the nation Avould derive 
fi'om it. 

Such a sacrifice submitted to by us 
Avould not have strengthened the arm of 
this Government or AA'cakcned that of the 
enemy. It was not necessary as a pledge 
of our loyalty, for that had been mani- 
fested Ixivond a reasonable doubt, in every 
form, and at every place possible. There 
was not the remotest probability that the 
States Ave represent would join in the re- 
bellion, nor is there noAV, or of their elect- 
ing to go Avith the southern section in the 
event of a recognition of the imlependence 
of any part of the disaflccted region. Our 



140 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



States are fixed unalterably in their reso- 
lutiou to auiiore to and support tlie Union. 
They see no tsai'ety for thcin.<elve.s, and no 
hope for constitutional liberty but by its 
preservation. They will, under no cir- 
cumstances, consent to its dissolution ; and 
we do them no more than justice when we 
assure you that, while the war is conducted 
to prevent that deplorable catastrophe, 
they will sustuiu it as long as they can 
muster a uuiu or command a dollar. Nor 
will tliey ever consent, in any event, to 
unite with the Southern Conl'ederacy. The 
bitter fruits of the peculiar doctrines of 
that region will forever prevent them from 
placing their security and happiness in the 
custody of an association which has incor- 
porated in its organic law the seeds of its 

owu destruv^tiou. 
******* ** 

Mr, President, we have stated with frank- 
ness and candor the reasons on which we 
forbore to vote lor the resolution you have 
mentioned ; but you have again presented 
this proposition, and appealed to us with 
an earnestness and eloquence which have 
not failed to impress us, to " consider it, 
and at the least to commend it to the con- 
sideration of our States and people." Thus 
appealed to by the Chief Magistrate of our 
beloved country, in the hour of its greatest 
peril, we cannot wholly decline. We are 
willing to trust every question relating to 
their interest and happiness to the con- 
sideration and ultimate judgment of our 
own people. While differing from you as 
to the necessity of enuincipating the slaves 
of our States as a means of putting down 
the rebellion, and while protesting against 
the propriety of any extra-territorial inter- 
ference to induce the people of our States 
to adopt any particular line of policy on a 
subject which peculiarly and exclusively 
belongs to them, yet, when you and our 
brethren of the loyal States sincerely be- 
lieve that the retention of slavery by us is 
an obstacle to peace and national harmony, 
and are willing to contribute pecuniary aid 
to compensate cur States and people for 
the inconveniences produced by such a 
change of system, we are not unwilling 
that our people shall consider the propriety 
of putting it aside. 

13ut we have already said that we re- 
garded this resolution as the utterance of 
a sentiment, and we had no confidence 
that it would assume the shape of a tangi- 
ble, practical proposition, which would 
yield the fruits of the sacrifice it required. 
Our people are influenced by the same 
want of confidence, and will not consider 
the proposition in its present impalpable 
form. The interest they are asked to give 
up is to them of much importance, and 
they ought not to be expected even to en- 
tertain the [jfoposal until they are assured 
that when they accept it their just expect- 



ations will not be frustrated. We regard 
your plan as a proposition from the Nation 
to the States to exercise an admitted con- 
stitutional right in a particular manner 
and yield up a valuable interest. Before 
they ought to consider the proposition, it 
should be presented in such a tangible, 
practical, efficient shape as to command 
their confidence that its fruits are contin- 
gent only upon their acceptance. We can- 
not trust anything to the contingencies of 
future legislation. 

If Congress, by proper and necessary 
legislation, shall provide sufficient funds 
and place them at your disposal, to be ap- 
plied by you to the payment of any of our 
States or the citizens thereof who shall 
adopt the abolishment of slavery, either 
gradual or immediate, as they may deter- 
mine, and the expense of deportation and 
cohmization of the liberated slaves, then 
will our State and people take this propo- 
sition into careful consideration, for such 
decision as in their judgment is denuinded 
by their interest, their honor, and their 
duty to the whole country. We have the 
honor to be, with great respect, 

C. A. WiCKLIFFE, C'A'n, 

Garrett Davis, 
R. Wilson, 
J. J. Crittenden, 
John S. Carlile, 
J. W. Crisfield, 
J. S. Jackson, 
H. Grider, 
John S. Phelps, 
Francis Thomas, 
Chas. B. Calvert, 
C. L. Leary, 
Edwin H. Webster, 
R. Mallory, 
Aaron Harding, 
James S. Rollins, 
J. W. Menzies, 
Thomas L. Price, 

G. W. DUNLAP, 

Wm. a. Hall. 

Others of the minority, among them Sen- 
ator Henderson and Horace IMaynard, for- 
warded separate replies, but all rejecting 
the idea of compensated emancipation. 
Still Lincoln adhered to and advocated it 
in his recent annual message sent to Con- 
gress, Dec. 1, 18G2, from which we take 
the following paragraphs, which are in 
themselves at once curious and interesting : 

" We have two million nine hundred and 
sixty-three thousand square miles. Europe 
has three million and eight hundred thou- 
sand, with a population averaging seventy- 
three and one-third persons to the square 
mile. Why may not our country, at some 
time, average as many? Is it less fertile? 
Has it more waste surface, by mountains, 
rivers, lakes, deserts, or other causes ? Is 
it inferior to Europe in any natural ad- 



EMANCIPATION. 



Ill 



vantage? If, then, wc are at sonic time to 
be lis poimlous its Euroi)C, how soon? As 
to when this imnj be, we can judijc l>y tlie 
past and ihu present; as to when it (/•/// be, 
if ever, (h;[)end3 much on whether wo 
maintain the Union. Several of our States 
are already above the avera^'e of Europe 
— seventy-three and a tliird to the siiuure 
mile. Massacthusotts has 157 ; Rhode 
Island, l'-V.\\ Connecticut, 9i); New York 
and New Jersey, e:u'h, SO. Also two other 
great states, Tennsylvania and Ohio, urc 
not far below, the former having G."} and 
the hitter 59. The states already above 
the European average, except New York, 
have increased in as rapid a ratio, since 
passing that point, as ever before ; while 
no one of them is equal to some other parts 
of our country in natural capacity for sus- 
taining a dense population. 

"Taking the nation in the aggregate, 
and we lind its population and ratio of in- 
crease, for the several decennial periods, to 
be as follows : 

1700 3,929,827 Ratio of increase. 

LSnO 5,305,937 35.02 per cent. 

1810 7,239,814 3G.45 

1820 9,638,131 33.13 " 

1830 12,8()t),020 33.49 " 

1840 17,069,4'')3 32.67 " 

1850 23,191,876 35.87 " 

1860 31,443,790 35.58 " 

This shows an annual decennial increase 
of 34.09 per cent, in population through 
the seventy years from our first to our last 
census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio 
of increase, at no one of these seven periods 
is either two per cent, below or two per 
rent, above the average ; thus showing how 
inflexible, and, consequently, how reliable, 
the law of increase in our case is. Assum- 
ing that it will continue, gives the follow- 
ing results : 

1870 42.323,341 

1880 56,967,216 

1890 76,677,872 

1900 103,208,415 

1910 138,918,526 

1!)20 186,984,335 

1930 251,680,914 

"These figures show that our country 
may be as populous as Europe now is at 
some point between 1920 and 19.30 — say 
about 1925 — our territory, at seventy-three 
and a third persons to the square mile, be- 
ing of capacity to contain 217,l-'^''>,000. 

'And we u'ill reach this, too, if we do 
not ourselves relinquish the chance by the 
folly and evils of disunion, or by long and 
exhausting war springing from the only 
great element of national discord among 
us. "While it cannot be foreseen exactly 
how much one huge example of secession, 
breeding lesser onas indefinitely, would re- 
tard population, civilization, and prosperity 



j no one can doubt that the extent of it 
would be very great and injiirif)ns. 
' The [)roi)osed emancipation v.nuld t^hort- 
' en the w;ir, pcr[>etuate jxace, insure tliis 
' increase of j)opul:ition, and immortionately 
' the wealth of tlie country. Willi tliesc, wo 
should pay all the emancipation would cost, 
together with our other debt, easier than 
; we shouhl pay our other debt without it. 
i If we had allowed our old national debt to 
I run at six p(;r cent, per annum, sinijde in- 
terest, from flu! end of our revolutionary 
j struggle until to-day, with )ut paying any- 
! thing on either i)rinei])al or interest, each 
man of us would owe less upon that debt 
now tlian each man owed uj)on it then; 
and this because our increase of men 
through the whole {)erio(l has been greater 
than six per cent. ; has run faster than the 
interest upon the debt. Thus, time alone 
relieves a debtor nation, so long as its popu- 
lation increases faster tlian unpaid interest 
accumulates on its debt. 

" This fact would be no excuse for de- 
laying payment of what is justly due ; but 
it shows the great importance of time in 
this connection — the great advantage of a 
policy by which we shall not have to pay 
until we number a hundred millions, what, 
by a different policy, wc would have to pay 
now, when we number but thirty-one mil- 
lions. In a word, it .shows that a dollar 
will be much harder to pay for the war 
than will be a dollar for emancipation on 
the proposed plan. And then the latter 
will cost no blood, no precious life. It will 
be a saving of both." 

Various propositions and measures re- 
lating to compensated cmancip.ation, were 
afterwards consider(;d in both Houses, but 
it was in March, 1863, drojiped after a 
refusal of the House to suspend the rules 
for the consideration of the subject. 



Emancipation as a IVar Necessity. 

Before the idea of compensated emanci- 
pation had been dropped, ami it was con- 
stantly discouraged by the Democrats and 
Border Statesmen, President Lincoln had 
determined upon a more radical policy, 
and on the 22d of Septembei, 1862. issued 
his celebrated proclamation declaring that 
he would emancipate "all pensons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the peojde whereof shall be in 
rebellion against the United States" — by 
the first of January, 1863. if such sections 
were not " in good fiiith represented in 
Congress." He followed this by actual 
emancipation at the time stated. 



Proclamation of Sept. 2?, 1S63. 

I, Abraham Lincoln, Pre-ident of the 
United States of America, and Commander- 
in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do 



142 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



hereby prnclaim and declare that hereafter, 
as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted 
for the object of practically restoring the 
constitutional relation between the United 
States and each of the States and the peo- 
ple thereof, in which States that relation 
is or may be suspended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next 
meeting of Congress, to again recommend 
the adoption of a practical measure tender- 
ing pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or 
rejection of all slave States, so called, the 
people thereof may not then be in rebellion 
against the United States, and which States 
may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, imme- 
diate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
within their respected limits; and that the 
effort to colonize persons of African descent 
with their consent upon this continent or 
elsewhere, with the previously obtained 
consent of the Governments existing there, 
will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the people whereof shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; 
and the Executive Government of the 
United States, including the military and 
naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and 
will do no act or acts to repress such per- 
sons, or any of them, in any efforts they 
may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day 
of January aforesaid, by proclamation, de- 
signate the States and parts of States, if 
any, in which the people thereof respective- 
ly, shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States ; and the ftictthat any State, 
or the people thereof, shall on that day be, 
in good faith, represented in the Congress 
of the United States by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of 
the qualified voters of such State shall have 
participated, shall, in the absence of strong 
countervailing testimony, be deemed con- 
clusive evidence that such State, and the 
people thereof, are not in rebellion against 
the United States. 

That attention is hereby called to an act 
of Congress entitled " An act to make an 
additional article of war," approved March 
13, 1862, and which act is in the words and 
figures following : 

"" Be it ennrtrtj hy the Senate and House 
of Feprc.icniatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled, That 
hereafter the following shall be promulga- 
ted as an additional article of war, for the 
government of the army of the United 
States, and shall be obeyed and observed 
as such. 
" Article — . All officers or persons in 



the military or naval service of the United 
States are prohibited from employing any 
of the forces under their respective com- 
mands for the purpose of returning fugi- 
tives from service or labor who may have 
escaped from any persons to whom such 
service or labor is claimed to be due, and 
any officer who shall be found guilty by a 
court-martial of violating this article shall 
be dismissed from the service. 

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That 
this act " shall take effect from and alter its 
passage." 

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of 
an act entitled " An act to suppress insur- 
rection, to punish trea.son and rebellion, to 
seize and confiscate property of rebels, and 
for other purposes," approved July 17, 
1862, and which sections are in the words 
and figures following : 

"Sec. 9. Andbeit further enacted, That 
all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be 
engaged in rebellion against the Govern- 
ment of the United States or who shall in 
any way give aid or comfort thereto, escap- 
ing from such persons and taking refuge 
within the lines of the army; and all slaves 
captured from such persons or deserted by 
them, and coming under the control of the 
Government of the United States ; and 
all slaves of such persons found 07i [or] 
being within any place occupied by rebel 
forces and afterwards occupied by the 
forces of the United States, shall be deem- 
ed captives of war, and shall be forever 
free of their servitude, and not again held 
as slaves. 

" Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That 
no slave escaping into any State, Territoiy, 
or the District of Columbia, from any other 
State, shall be delivered up, or in any way 
impeded or hindered of his liberty, except 
for crime, or .some offence against the laws, 
unless the person claiming said fugitive 
shall first make oath that the person to 
whom the labor or service of such fugitive 
is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, 
and has not borne arms against the United 
Stales in the present rebellion, nor in any 
way given aid and comfort thereto ; and no 
person engaged in the military or naval 
service of the United States shall, under 
any pretence whatever, assume to decide 
on the validity of the claim of any person 
to the service or labor of any other per- 
son, or surrender up any such person to 
the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
from the service." 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order 
all persons engaged in the military and na- 
val service of the United States to observe, 
obey, and enforce, within their respective 
spheres of service, the act and sections 
above recited. 

And the Executive will in due time 
recommend that all citizens of the 
United States who shall have remained 



EMANCITATION. 



143 



loyal thereto tliroiighont the rebellion shall 
(u|>()ii tlie restoration of the constitutional 
relation between the rnited States and 
tlieir respeetive States and people, il" tbat 
relation shall have been suspcmled or dis- 
turbed) be eoinpensated lor all losses by 
acts of the United States, including the 
loss of slaves. 

In witness whereof, T have hereunto set 
my hand, and caused the seal of the United 
Btiites to be aflixcd. 

Done at the city of Washington this 
twenty-second day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-two, and of the Indepen- 
dence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By the President : 
William H. Seward, Secretai-y of State. 



Proclmnatlon of January 1, ISO.?. 

WiiF:uEAy, on the twenty -second day of 
September, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 
a proclamation was issued by the Presi- 
dent of the United States, containing 
among other things, the following, to wit : 

" That on the first day of January, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
as slaves within any State or designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall 
then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and 
forever, free ; and the Executive Govern- 
ment of the United States, including the 
militiiry and naval authority thereof, will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of 
such person-;, and will do no act or acts to 
repress such persons, or any of them, in any 
efforts they may make for their actual free- 
dom. 

"That the Executive will, on the first 
day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, 
designate the States and parts of States, if 
any, in which the people thereof, respec- 
tively, shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States; and the fact that any 
State, or the people thereof, shall on that 
day be in good faith represented in the 
Congress of the United States, by mem- 
bers chosen thereto at elections wherein a 
majority of the qualified voters of such 
States shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testi- 
mony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State, and the people thereof, art- 
then in rebellion against the United 
States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, by virtue 
of the power in me ve-ited as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
United States, in time of actual armed re- 
bellion against the authority and Govern- 



ment of the United States, and as a fiC and 
ncie-sary wi:r mea.sure for suppressing said 
rebellion, do, on this first day of January, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accord- 
ance with my i)ur|)0se so to do, publicly 
jiroclaimed for the full perioil of one hun- 
dred days from the day first above men- 
tioned, order and designate as the Statcg 
and parts of State;-* wherein the pcojjle 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebel- 
lion against the United States, the follow- 
ing, to wit: 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the 
[larishes f)f St. Bernard, Placpiemines, Jef- 
ferson, St. J(din, St. Charles, St. James, 
Ascension, Assumption, Terie Bonne, La- 
fourche, St. Mary, St. I\Iartin, and Orleans, 
including the city of New Orleans,) Mis- 
sissipj)i, Alabama, Florida, Georgia. South 
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, 
(except the forty-eight counties designated 
as West Virginia, anil also the counties of 
Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Eliza- 
beth City, York, Princess Ann, and Nor- 
folk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
Porl;sraouth,) and which excepted parts 
are for the present left precisely lu; if this 
proclamation were not issuetl. 

And by virtue of the power and for the 
purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare 
that all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States are, 
and henceforward shall be, free ; and that 
the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval 
autiiorities tlicreof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so 
declared to be free to abstain from all vio- 
lence, unless in necessary self-defence ; and 
I recommend to them that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for 
reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known 
that such persons, of suitable condition, 
will be received into the armed service of 
the United States to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man 
vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to 
be an act of justice, warranted by the Con- 
stitution upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind and 
the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set 
my hand and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this 
first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, and of the independence of 
the United States of America the eighty- 
seventh. Abraham Lincoln. 
By the President: 
"William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, 



144 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Tliese proclamations were followed by 
many attempts on the part of the Demo- 
crats to declare them null and void, but all 
such were tabled. Tlie House on the 15th 
of December, 1802, endorsed the first by 
a vote of 78 to .51, almost a strict party 
vote. Two classed as Democrats, voted for 
emancipation — Haiglit and Noell ; seven 
classed as Republicans, voted against it — 
Granger, Harrison, Leary, Maynard, Benj. 
F. Thomas, Francis Thomas, and Whaley. 

Just previous to the issuance of the lirst 
proclamation a meeting of the Governors 
of the Northern States had been called to 
consider how best their States could aid 
the general conduct of the war. Some of 
them had conferred with the President, 
and while that meeting and the date of the 
emancipation proclamation are the same, 
it was publicly denied on the floor of Con- 
gress by Mr. Boutwell (June 25, 1864,) 
that the proclamation was the result of 
that meeting of the Governors. That they 
fully endorsed and knew of it, however, is 
shown by the following 



Address of loyal Governors to the President. 

Adopted at a meeting of Governors of 
loyal States, held to take measures for 
the more active support of the Govern- 
ment, at Altoona, Pennsvlvania, on the 
22d day of September, 1862. 

After nearly one year and a half spent 
in contest with an armed and gigantic re- 
bellion against the national Government of 
the United States, the duty and purpose of 
the loyal States and people continue, and 
must always remain as they were at its 
origin — namely, to restore and perpetuate 
the authority of this Government and the 
life of the nation. No matter what con- 
sequences are involved in our fidelity, this 
work of restoring the Republic, preserving 
the institutions of democratic liberty, and 
justifying the hopes and toils of our fathers 
shall not fail to he performed. 

And we pledge without hesitation, to the 
President of the United States, the most 
loyal and cordial support, hereafter as 
heretofore, in the exercise of the functions 
of his great office. We recognize in him 
* the Chief Executive Magistrate of the 
nation, the Commander-in-chief of the 
Army and Navy of the United States, their 
responsible and constitutional head, whose 
rightful authority and power, as well as the 
constitutional powers of Congress, must be 
rigorously ana religiously guarded and 
preserved, as the condition on which alone 
our form of Government and the constitu- 
tional rights and liberties of the people 
themselves can be saved from the wreck of 
anarchy or from the gulf of despotism. 

In submission to the laws which may 
have been or which may be duly enacted, 



and to the lawful orders of the President, 
co-operating always in our own spheres 
with the national Government, we mean to 
continue in the most vigorous exercise of 
all our lawful and proper powers, contend- 
ing against treason, rebellion, and the pub- 
lic enemies, and, whether in public life or 
in private station, supjjorting the arms of 
the Union, until its cause shall conquer, 
until final victory shall perch upon its 
standard, or the rebel foe shall yield a 
dutiful, rightful, and unconditional sub- 
mission. 

And, impressed with the conviction that 
an army of reserve ought, until the war 
shall end, to be constantly kept on foot, to 
be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at 
home, and ready for emergencies, we re- 
spectfully ask the President to call for such 
a force of volunteers for one year's service, 
of not less than one hundred thousand in 
the aggregate, the quota of eiich State to 
be raised after it shall have filled its quota 
of the requisitions already made, both for 
volunteers and militia. We believe that 
this would be a measure of military pru- 
dence, while it would greatly promote the 
military education of the peojile. 

We hail with heartfelt gratitude and en- 
couraged hope the proclamation of the 
President, issued on the 22d instant, de- 
claring emancipated from their bondage 
all persons held to service or labor aa 
slaves in the rebel States, whose rebellion 
shall last until the first day of January 
now next ensuing. The right of any per- 
son to retain authority to compel any por- 
tion of the subjects of the national Gov- 
ernment to rebel against it, or to maintain 
its enemies, implies in those who are al- 
lowed possession of such authority the 
right to rebel themselves ; and therefore 
the right to establish martial law or mili- 
tary government in a State or territory in 
rebellion implies the right and the duty 
of the Government to liberate the minds 
of all men living therein by appropriate 
proclamations and assurances of protection, 
in order that all who are capable, intel- 
lectually and morally, of loyalty and 
obedience, may not be forced into treason 
as the unwilling tools of rebellious traitors. 
To have continued indefinitely the most 
efficient cause, support, and stay of the re- 
bellion, would have been, in our judg- 
ment, unjust to the loyal people whose 
treasure and lives are made a willing sacri- 
fice on the altar of patrotism — would have 
discriminated against the wife who is com- 
pelled to surrender her husband, against 
the parent who is to surrender his child to 
the hardships of the camp and the perils 
of battle, in favor of rel)el masters per- 
mitted to retain their slaves. It would 
have been a final decision alike against 
humanity, justice, the rights and dignity 
of the Government, and against sound and 



REPEAL OF TOE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 



145 



wise national policy. The doci;uon of the 
Presiilont to strike at the root of the re- 
iK'llion will lend new viiror to the ellorts 
juiil nt'W lil'e and hope to tlic hearlM of the 

Scople. Cordially tendering to the I'rrsi- 
cnt onr respcetl'ul assuranee of i)ers()nal 
and oilii-ial eonfidenee, we trust and be- 
lieve that the policy now inaugurated will 
1)0 erowned with sueecss, will give speedy 
and triumphant victories over our enemies, 
and secure to this nation and this people 
the blessing and favor of Almighty (rod. 
We believe that the blood of the heroes 
who have already fallen, and those who 
may yet give their lives to their country, 
will not have been shed in vain. 

The splendid valor of our soldiers, their 
patient endurance, their manly patriotism, 
and their devotion to duty, demand from 
us and from all tiieir countrymen the 
homage of the sincerest gratitude and the 
pledge of our constant reinforcement and 
support. A just regard for these brave 
men, whom we have contributed to place 
in the field, and for the importance of the 
duties which may lawfully pertain to us 
hereafter, has called us into friendly con- 
ference. And now, presenting t-o our 
national Chief ^lagistrate this conclusion 
of our deliberations, we devote ourselves to 
our country's service, and we will surround 
the President with our constant suppoit, 
trusting that the fidelity and zeal of the 
loyal States and people will always assure 
him that he will be constantly maintained 
in pursuing with the utmost vigor this war 
for the preservation of the national life 
and the hope of humanity. 

A. G. CURTIN, 

John A. Andrew, 

Richard Yates, 

Israel Washburne, Jr., 

Edward Solomon, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood, 

O. P. Morton, 

By D. G. Rose, his representative, 

Wm. Sprague, 

F. H. Peirpoint, 

David Tod, 

N. S. Berry, 

Austin Blaie. 



Repeal of tlie Fugitive Slave La^v. 

The first fugitive slave law passed was 
that of Fcbruarv 12th, 1793, the second and 
last that of September 18th, 1850. Vari- 
ous efforts had been made to repeal the lat- 
ter before the war of the rebellion, with- 
out a prospect of success. The situation 
was now dilferent. The war spirit was 
high, and both Houses of Congress were in 
the hands of the Republicans as early as 
December, 1861, but all of them were not 
then ready to vote for repeal, while the 
10 



Democrats were at first solidly against it. 
The bill had j)a.sscd the Senate in IS/jO by 
U7 yeas to 12 nays; the House by lO'Jyeiw 
to 7(5 nays, and yet as late as 1801 such wa:» 
still the desire of many not to o!l'end tlie 
[)olitical prejudices of the Horder States 
and of Democrats whose aid was counLeil 
U[)on in the war, that sullicient votes could 
not be had until .fune, 18G4, to pass there- 
pealing bill. Kepul)lican sentiment ad- 
vanced very slowly in the early years of 
the war, when the struggle looked doubt- 
ful and when there was a strong desire to 
hold for the Union every man and county 
not irrevocably against it; when success 
could be foreseen the advances were more 
rapid, but never as rapid as the more rad- 
ical leaders desired. The record of Con- 
gress in the repeal of the Fugitive Slave 
Law will illustrate this political fact, in 
itself worthy of grave study by the poli- 
tician and statesman, and therefore we give 
it as compiled by McPherson : — 



Second Session, Tlilrty-Seventh Congress.* 

In Senate, 1861, December 26 — Mr. 
Howe, of Wisconsin, introduced a bill to 
repeal the fugitive slave law ; which was 
referred to the Committee on the Judici- 
arv. 

1862, May 24— Mr. Wilson, of Massachu- 
setts, introduced a bill to amend the fugi- 
tive slave law ; which was ordered to be 
printed and lie on the table. 

June 10 — Mr. Wilson moved to take up 
the bill ; which was agreed to — Yeas 25, 
nays 10, as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, 
Harris, Howard, Howe, King, Lane of Kan- 
sas, Morrill, Pomeroy, Simmons, Sumner, 
Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilson, of 
Massachusetts. — 25. 

Nays — Messrs. Carlile, Davis, Latham, 

* On the 23d of July, 1861, the Attomoy General, in 
answer to a letter from tho United States Marshal of 
Kansas, inquiring; whether he should assist in the execu- 
tion of the fugitive slave law, wrote : 

Attobnet General's Orrice, Julg 23, 1861. 
J. L. McDowKIiL, U. S. Marshal, Kansat : 

Your letter, of the 11th of July, received IMh, (under 
frank of Senator Lane, of Kansas,) asks advice whether 
you should give your official Borvicos in the execution of 
the fugitive slave law. 

It is the President's constitutional duty to "take care 
that thiilawslio faithfully exoi-utod." That means all tb« 
laws. He has no right to discriminate, no rii^ht to exe- 
cute the laws he likes, and leave unexecuted those ha 
dislikes. And of course you and I, his sutKirdinatea, can 
have no wider latitude of discretion than he has. Mis- 
Bouri is a State in the Union. The insurrectionary dis- 
orders in Missouri are but individual crimed, and do not 
chancre tlie leKal status of the State, nor change its right* 
and ohli^ations as a meml)er of the Union. 

A rcfu.sal by a ministerial officer to execute any law 
which properly belongs to his office, is an official misd»- 
nieanor, of which I have no doubt the President would 
take notice. Very respectfully 

LPWA&D DATE&. 



146 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



McDouqnll, Nesmith, Powell, Saulsbury, 
Stark, "Willey, Wright— 10* 

The bill was to secure to claimed fugi- 
tives a right to a jury trial in the district 
court for the United States for the district 
in which they may be, and to require the 
claimant to prove his loyalty. The bill 
repeals sections 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the act 
of 1850, and that part of section 5, which 
authorizes the summoning of the posse 
comitatns. When a warrant of return is 
made cither on jury trial or confession of 
the party in the presence of counsel, hav- 
ing been warned of his rights, the fugitive 
is to be surrendered to the claimant, or the 
marshal where necessary, who shall remove 
him to the boundary line of the district, 
and there deliver him to the claimant. Tiie 
bill was not further considered. 

In House, 1861, December 20— Mr. 
Julian offered this resolution: 

Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee 
be instructed to report a bill, so amending 
the fugitive slave law enacted in 1850 as to 
forbid the recapture or return of any fu- 
gitive from labor without satisfactory j^roof 
first made that the claimant of such fugi- 
tive is loyal to the Government. 

Mr. Plolman moved to table the resolu- 
tion, which was disagreed to — yeas 39, nays 
78, as follows : 

Yeas — IMessrs. Ancona, Joseph Baily, 
Biddle, George H. Brou-ne, Cubb, Cooper, 
Cox, Cravens, Crittenden, Dunlap, English. 
Fouke, G rider, Harding, Ilulman, Johnson, 
Laic, Lazear, Leanj, I^ehmun, Mallory, Mor- 
ris, Noble, Nocll, Norton, Nugen, Odcll, 
Pendleton, Robinson, Shiel, John B. Steele, 
William G. Steele, Vallandigham, Wads- 
worth, Webster, Chilton A. White, Wick- 
life, Woodruf, Wright— 89. 

Nays — Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Arnold, 
Babbitt, Baker, Baxter, Beaman, Bingham, 
Francis P. Blair, Samuel S. Blair, Blake, 
Buffinton, Burnham, Chamberlain, Clark, 
Colfax, Frederick A. Conkling, Roscoe 
Conkling, Cutler, Davis, Dawes, Delano, 
Duell, Edwards, Eliot, Fessenden. Fran- 
chot, Frank, Gooch, Goodwin, Gurley, 
Hale, Hanchett, Harrison, Hooper, Hutch- 
ins, Julian, William Kellogg, Lansing, 
Loomis, Lovejoy, McKnight, McPherson, 
Marston, Mitchell, Moorhead, Anson P. 
Morrill, Justin S. ]\Iorrill, Olin, Patton, 
J'ike, Pomeroy, Porter. John H. Rice, Rid- 
dle, Edward H. Rollins, Sargent, Sedg- 
wick, Shanks, Shellabarger, Sherman, 
Sloan, Spaulding, Stevens. Benjamin F. 
Thomas, Train, Vandever. Wall, Wallace, 
Walton. Washburne, Wlieeler, Whrdcv, 
4Ibert S. White, Wilson, Windom, Wor- 
cester — 78. 

The resolution was then adopted — veas 
78, nays 39. 

1862, June 9— Mr. Julian, of Indiana, 

* Republicana Id Koman,- Democrats in italics. 



introduced into the House a resolution in- 
structing the Judiciary Committee to re- 
port a bill for the purpose of repealing the 
fugitive slave law ; which was tabled — ^yeaa 
66, nays 51, as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. William J. Allen, Anco- 
na, Baihj, Biddle, Francis P. Blair, Jacob 
B. Blair, George II. Brotnie, William G, 
Brown, Burnham, Calvert, Casey, Clem- 
ents, Cobb, Corning, Crittenden, Delano, 
Diven, Granger, Grider, Haiglit, Hale, 
Harding, Ilohnan, Johnson, William Kel- 
logg, Kerrigan, Knapp, Lazear, Low, May- 
nard, Menzies, Mooriiead, Morris, Noble, 
Noell, Norton, Odcll, Pendleton, John S. 
Phelps, Timothy G. Phelps, Porter, Rich- 
ardson, Robinson, James S. Rollins, Sar- 
g,ent,Scg;nr, Shcjfield, Shiel, Stnith, John B. 
Steele, William G. Steele, Benjamin F. 
Thomas, Francis Thomas, Trimble, Val- 
landigham,YcYreQ, Vibbard, Vonrhees, Wads- 
icorth, Webster, Chilton A. Wliitc, Wick- 
liffe. Wood, Woodruff" Worcester, Wright 

—m. 

Nays — Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Baker, 
Baxter, Beaman, Bingham, Blake, Buffin- 
ton, Chamberlain, Colfax, Frederick A. 
Conkling, Davis, Dawes, Edgerton, Ed- 
wards, Eliot, Ely, Franchot, Gooch, Good- 
win, Hanchett, Hutchins, Julian, Kelley, 
Francis W. Kellogg, Lansing, Lovejoy, 
McKnight, McPherson, Mitchell, Anson P. 
Morrill, Pike, Pomeroy, Potter, Alexander 
H. Rice, John H. Rice, Riddle, Edward H. 
Rollins, Shellabarger, Sloan, Spaulding, 
Stevens, Train, Trowbridge, Van Horn, 
Van Valkenburgh,Wall. Wallace, Wash- 
burne, Albert S. White, Windom-— 51. 

Same day — Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, of- 
fered this resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju- 
diciary be instructed to report a bill modi- 
fying the fugitive slave law so as to require 
a jury trial in all cases where the person 
claimed denies under oath tliat he is a slave, 
and also requiring any claimant under such 
act to prove that he has been loyal to the 
Government during the present rebellion. 

Which was agreed to — yeas 77, nays 43, 
as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Arnold, 
Ashley, Babbitt, Baker, Baxter, Beaman, 
Bingham, Francis P. Blair, Blake, Buffin- 
ton, Burnham, Chamberlain, Colfax, Fred- 
erick A. Conkling, Davis, Dawes, Delano, 
Diven, Edgerton, Edwards, Eliot, Ely, 
Franchot, Gooch, Goodwin, Granger, Gur- 
ley, Haight, Hale, Hanchett, Hutchins, 
Julian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, W^il- 
liam Kellogg, Lansing, Loomis, Lovejoy, 
Lowe, McKnight, McPherson, Mitchell, 
Anson P. Morrill, .Justin S. Morrill, Nixon, 
Timothy G. I'helps, Pike, Pomeroy, Por- 
ter, Potter, Alexander H. Rice, John H. 
Rice, Riddle, Edward H. Rollins, Sargent, 
Shanks, Slicffield, Shellabarger, Sloan, 
Spaulding, Stevens, Stratton, Benjamin F. 



REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 



147 



Thomas, Tniin, Trimble, Trowbrid;::c, Van 
V;ilkiuibunz;li, Verree, W;l11, W:i11:hh', 
Washhunie, Albert, S. White, Wih.-ii, 
\Viii(ii):ii, Wo re ester— 77. 

Mays — Messrs. William J. Allen, Ancona, 
Baily, Bidille, .Licob B. BUiir, Williiun (J. 
Brown, Cahnrt, Ciisey, Clements, Cubh, 
Corning, Crittcivlcn, Fouke, Grider, Jlard- 
inq, llolinan, Johnaon, Knapp, I\liiyn;ird, 
Menzies, Koblc, Noell, Norton, Pendldon, 
John S. Phelps, liichardson, linhinsoit, 
Jumcs S Ji'ollins, Segar, ^7//(7, Smith, John 
B. Steele, William G. Steele, Franeis Thom- 
as, Vall(mdi(ihnin,Vibbard, Voorhecs, ]V(ids- 
worth, Webster, Chilton A. White, Wic/c- 
lij'e. Wood, Wright. — 13. 

Third Session, Tlilrty-SevciitU Congress. 

In Senate, 18G3, February 11— Mr. Ten 
Eyek, from the Committee on the Judiei- 
ary, to whom was referred a l)ill, intro- 
diioed by Senator Howe, in second session, 
Deecmber 2G, ISGl, to repeal the fuji;itive 
slave aet of 1S50, reported it back without 
amendment, and with a recommendation 
that it do not pass. 

First Session, Thlrty-KlghUi Congress. 

In House, 1SG3, Dec. 14. — Mr. Julian, of 
Indiana, offered this resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju- 
diciary be instructed to rei)ort a bill for a 
repeal of the third and fourth sections of 
the '' act respecting fugitives from justice 
and persons escaping from tlie service of 
their masters," approved February 12, 1793, 
and the act to amend and supplementary 
to the aforesaid act, approved September 
18, 1850. 

Mr. Holman moved that the resolution 
lie upon the table, which was agreed to — 
yeas 81, nays 73, as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. James C. Allen, William 
J. Allen, Ancona, Anderson, Baily, Au- 
gustus C. Baldwin, Jacob B. Blair, Bliss, 
Brooks, James S. Brown, William G. Browne, 
Clay, Cobb, CoJfroth,Cox,Ci-arcns, Creswell, 
Dawson, Demming, Denison, Eden, Edgcr- 
ton, Eldridge, English, Finck, Ganson, 
Grlder, Griswold, Hall, Harding, Ilnrring- 
ton, Benjamin Q. Harris, Charles M. Har- 
ris, Higby, Ilidman, Hatcliim, William 
Johnson, Kernan, King, Knapp, I^aw, La- 
zear, Le lilond, Long, Mallory, Marcij, Mar- 
vin, McBride, McDowell, McKinney, Wil- 
liam II. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, 
Nelson, Noble, Odell, John 0' Neil, Pendle- 
ton, William H. Randall, Robinson, Rogers, 
James S. Rollins, Ross, Scott, Smith, Smith- 
ers, Stcbbins, John B. Steele, Stuart, Sweat, 
Thomas, Vuorhces, Wadsworth, Ward, 
Wheder, Chilton A. White, Joseph W.White, 
Williams, Winfield, Fernando Wood, Yea- 
man — 81. 

NaYo — Messrs. Allev, Allison, Ames, 
Arnold, Ashley, John D. Baldwin, Baxter, 
Beaman, Blaine, Blow, Boutwell, Boyd, 



Brandegee, Broomall, .\mbrosft W. Clark, 
Freciiian Clark, Cole, Henry Winter l)a- 
v.s, Dawes, DixoM, Donnelly, Hiigg^, Du- 
inont, Eikley, Eliot, Farnswor.h, i-entun, 
I'rank, ( larlleld, ( ioocli, (irinmil, Ho'jjier, 
llotchkiss, Asaiiel W. Hujb'ird, .John H. 
Hubliard, Hulburd, Jenekes, Julian, Fran- 
cis W. Kellogg, Orlando ICellu^^g, Loan, 
Ijongyear, Lovejoy, MeClurg, Mclndoe, 
Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, 
Amos Mvers, Le<inard JMvers, Norton, 
Charles U'Neill,Orth, Patters.. n, Pike, Pom- 
eroy, Price, Ale-xander H. Kice, .lolin 11. 
Rice, Edward H. Ilollin-;, Schenck, 
Scofield, Shannon, Spalding, Thayer, 
Van Valkenburgh, Elihu B. Wiush- 
burne, AViUiam B. Waslil.urn, Whaley, 
Wilder, Wilson, Windoni, Wooilbidgc — 73. 

18G4, June (i, Mr. iluhbard, of Connec- 
ticut, offered this resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju- 
diciary be instructed to report to this 
House a bill for the repeal of all acts and 
j.arts of acts which provide for the rendi- 
tion of fugitive slaves, and that they have 
leave to make such report at any time. 

Which went over under the rule. May 
30, he had made an ineffectual effort to 
offer it, Mr. Holman objecting. 

REPEALING BILLS. 

1864, April 19, the Senate considered the 
bill to repeal all acts for the rendition of 
fugitives from service or labor. The bill 
was taken up — yeas 26, nays 10. 

Mr. Sherman moved to amend by insert- 
ing these words at the end of the bill ; 

Except the act approved I'ebruary 12, 
1793, entitled " An act respecting fugitives 
from justice, and persons escaping from tlie 
service of their masters." 

Which was agreed to — yeas 24, nay3 17, 
as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile^ Col- 
lamer, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Foster, Harris, Henderson, Hendricks, 
Howe, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, McDou- 
gall, Nesmifh, Powell, Riddle, Saulsburi/, 
Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van Win- 
kle. Willey— 24. 

Nays— Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Clark, 
Couness, Fessenden, Grimes, Hale, How- 
ard, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, 
Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Wil- 
kinson, Wilson — 17. 

Mr. Saulsbury moved to add these sec- 
tions : 

And be it further enacted, That no white 
inhabitant af the United States shall be 
arrested, or imprisoned, or held to answer 
for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, 
except in cases arising in the land or na- 
val forces, or in the militia when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger, 
without due process of law. 

And be it J urt her enacted. That no per- 
son engaged in the executive, legislative, 



148 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



or judicial departments of the Government 
of the United States, or holding any office 
or trust recognized in the Constitution of 
the United States, and no person in mili- 
tary or naval service of the United States, 
shall, without due process of law, arrest or 
imprison anywhitc inhabitant of the Uni- 
ted States who is not, or has not been, or 
Hhall not at the time of such arrest or im- 
jirisonment be, engaged in levying war 
again-it the United State;?, or in adhering 
to the enemies of the United States, giv- 
ing them aid and comfort, nor aid, abet, 
procure or advise the same, except in cases 
arising in tlie land or naval forces, or in 
the Uiilitia when in actual service in time 
oi' war or public danger. And any person 
as aforesaid so arresting, or imprisoning, or 
holding, as aforesaid, as in this and the 
gc!cond section of this act mentioned, or 
aiding, abetting, or procuring, or advising 
the same, shall be deemed guilty of fel- 
ony, and, upon conviction thereof in any 
court of competent jurisdiction, shall be 
imprisoned for a term of not less than one 
nor more than five vears, shall pay a fine of 
not less than f 1,000 nor more than $5000, 
and shall be forever incapable of holding 
any oflice or ]iublic trust under the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. 

Mr. Hale moved to strike out the word 
"white" wherever it occurs; which Vfiis 
agreed to. 

The amendment of Mr. Saulsbuey, as 
amended, was then disagreed to — yeas 9, 
nays 27, as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Bid- 
die, Saulshury — 9. 

Nays — Mes'^rs. Anthony, Clark, CoUa- 
mer, Conness, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foster, 
Grimes, Hale, Harris, Howard, Howe, Lane 
of Indiana, Lane, of Kansas, Morgan, Mor- 
rill, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, 
Sumner. Ten Evck, Trumbull, Van Win- 
kle, Wilkinson,' Willey, Wilson— 27. 

Mr. Conness moved to table the bill ; 
which was disagreed to — yeas 9, (Messrs. 
Buckalew, Carlile, Conness, Davis, Hen- 
dricks, Nesmilh, Futvell, Riddle, Saulshury,) 
nays 31. 

it was not again acted upon. 
1864, June 13— The House passed this 
bill, introduced by Mr. Spalding, of Ohio, 
and reported from the Committee on the 
Judiciary by Mr. MoKUis, of New York, 
as follows : 

Be it enacted, e<c.,that sections three and 
four of an act entitled " An act respecting 
ftigitives from justice and persons escaping 
from the .service of tlieir masters," passed 
February 12, 1793, and an Act entitled 
" An act to amend, and supplementary to, 
the act entitled ' An act respecting fugi- 
tives from justice, and persons escaping 
from their masters,' passed February 12, 



1793," passed September 18, 1850, be, and 
the same are hereby, repealed. 
Yeas 86, nays GO, as follows : 
Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Ar- 
nold, Ashley, John I). Baldwin, Baxter, 
Beaman, Blaine, Blair, Blow, BoutAvell, 
Boyd, Brandegee, Broomall, Ambrose W. 
Clarke, Freeeman Clark, Cobb, Cole, Cres- 
well, Henry Winter Davis, Thomas T. Da- 
avis, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Eck- 
ley, Eliot, Farnsworth, Feuton, Frank, Gar- 
field, Gooch, Griswold, Higby, Hooper, 
Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John K. 
Hubbard, Hulburd, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Ju- 
lian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, O. Kel- 
logg, Littlejohn, Loan, Longyear, Marvin, 
McClurg, Mclndoe, Samuel F. Miller, 
Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amos 
Myers, Leonard Myers, Norton, Charles 
O'Neill, Orth, Patterson, Perham, Pike, 
Price, Alexander H. Eice, John H. Pice, 
Schenck, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, Spald- 
ing, Starr, Stevens, Thayer, Thomas, Tracy, 
Upson, Van Valkenluirgh, Webster. Wha- 
ley, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windoni, 
Woodbridge — 86. 

Nays — Messrs. James C. Allen, William 
J. Allen, Ancona, Augustus C. Baldwin, 
Bliss, Brooks, James S. Brown, Clianler, 
Coffroth, Cox, Cravens, Daivson, Dcnisov., 
Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, English, Finck, 
Ganson, Grider, Harding, Harrington, 
Charles M. Harris, Herrick, Holman, 
Hutchins, Kalhfieisch, Kernan, King, Knapp, 
Law, Lazear, Le Blond, Mallory, Marry, 
McDowell, McKinney, Win. H. Miller, James 
R. Morris, Morrison, Odell, Pendleton, 
Pruyn, Radford, Robinson, Jas. S. Rollins, 
Ross, Smithers, John B. Steele, Wni. G. 
Steele, Siiles, Strouse, Stuart, Sweat, Wads- 
worth, Ward, Wheeler, Chilton A. llTiite, 
Joseph W. White, Fernando Wood — 60. 

June 22 — This bill was taken up in the 
Senate, when Mr. Saulsbuey moved this 
substitute: 

That no person held to service or labor 
in one State, under the laws thereof, escap- 
ing into another, shall, in consequence of 
any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be de- 
livered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due ; and 
Congress shall pass all necessary and pro- 
per laws for the rendition of all such per- 
sons who shall so, as aforesaid, escape. 

AVhich was rejected — yeas 9, nays 29, as 
follows: 

Yeas— IMessrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, McDougall, Powell, Richardson, 
Riddle, Saulshury — 9. 

Nays — Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chand- \ 
ler, Clark, Conness, Dixon, Foot, Grimes,,; 
Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, Howard, j 
Howe, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Lanej 
of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
llamsey, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, 
Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Willey— 29. 



FIxVAxNCIAL LEGISLATION — INTERNAL TAXES, 



149 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, moved an 
aine:idinent to .su^stitiitc a clause reiieal- 
in:5 the act of 18')() ; whicU wo:* rtyectcd — 
ye.n 17, iviys 22, as follows: 

YE-vs—Messr-i. liackidvw,CtirUle, Cowan, 
Divix, H irria, Hiek-!, Johnson, Lane of 
I.'idiana, .\frD m/.iU, I'owell, Richardson, 
Rid II'-. S iulsh'ir>/. Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Van Winkle. WiUey— 17. 

Nays — Mo-<-rj. Anthony, Brown, Chand- 
ler, Clark, Couness, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Fo!)t, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Howard, 
Howe, Lime of Kansa-*, Morgan, Morrill, 
Pomerov, llainsey,Sprague, Sumner, Wade, 
Wils)n— 22. 

The bill then passed — yeas 27, nays 12, 
a< follows: 

Yea.3 — Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chand- 
ler, Clark, C )n;ies-(, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Fo )t, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, 
H )vvard. Howe, Line of Indiana, Lane of 
Kansas Morj;an, M:)rrill, Pomeroy, Ram- 
say, rfora^ue, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trum- 
bull, Wale, Wilson— 27. 

Nays — Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Jjh;ison, McDoutjall, Powell, Rich- 
ards >n. Riddle, Saulsbury, Van Winkle, 
WiUey— 12. 

Abraham Lincoln, President, approved 
it, June 2i, 1SG4. 



Seward as Secretary ot State. 

Win. H. Seward was a master in diplo- 
macy aai Suitecraft, and to his skill the 
Unionists were indebted for all avoidance 
of serious f>reig:i complications while the 
war was goin^ oi. The m )st notable case 
coming under his supervision was that of 
the capture of Mason and Slidell, by Com- 
modore WUkes, who, on the Sth of Xovem- 
ber, 18)1, hai iaterceptel th3 TVeuMvith 
Sill Jacinto. The prisoners were Confed- 
erate agents on their way to St. James and 
St. Cloud, li )ti\ hxi been prominent Sen- 
at)rs, early se::essioaists, and the popular 
impals3 of the Norch was to hold and pun- 
ish the n. B jt'.i Linc-oln and Seward wisely 
resiste 1 the passions of the hour, and when 
Greit Britain demanded their release 
und3r the treaty of Ghent, wherein the 
right of f iture seirc!i of vessels was dis- 
avowe 1, Seward yiel led, and referring to 
the terms of the treaty, said : 

" If I decide this case in favor of my 
own Government, I must disavow its most 
cherished principles, and reverse and for- 
ever abaa 1 )n its essential policy. The 
country caanot aiford the sacrifice. If 1 
maintain those principles and adhere to 
that policy, I must surrender the case 
itself." 

The North, with high confidence in their 
President and Cabinet, readily conceded 
the wisdom of the argument, especially as 
it was clinched in the newspapers of the 
day by one of Lincoln's homely remarks : 



" Onf u'ltr at a fiinr." A war with Great 
Britain was thus happily avoided. 

With the inciilents of the war, however, 
save as they allc-cted politics and p(jhti- 
ciaiis, this work has little to do, and wc 
therefore pitss the suspension of the urit nj 
habeas corjiiis, which su>pension wiis eui- 
jiloyi'd in breaking up the Maryland I^egia- 
lature and other bodirs when they con- 
templated secession, and it lacilitited the 
arrest ami punishment of men ihrougliout 
the North who were suspected of {giving 
"aid and comfort to the enemy." The 
alleged arbitrary charactir of these arrests 
cau.-^ed mucli complaint from Democratic 
Senators and Repruseutativ cs, but the rig!it 
was fully enforced in the lace of eviry fo;-in 
of protest until the war closed. The mo-t 
prominent arrest Wits that of Clement Ij. 
Vallaiidigham, member of Congress from 
Ohio, who was sent into the Southern iinea. 
From thence he went to Canada, an'] wlien 
a candidate for Governor in Ohio, Wixs de- 
feated by over 100,000 majority. 



Financial Lei^islation— Internal TaxcH. 

The Financial legislation during the 
war was as follows: 

18G0, December 17 — Authorized an issue 
of §10,000,000 in Tre.\.sury notrs, to ba 
redeemed after the expiration of one yc::r 
from the date of issue, and bearing such a 
rate of interest as may be offered by the 
lowest bidders. Authority was given to 
issue these notes in payment of warrants in 
favor of public creditors at their parvahio, 
bearing six per cent, interest per annum. 

1S61, Febriian/ 8 — Authorized a LOAN of 
$25,003,000, bearing interest at a rate not 
exceeding six per cent, per annum, and 
reimbursable within a period not bcyiKl 
twenty years nor less than ten years. Tliis 
loan was made for the payment of the cur- 
rent expenses, and was to be awarded to 
the most favorable bidders. 

Mai-ch 2 — Authorized a LOAN of $10,- 
000,000, bearing interest at a rate not ex- 
ceeding six per cent, per annum, and re- 
imbursable after the expiration of tea 
years from July 1, 18G1. In case propo- 
sals for the loan were not acceptable, au- 
thority wiis given to is^ue the wholo 
amount in Treasury notes, bearing in- 
terest at a rate not exceeding six per cent, 
per annum. Authority wa3 also given to 
substitute Treasure notes for the whole 
or any part of the loans for which the See- 
rotary was by law authorized to contract 
and issue bonds, at the time of the pas-.oge 
of this act, and such treasury notes were to 
be made receivable in payment of all pub- 
lic dues, and redeema})le at anv time 
within two years from ^larch 2, 1SG1. 

March 2 — Authorized an issue, should 
the Secretarv of the Treasury deem it ex- 
pedient, of $2,800,000 in coupon BONoa, 
bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. 



150 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



per annum, and redeemable in twenty 
years, lor the payment of expenses incurred 
by tlic Territories of Washington and 
Oregon in tlie suppression of Indian hus- 
tililies during the year l8o5-'5G. 

July 17 — Authorized a loan of $250,000,- 
OOU, lor which could be issued bonds bear- 
ing interest at a rate not exceeding 7 per 
cent, per annum, irredeemable for twenty 
years, and after that redeemable at the 
pleasure of the United States. 

Tkeasuky notes bearing interest at the 
rate of 7.30 per cent, per annum, payable 
three years after date ; and 

United States notes without interest, 
payable on demand, to the extent of $50,- 
000,000. (Increased by act of February 
12, 1S62, to $00,000,000. ) 

The bonds and treasury notes to be is- 
sued in such proportions of each as the 
'Secretary may deem advisable. 

August 5 — Authorized an issue of bonds 
bearing G per cent, interest per annum, 
and i>ayable at the pleasure of the United 
Stales after twenty years from date, which 
may be issued in exchange for 7.30 trea- 
sury notes ; but no such bonds to be issued 
for a less sum than $500, and the whole 
amount of such bonds not to exceed the 
wbole amount of 7.30 treasury notes issued. 

February 6, 1862— Making $50,000,000 
of notes, of denominations less than $5, a 
legal tender, as recommended by Secretary 
Ciiase, was passed January 17, 1862. In 
the House it i-eceived the votes of the Re- 
publicans generally, and 38 Democrats. 
In the Senate it had 30 votes for to 1 
against, that of Senator Powell. 

1862, February 25 — Authorized the issue 
of $15,000,000 in legal tender United States 
NOTES, $50,000,000 of which to be in lieu 
of demand notes issued under act of July 
17, 18G1, $500,000,000 in 6 per cent, bonds, 
redeemable after five years, and payable 
twenty years from date, which may be ex- 
changed for United States notes, and a 
temporary loan of $25,000,000 in United 
States notes for not less than thirty days, 
payable after ten days' notice at 5 jjcr 
cent, interest per annum. 

March 17 — Authorized an increase of 
TEMPOKAiiY LOANS of $25,000,000, bearing 
interest at a rate not exceeding 5 per cent. 
per annum. 

July 11 — Authorized a further increase 
of TEMPO iiARY LOANS of $50,000,000, mak- 
ing the whole amount authorized $100,- 
000.000. 

March 1 — Authorized an issue of CEn- 
TIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS, payable One 
year from date, in settlement of audited 
claims against the Government.^ Interest 
6 per cent. ])er annum, payable in gold on 
those issued prior to iVIarch 4, 1863, and in 
lawful currency on those issued on and 
alter that date. Amount of issue not 
specified. 



1862, Jtdy 11 — Authorized an additional 
issue of $150,000,01 legal tender kote^, 
$35,000,000 of which might be in denomi- 
nations less than five dollars. Fifty mil- 
lion dollars of this issue to be reserved to 
pay temporary loans promptly in case of 
emergency. 

July 17 — Authorized an i?sue of notes 
of the fractional i>urt of one dollar, receiv- 
able in payment of all dues, except cus- 
toms, less than five dollars. Amount of 
issue not specified. 

1863, January 17 — Authorized the issue 
of $100,000,000 in United States notes for 
the immediate ]iayment of the army and 
navy ; such notes to be a i)art of the 
amount jirovided for in any bill that may 
hereafter be passed by this Congress. The 
amount in this resolution is included in 
act of March 3, 1863. 

March 3 — Authorized a LOAN of ?300,- 
000,000 for this and ^ 600,000,000 for next 
fiscal year, for which could be issued londs 
running not less than ten nor more than 
forty years, principal and interest ]>ayable 
in coin, bearing interest at a rate not ex- 
ceedir.g 6 per cent. ] er annum, ] ayalle on 
bonds not exceeding $100, annually, and on 
all others semi-annually. AndTr.EASUEY 
NOTES (to the amount of $400,000,000) not 
exceeding three years to run, with interest 
not over per cent, per annum, principal 
and interest payable in lawful moneyj 
which may be made a legal tender for 
their face value, excluding interest, or 
convertible into United States notes. And 
a further issue of $150,000,000 in United 
States NOTES for the purpose of converting 
the Treasury notes which may be issued 
under this act, and for no other purpose. 
And a further issue, if necessary, for the 
jiayment of the army and navy, and other 
creditors of the Government, of $150,000,- 
000 in United States notes, which amount 
includes the $100,000,000 authorized by 
the joint resolution of Congress, January 
17, 1863. The whole amount of bonds, 
treasury notes, and United States notes 
issued under this act not to exceed the 
sum of $900,000,000. 

March 3— Authorized to issue not ex- 
ceeding $50,000,000 in eeactional cur- 
KENCY, (in lieu of postage or other stamps,) 
exchangeable for United States notes in 
sums not less than three dollars, and re- 
ceivable for any dues to the United States 
less than five dollars, excejit duties on im- 
ports. The whole amount issued, includ- 
ing postage and other stamps issued as 
currency, not to exceed $50,000,000. 
Authority was given to prepare it in the 
Treasury De[)artment, under the su})ervi- 
sion of the Secretary. 

1864, March 3— Authorized, in lieu of so 
much of the loan of IMarch 3, 1863, a loan 
of $20'\000,000 for the current fiscal year, 
for which may be issued bonds redeemable 



INTERNAL TAXES. 



151 



after five and within forty ycar?«, principal 
and iiiti-'rest i)ayablt' in coin, Learinj; interast 
at a rate not, cxccedinj^ p(T cent, per an- 
num, payable annnally on bonds not over 
$100, and on all others senii-annuaily. 
These bonds to bo exempt from taxation 
by or under State or munici[)al authority. 

18U4, June 30 — Authorized a LOAN of 
$100.00;),000. for which may be issued 
bimds, redeemable after five nor more than 
thirty years, or if deemed expedient, made 
payable at any period not more than forty 
years from date— iiiterf.st not exceeding six 
per cent. SLMui-annuallv, in coin. 

Fendin;^ tlu- loan bill of June 22, 18G2, 
before the House in Committee of the 
Whole, and the question beinu; on the first 
section, authorizinj^ a loan of$400,000,000, 
closin':^ with this clause: 

And all bonds, Treasury notes, and oth- 
er obligations of the United States shall be 
exempt from taxation by or under state or 
municipal authority. 

There wiis a sharp political controversy 
on this question, but the House finally 
agreed to it by 77 to 71. Party lines were 
not then distinctly drawn on financial issues. 



INTERNAL TAXES. 

The system of internal revenue taxes 
imposed during the war did not evenly 
divide parties until near its close, when 
Democrats were generally arrayed against 
these taxes. They cannot, from the record, 
be correctly clivssed as political issues, yet 
their adoption and the feelings since en- 
gendered by them, makes a brief summary 
of the record essential. 

- First Session, Thlrty-Seventfc Congress. 

The bill to provide increased revenue 
from imports, &e., passed the House August 
2, 1861— yeas 89, nays 39. 

Same day, it passed the Senate — yeas 34, 
nays 8, (Messrs. Breckinridge, Bright, John- 
ton, of Missouri, Ivennedg, Latham, Polk, 
Powell, S'lulsbunj.)* 

Second Session, Tlilrty-Seventli Congress. 

The Iiitcrnnl Revenue Act of 18C2. 

18G2, April 8— The House passed the bill 
to provide internal revenue, support the 
Government, and pay interest on the public 
debt — yeas 12G, nays 15. The Nays were : 

Messrs. William Allen, George IT. Browne, 
Buffinton, Cox, Kerrigan, Knapp, Imw, 
Norton, Pendleton, Richardson, Shiel Val- 
landigham, Vuorhees, Chilton A. White, 
Wickliffe—\b. 

June 6 — The bill passed in the Senate — 
yeas 37, nay 1, (Mr. Powell.) 

First Session TUlrty-ElgKth Congress. 

Tiilrrwil lin-cnue Act of 18C4. 

April 28— The House passed the act of 
1864— yeas 110, nays 39. The Nays were: 
Messrs. James C.'Allen, William J. Allen, 
* Dcmocnits in italics. 



Ancona, Brooks, Chunler, Cox, Davson, 
Denison, Kden, Klilridge^ Finck, J/nrrinij- 
ton, lienjdinin (J. Jlnrrin, J/i-rrick, J'hilip 
Johnson, William Johnson, Knn]>]>, Law, Le 
Jilond, I^>ng, Marci/, Mi:l)ou-cll, Mc Kin- 
ney, James R. Morris, Murrison, Collie, John 
O' Neil, J'oidleton, Ptrnj, Ro/nnson, Ross, 
Stiles, iSt rouse, Sluurt, Voorhefs, Ward, Chil- 
ton A. White, Joseph W. White, Fernando 
Wood—M. 

June 6— The Senate amended and i)a8scd 
the bill — yeas 22, nays 3, (Messrs. iJacis, 
Hnidrirks, Powell.) 

The bill, as finally agreed upon by a 
Committee of Conference, passed without 
a division. 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

Tarif A<:t uf 180J. 

In House— 1862, July 1— The Hoase 
passed, without a division, a bill increasing 
temporarily the duties on imports, and for 
other purposes. 

July 8 — The Senate passed it without a 
division. 

THE TARIFF ACT OF 18G4. 

June 4 — The House passed the bill — 
yeas 81, nays 28. The Nays were : 

JMessrs. James C. Allen, Blis.'i, Jamea S. 
Brown, Cox, Edgerton, IJldridgr, Finck, 
Gridcr, Harding, Harrington, Chas. M. 
Harris, Merrick, Holmau, LIutrhinx, Le 
Blond, Long, 3falloiy, Marcy, McDowell, 
Morrison, Noble, Pendleton, Pemj, Pruyn, 
Ross, Wadsworth, Chilton A. White, Joseph 
W. White ~28. 

June 17 — The Senate passed the bill — 
yeas 22, nays 5, (Messrs. Buckalcw, Hen- 
dricks, McDougall, Powell, Richardson.) 

Second Session, Tlilrty-Seventh Congress. 

Ttirea in Iiuntrrectionary Diitrkl<, l.SfiJ. 

1862, May 12— The bill for the collec- 
tion of taxes in the insurrcctionarj' dis- 
tricts passed the Senate — yeas 32, nays 3, 
as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Harlan, Harris, 
Henderson, Howe, King, Lane of Indiana, 
Lane of Kansas, Latham, McDougall, Mor- 
rill, Nesmith, Pomerov, Rice, Sherman, 
Sumner, Ten Eyck, 'Trumbull, AVade, 
Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson, of Massachu- 
setts, Wright -32. 

Nays— Messrs. Howard, Powell, Sauls- 
bury — 3. 

May 28 — The bill passed Hoa^e— yeas 
98, nays 17. The Nays were : 

jMessrs. /i/rZ^/Zc, C(drert, Cravens. .Tohnsnn, 
Kerrigan, Law, Mallory, Menzies. Noble, 
Norton, Pendleton, Prrro. Frimcis Thomas 
Vallandigham, Ward, Wickliffe, Wood — 17. 

The Democrats who voted Aye were: 

[Messrs. Ancona, Baily, Cobb. English, 
Haight, Hohnan, Lehman, Odell, Phelps^ 
* Democrats io italics. 



152 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Richardson, James S. Rollins, Sheffield, 
Umith, John B. Steele, Wm. G. Steele. 

TAXES IN INSURRECTIONARY DISTRICTS, 

18G4. 

In Senate, June 27 — The bill passed the 
Senate without a division. 

July 2 — It passed the House without a 
division. 

Many financial measures and proposi- 
tions were rejected, and we shall not at- 
tempt to give the record on these. All 
that were passed and went into operation 
can be more readily understood by a glance 
at our Tabulated History, in Book VII., 
which gives a lull view of the financial 
history and sets out all the loans and reve- 
nues.. We ought not to close this review, 
however, without giving here a tabulated 
statement, from " McPhersou's History of 
the Great Rebellion," of 



The Confederate Debt. 

December 31, 1862, the receipts of the 
Treasury from the commencement of the 
" Permanent Government," (February 18, 
1862,) were as follows: 

RECEIPTS. 

Patent fund $13,020 00 

Customs 668,566 00 

Miscellaneous 2,291,812 CO 

Repayments of disbursing offi- 
cers 3,839,263 00 

Interest on loans 26,583 00 

Call loan certificates .... 59,742,796 00 

One hundred million loan . . 41,398,286 00 

Treasury notes 215,554,885 00 

Interest bearing notes . . . 113,740.000 00 

War tax 16,664,513 00 

Loan 28th of February, 1861 , 1,375,476 00 
Coin received from Bank of 

Louisiana 2,539,799 00 

Total $457,855,704 00 

Total debt up to December 31, 

1862 556,105,100 00 

Estimated amount at that date 
necessary to support the Gov- 
ernment to July, 1863, was 357,929,229 00 

Up to December 31, 1862, the issues of 
the Treasury were : 

Notes 1440,678,510 00 

Redeemed 30,193,479 50 

Outstanding $410,485,030 50 

From January 1, 1863, to September 30, 
1863, the receipts of the Treasury were: 

For 8 per cent, stock .... $107,292,900 70 

For 7 per cent, stock .... 38,757,650 70 

For 6 per cent, stock .... 6,810,050 00 

For 5 per cent, stock .... 22,992,900 00 

For 4 per cent, stock .... 482,200 00 

Cetton certificates 2,000,000 00 

Interest on loans 140,210 00 

War tax 4,128,988 97 



Treasury notes 391,623,530 00 

Sequestration 1,862,550 27 

Customs 934,798 68 

Export duty on cotton . . . 8,101 78 

Patent fund 10,794 04 

Miscellaneous, including re- 
payments by disbursing offi- 
cers 24,498,217 93 

Total $601,522,893 12 

EXPENDITURES DUEINQ THAT TIME. 

War Department $377,988,244 00 

Navy Department 38,437,661 00 

Civil, miscellaneous, etc . . . 11,029,278 00 

Customs 56,636 00 

Public debt 32,212,290 00 

Notes cancelled and redeemed 59,044.449 00 

Total expenditures . . . .$519,368,559 00 
Total receipts 601,522,893 00 

Balance in treasury .... $82,154,334 00 

But from this amount is to be deducted the 
amount of all Treasury notes that have been 
funded, but which have not yet received a true 
estimation, $65,000,000 ; total remaining, $17,- 
154,334. 

CONDITION OF THE TREASURY, JANUARY 

1, 1864. 

Jan. 25 — The Secretary of the Treasury 
(C. G. Memminger) laid before the Senate 
a statement in reply to a resolution of the 
20th, asking information relative to the 
funded debt, to call certificates, to non-in- 
terest and interest-bearing Treasury notes, 
and other financial matters. From this it 
appears that, January, 1864, the funded 
debt was as follows : 

Art Feb 28, 1 SGI, 8 '^ cent., 15,000,000 00 

Act May 16, l^rll,8%> cent , 8,7T4.'.)O0 00 

ActAug. 10,18Gl,8"^cent., 10ti,0iMJ,0i)0 00 

Act Apr. 12, 1862, 8^ cnt, 3,H12,300 00 

ActFeb. ao.lSGX.g^cent, OS.TSS.'kK) UO 

A(tF<'b.20,18Cri, T^cent., 6:3.615,750 00 

Act Mar 23, 186:i, G'^.cent , 2,831,700 00 

Act April 30, 18G3 (cotton 

interest coupons) 8,252,000 00 

82!17,S7l ,650 00 

Call certificates hO,'.i06,770 00 

Non-interest bearing Treasury notes out- 
standing : 

Act May lU, ISCl— Payable 

two yeai-8 after date 8,320,875 00 

Act Aug. 19, 1861- General 
currency 189,719,251 00 

Act Oct. 13, 1861— All de- 
nominations 131,028,300 50 

Act March 23— AU denomi- 
nations 391,829,702 50 

720,898,095 00 

Interest bearing Trcagurv notes outstnnd- 
i„o; 102,465,450 00 

Amount of Trea-^ury notes 
under 8 5, outstanding 
Jan. 1, 1864, viz: 

Act April 17, 1862, denomi- 
nations of 81 and $■^ 4,860,277 50 

Act Oct. 13. 1862, S 1 and S 2 2,344,800 00 

Act March 23, 1863, 50 

cents .3,41^000 00 

Total under85 10,424, 077 50 

Total debt, Jan 1, 1864 $1,220,866,042 60 



CONFEDERATE TAXES. 



153 



ITS CONDITION, MARCH 31, 18G4. 

The lli'j^istcr of the Treasury, li<)])ert 
TyU'r, trave a statement, wliiili aijjieared 
in Uie llielimoiid Senlinrl at"ter tlie passage 
of the funding law, whieh gives the amount 
of outstanding non-interest-bearing Trea- 
sury notes, March 31, 18G4, as $790,204,403, 
as iwllows: 

Act May IG, 18G1— Ten-year 

notes 17,201,375 00 

Act Aug. 19, 1801— General 

currency 154,3Go,G.'j1 00 

Act Apr. 19, 186L'— ones and 

twos 4,510,509 00 

Act Oct. 18, 18G2— General 

currency 118,997,321 50 

Act .Mar. 23, 1803— General 

currency 511,182,500 50 

Total $;796, 204,403 00 

He also publishes this statement of the 
issue of non-intcrcst-bearing Treasury 
notes since the organization of the "Con- 
federate" government: 

Fifty cents .?9n,258 50 

Ones 4,882,000 00 

Twos 6,086,320 00 

Fives 79,090.315 00 

Tens 157,982,750 00 

Twenties 217,425,120 00 

Fifties 188,088,200 00 

Total $973,277,303 50 



Confederate Taxes. 

We also append as full and fair a state- 
ment of Conl'ederatc taxes as can be pro- 
cured, beginning with a summary of the 
act authitrizing the issue of Treasury notes 
and bonds, and providing a war tax for 
their redemption : 

THE TAX ACT OF JULY, 1861. 

The Richmond Enquirer gives the fol- 
lowing summary of the act authorizing 
the issue of Treasury notes and bonds, and 
providing a war tax fur their redemption : 

Section one authorizes the issue of 
Treasury notes, payable to bearer at the 
expiration of six months after the ratifica- 
tion of a treaty of peace between the Con- 
federate States and the United States. 
The notes are not to be of a less denomi- 
nation than five dollars, to be re-issued at 
plea-sure, to be received in payment of all 
public duas, except the export duty on cot- 
ton, and the whole issue outstanding at 
one time, incluiling the amount issued 
under former acts, are not to exceed one 
hundred millions of dollars. 

Section two provides that, for the pur- 
pose of funding the said notes, or for the 
purpose of purchasing specie or military 
stores, &c., bonds may be issued, payable 
not more than twenty years after date, to 



the amount of one hundred millions of dol- 
lars, and bearing an interest of eight per 
cent, per annum. This amount includes 
the thirty millions already autJKjrized to 
be issued. The bonds are not to be issued 
in les.s amounts than $100, except when the 
subscription is for a less amount, when 
they may be issued a.s low as ^jjO. 

Section three provides that holders of 
Treasury notes may at any time exchange 
them for bonds. 

Section four provides that, for the special 
purpose of paying tlie principal and inter- 
est of the public debt, and of supporting 
the (Tovernment, a war tax shall be as- 
sessed anil levied of filty cents ui)on each 
one hundred dollars in value of the follow- 
ing property in the Confederate States, 
namely : Real estate of all kinds ; slaves ; 
merchandise; bank stocks; railroad and 
other corporation stocks; money at in- 
terest or invested by individuals in the 
I)urchase of bills, notes, and other securi- 
ties for money, except the bonds of the 
Confedenite States of America, and ca.sh 
on hand or on deposit in bank or elsewhere ; 
cattle, horses, and mules; gold watches, 
gold and silver plate; pianos and pleasure 
carriages : Provided, however, That when 
the taxable property, herein above enu- 
merated, of any head of a family is of value 
less than five hundred dollars, such tax- 
able property shall be exempt from taxa- 
tion under this act. It provides i'urlhcr 
that the property of colleges, schools, and 
religious associations shall be exempt. 

The remaining sections provide for the 
collection of the tax. 

THE TAX ACT OF DECEMBER 19, 1861. 
An act supplement ar II to an act to authorize 
the issue of Treasnri/ notes, and to pro- 
vide a war tax for their redemption. 
Sec 1. The Congress of the Confedei-ate 
States of America do enact, That the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury is hereby authorized 
to pay over to the several banks, which 
have made advances to the Government, 
in anticipation of the issue of Treasury 
notes, a sufficient amount, not exceeding 
810,000,000, for the j>rinripal and interest 
due upon the said advance, according to 
the engagements made with them. 

Sec. 2. The time affixed by the said act 
for making assignments is hereby extend- 
ed to the 1st day of January next, and the 
time for the completion and delivery of the 
lists is extended to the 1st day of March 
next, and the time for the report of the 
said lists to the chief collector is extended 
to the 1st day of May next; and in cases 
where the time thus fixed shall be found 
insufficient, the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall have power to make further exten- 
sion, as circumstances may require. 

Sec 3. The cash on hand, or on deposit 
in the bank, or elsewhere, mentioned in 



154 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the fourth section of said act, is hereby de- 
chired to be subject to assessment and tax- 
ation, and the money at interest, or invest- 
ed by individuals in tlie purchase of bills, 
notes, and other securities for money, shall 
be deemed to include securities for money 
belonging to non-residents, and such se- 
curities siiall be returned, and the tax 
thereon jiaid by any agent or trustee hav- 
ing the same in possession or under his 
coDtrol. The term merchandise shall be 
construed to include merchandise belong- 
ing to any non-resident, and the property 
shall be returned, and the tax paid by any 
person having the same in possession as 
agent, attorney, or consignee: Provided, 
That the words " money at interest," as 
used in the act to which this act is an 
amendment, shall be so construed as to in- 
clude all notes, or other evidences of debt, 
bearing interest, without reference to the 
consideration of the same. The exception 
allowed by the twentieth section for agri- 
cultural products shall be construed to em- 
brace such products only when in the 
hands of the producer, or held for his ac- 
count. But no tax shall be assessed or 
levied on any money at interest when the 
notes, bond, bill, or other security taken 
for its payment, shall be worthless from 
the insolvency and total inability to pay 
of the payer or obligor, or person liable to 
make such payment ; and all securities for 
money payable under this act shall be 
assessed according to their value, and the 
assessor shall have the same power to as- 
certain the value of such securities as the 
law confers upon him with respect to other 
property. 

Sec. 4. That an amount of money, not 
exceeding $25,000, shall be and the same 
is hereby appropriated, out of any money 
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
to be disbursed under the authority of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, to the chief 
State tax collectors, for such expenses as 
shall be actually incurred for salaries of 
clerks, office hire, stationery, and inciden- 
tal charges ; but the books and printing 
required shall be at the expense of the de- 
partment, and subject to its approval. 

Sep. 5. The lien for the tax shall attach 
from the date of the assessment, and shall 
follow the same into every State in the 
Confederacy ; and in case any person shall 
attempt to remove any property which may 
be liable to tax, beyond the jurisdiction of 
the State in which the tax is payable, 
without payment of the tax, the collector 
of the district may distrain upon and sell 
the same, in the same manner as is pro- 
vided in cases where default is made in 
the payment of the tax. 

Sec. G. On the report of any chief col- 
lector, that any county, town or district, 
or any part thereof, is occupied by the 
public enemy, or has been so occupied as 



to occasion destruction of crops or property, 
the Secretary of the Treasury may suspend 
the collection of tax in such region until 
the same can be reported to Congress, and 
its action had thereon. 

Sec. 7. In case any of the Confederate 
States shall undertake to pay the tax to be 
collected within its limits before the time 
at which the district collectors shall enter 
upon the discharge of their duties, the 
Secretary of the Treasury may suspend the 
appointment of such collectors, and may 
direct the chief collector to appoint assess- 
ors, and to take proper measures for the 
making and perfecting the returns, assess- 
ments and lists required by law; and the 
returns, assessments and lists so made, 
shall have the same legal validity, to all 
intents and purposes, as if made according 
to the provisions of the act to which this 
act is supplementary. 

Sec. 8. That tax lists already given, 
varying from the provisions of this act, 
shall be corrected so as to conform thereto. 

THE TAX act OF APEIL 24, 18G3. 
[From the nichmond Whig, Apiil 21.] 

We present below a synopsis of the bill 
to lay taxes for the common defence and 
to carry on the government of the Confed- 
erate States, which has passed both 
branches of Congress. It is substantially 
the bill proposed by the committee on 
conference : 

1. The first section imposes a tax of 
eight per cent. uj)on the value of all naval 
stores, salt, wines and spirituous liquors, 
tobacco, manufactured or unmanufactured, 
cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, 
rice, and other agricultural products, held 
or owned on the 1st day of July next, and 
not necessary for family consumption for 
the unexpired portion of the year 1863, 
and of the growth or production of any 
year preceding the year 1863 ; and a tax 
of one per cent, upon all moneys, bank 
notes or other currency on hand or on de- 
posit on the 1st day of July next, and on 
the value of all credits on which the in- 
terest has not been paid, and not employed 
in a business, the income derived from 
which is taxed under the provisions of this 
act : Provided, That all moneys owned, 
held or deposited beyond the limits of the 
Confederate States shall be valued at the 
current rate of exchange in Confederate 
treasury notes. The tax to be assessed oa 
the first day of July and collected on the 
first day of October next, or as soon there- 
alter as may be practicable. 

2. Every person engaged, or intending 
to engage, in any business named in the 
fifth section, shall, within sixty days after 
the ])as3agc of the act, or at the time of be* 
ginning business, and on the first of Janu- 
ary in each year thereafter, register with 
the district collector a true account of the 



CONFEDERATE TAXES. 



155 



name and rcsitlence of each person, firm, 
or corporiition engaged or interested in tlie 
busiiu'ss, with a stiitement of the time lor 
which, and the nhiee and maniu-r in whieli 
the same is to ne eonducteil, &.e. At the 
time of the registry tlicre nhall be paid the 
speeifie tax for the year ending on the 
next 31st of December, and such other tax 
as m ly be due upon sales or reeeipti in 
8uch business. 

3. Any person failing to make such 
registry and pay such tax, shall, in addi- 
tion to'all other taxes upon his business im- 
posed by the act, pay double the amount 
of the specific tax ou such business, and a 
like sum for every thirty days of such 
failure. 

4. Requires a separate registry and tax 
for each business mentioneil in the fifth 
Bcetion, and for each place of conducting 
the same ; l)ut no tax for mere storage of 
goods at a jjlace other than the registered 
place of business. A new registry required 
upon every cliange iu the place of conduct- 
ing a registered business, upon the death 
of any person conducting the same, or 
upon the transfer of the business to an- 
other, but no ad litional tax. 

6. Imposing: the fd lowing taxes for the 
year euvling 31st of December, 18G3, and 
for each year thereafter: 

Bankers shall pay $500. 

Auctioneers, retail dealers, tobacconists, 
pcdlers, cattle brokers, apothecaries, pho- 
tographers, and confectioners, $50, and 
two and a half per centum on the gross 
amount of sales made. 

Wholesale dealers in liquors, $200, and 
five per centum on gross amount of sales. 
Retail dealers in liquors, $100, and ten per 
centum on gross amount of sales. 

Wholesale dealers in groceries, goods, 
wares, merchandise, &c., $200, and two 
and a half per centum. 

Pawnbrokers, money and exchange bro- 
kers, $200. 

Distillers. $200, and twenty per centum. 
Brewers, $100, and two and a half per cen- 
tum. 

Hotels, inns, taverns, and eating-houses, 
first class, $.500 ; second class, $300 ; third 
class, $200 ; fourth class, 100 ; fifth class, 
$30. Every house where food or refresh- 
ments are sold, and every boarding house 
where there shall be six boarders or more, 
shall be deemed an eating house under 
this act. 

Commercial brokers or commission mer- 
chants, $200, and two and a half per cen- 
tum. 

Theatres, $500, and five per centum on 
all receipts. Each circus, $100, and $10 
for each exhibition. Jugglers and other 
persons exhibiting shows, $50. 

Bowling alleys and billiard rooms, $40 
for each alley or table registered. 



Livery stable kccj)crs, lawyers, physi- 
cians, surgeons, and dentists, $;';(). 

Butchers and bakers, $50, and one per 
centum. 

0. Every person registered and taxed is 
required to make returns of the groas 
amount of sales from the pas.sage of the act 
to the 30th of June, and every three months 
thereafter. 

7. A tax upon all salaries, except of per- 
sons in the military or naval service, of one 
per cent, when not exceeding $1,500, and 
two per cent. uj)()n an excess over that 
amount: iVt;i»/(/('(/, That no taxes shall bo 
imposed by virtue of this act on the salary 
of any person receiving a salary not ex- 
ceeding $1,000 j)er annum, or at a like rate 
for another period of time, longer or 
shorter. 

8. Provides that the tax on annual in- 
comes, between $500 and $1,500, shall be 
five per cent. ; between $1,500 and $3,000, 
five per cent, on the first $1,500 and ten 
per cent, on the excess ; between $3,000 
and $5,000, ten per cent. ; between $5,000 
and $10,001), twelve and a half per cent. ; 
over $10,000, fifteen per cent., subject to 
the following deductions: On incomes de- 
rived from rents of real estate, manufac- 
turing, and mining establishments, &c., a 
sum sufficient for necessary annual repairs; 
on incomes from any mining or manufac- 
turing business, the rent, (if rented,) cost 
of labor actually hired, and raw inaterial; 
on incomes from navigating enterprises, 
the hire of the vessel, or allowance for 
wear and tear of the same, not exceeding 
ten per cent. ; on incomes derived from the 
sale of merchandise or any other property, 
the prime cost of transportation, salaries of 
clerks, and rent of buildings ; on incomes 
from any other occu])ation, the salaries of 
clerks, rent, cost of labor, material, &c. ; 
and in case of mutual insurance compa- 
nies, the amount of losses paid by them 
during the year. Incomes derived from 
other sources are subject to no deductions 
whatever. 

All joint stock companies and corpora- 
tions shall pay one tenth of the dividend 
and reserved fund annually. If the an- 
nual earnings shall give a profit of more 
than ten and less than twenty per cent, on 
capital stock, one eighth to be paid ; if 
more than twenty per cent., one sixth. 
The tax to be collected on the 1st of Janu- 
ary next, and of each year thereafter. 

9. Relates to estimates and deductions, 
investigations, referees, &c. 

10. A tax of ten per cent, on all profits 
in 18G2 by the purchase and sale of flour, 
corn, bacon, pork, oats, hay, rice, salt, iron 
or the manufactures of iron, sugar, mo- 
lasses made of cane, butter, woolen cloths, 
shoes, boots, blankets, and cotton cloths. 
Does not apply to regular retail business. 

11. Each farmer, after reserving for hi3 



156 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



own use fifty bushels sweet and fifty 
bushels Irish potatiK>8, one hvindred bushels 
corn or fifty bushels wheat produced this 
year, shall pay and deliver to the Con- 
federate Government one tenth of the 
grain, potatoes, forage, sugar, molasses, cot- 
ton, wool, and tobacco produced. After 
reserving twenty bushels peas or beans he 
shall deliver one tenth thereof. 

12. Every farmer, planter, or grazier, one 
tenth of the hogs slaughtered by him, in 
cured bacon, at the rate of sixty pounds of 
bacon to one hundred pounds of pork ; one 

Eer cent, upon the value of all neat cattle, 
orscs, mules, not used in cultivation, and 
asses, to be paid by the owners of the same ; 
beeves sold to be taxed as income. 

13. Gives in detail the duties of post 
quartermasters under the act. 

14. Relates to the duties of assessors and 
collectors. 

15. j\Iakes trustees, guardians, &c., re- 
sponsible for taxes due from estates, &c., 
under their control. 

16. Exempts the income and moneys of 
hospitals, asylums churches, schools, and 
colleges from taxation under the act. 

17. Authorizes the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury to make all rules and regulations ne- 
cessary to the operation of the act. 

18. Provides that the act shall be in 
force for two years from the expiration of 
the present year, unless sooner repealed ; 
that the tax on naval stores, flour, wool, 
cotton, tobacco, and other agricultural pro- 
ducts of the grov.th of any year jireceding 
1863, imposed in the first section, shall be le- 
vied and collected only for the present year. 

The tax act of February 17, 1864, levies, 
in addition to the above rates, the follow- 
ing, as stated in the Richmond Sentinel of 
February, 1864: 

Sec. 1. Upon the value of real, personal, 
and mixed property, of every kind and de- 
scription, except the exemptions hereafter 
to be named, five per cent. ; the tax levied 
on property employed in agriculture to be 
credited by the value of property in kind. 

On gold and silver ware, plate, jewels, 
and watches, ten per cent. 

The tax to be levied on the value of 
property in 1860, except in the case of 
land, slaves, cotton, and tobacco, pur- 
chased since January 1st, 1862, upon which 
the tax shall be levied on the price paid. 

Sec. 2. A tax of five per cent, on the 
value of all shnres in joint stock companies 
of any kind, whether incorporated or not. 
The shares to be valued at their market 
value at the time of assessment. 

Sec. 3. Upon the market value of gold 
and silver coin or bullion, five percent.; 
also the same upon moneys held abroad, or 
all bills of exchange drawn therefor. 

A tax of five per cent, on all solvent 
credits, and on all bank bills and pajiers 
used as currency, except non-interest-bcar- 



ing Confederate Treasury notes, and not 
employed in a registered business taxed 
twenty-five per cent. 

Sec. 4. Profits in trade and business 
taxed as follows : 

On the purchase and sale of agricultural 
products and mercantile wares ge4ierally, 
from January 1, 1863, to January 1, 1865, 
ten per cent, in addition to the tax under 
the act of April 24, 1863. 

The same on the purchase and sale of 
coin, exchange, stocks, notes, and credits 
of any kind, and any property not in- 
cluded in the foregoing. 

On the amount of profits exceeding 
twenty-five per cent, of any bank, banking 
cimapany, or joint stock company of any de- 
scription, incorporated or not, twenty-five 
per cent, on such excess. 

Sec 6. The following are exempted 
from taxation. 

Five hundred dollars' worth of property 
for each head of a family, and a hundred 
dollars additional for each minor child; 
and for each son in the army or navy, or 
who has fallen in the service, and a mem- 
ber of the family when he enlisted, the 
further sum of $500. 

One thousand dollars of the property 
of the widow or minor children of any 
rflacer, soldier, sailor, or marine, \\ho has 
died in the service. 

A like amount of property of any offi- 
cer, soldier, sailor, or maiine, engaged in 
the service, or who has been disabled 
therein, provided said property, exclusive 
of furniture, does not exceed in value $1,000. 

When property has been injured or de- 
stroyed by the enemy, or the owner unable 
temporarily to use or occupy it by reason 
of the presence or proximity of the enemy, 
the assessment may be reduced in propor- 
tion to the damage sustained by the owner, 
and the tax in the same ratio by the dis- 
trict collector. 

Sec. 6. The taxes on property for 1864 
to be assessed as on the clay of the passage 
of this act, and collected "the 1st of June 
next, Avith ninety days extension west of 
the Mississippi. The additional tax on 
incomes or profits for 1863, to be paid 
forthw th ; the tax on incomes, &c., for 1864, 
to be collected according to the acts of 1863. 

Sec. 7. Exempts frem tax on income for 
1864, all j)roperty herein taxed ad valorem. 
The tax on Confederate bonds in no case 
to exceed the interest payable on the 
same; and said bonds exem])t from tax 
when held by minors or lunatics, if the in- 
terest do not exceed one thousand dollars. 

the tax law. 
We learn that, according to the construc- 
tion of the recent tax law in the Treasury 
l^eiiartment, tax payers will be required to 
state the a» tides and objects subjected to a 
specific or ad valorem tax, held, owned, or 



CONFEDERATE TAXES. 



157 



posse^seil by thorn on the; 17th day of Febru- 
ary, IStil, the date of thf :ict. 

The daily wages of (U;t;iilod soldiers and 
other einiiloyos of the Goveriiineiit are not 
liable to taxation a.s inoinc, althouj;;h they 
niav amount, in the aLigrc;^ate, to the .su.n 
of ^1,000 per annum. 

A tax additional to both the above was 
impajcd a3 follows, Juno 1, 18G4: 

A bill to provide supi)lies for the army, and 
to pri'-scribe the mode of making im- 

Sre5smcnts. 
- EC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate 
States of America do enact, Every person 
required to pay a tax in kind, under the 
provisions of the " Act to lay taxes tor the 
common defense and carry on tlie Govern- 
inent of the Confederate States," approved 
April 24, 181)3, and the act amendatory 
thereof, approved February 17, 1864, shall, 
in addition to the one tenth required by 
said acts to be paid as a tax in kind, de- 
liver to the Confederate Government, of 
the products of the present year and of the 
year 186"), one other tenth of the several 
products taxed in kind by the arts afore- 
said, which additional one tenth shall be 
ascertained, assessed an'l collected, in all 
respects, as is provided by law for the said 
tix in kind, and shall be paid for, on de- 
livery, by the Post-Quartennasters in the 
several districts at theasse-<sed value there- 
of, except that payment for cotton and to- 
bacco shall be made by the agents of the 
Treasury Department appointed to receive 
the same. 

Sec. 2. The supplies necessary to the 
support of the producer and his family, and 
to carry on his ordinary business, shall be 
exempted from the contribution required 
by the preceding section, and from the ad- 
ditional impressments authorized by the 
act: Provided, however, That nothing here- 
in contained shall be construed to repeal 
or affect the provisions of an act entitled 
"An act to authorize the impressment of 
meat for the use of the army, under certain 
circumstances,'' approved Feb. 17, 1864, 
and if the amount of any article or product 
so necessary cannot be agreed upon be- 
tween the assessor and the producer, it 
shall be ascertained and determined by 
disinterested freeholders of the vicinage, as 
is provided in cases of disagreement as to 
the estimates and assessments of tax in 
kind. If required by the assessor, such 
freeholder shall a-;certain whether a pro- 
ducer, who is found unable to furnish the 
additional one tenth of any one product, 
cannot supply the deficiency by the de- 
livery of an equivalent in other products, 
and upon what terms such commutation 
shall be mide. Any commutation thus 
awarded shall be enforced and collected, in 
all respects, as is provided for any other 
contribution required by this act. 



Se'^. 3. The Secretary of War may, at 
his discTction, decline to asse-.s, or, aflcr 
assessment, may decline to (tollect the 
whule or any part of the additional one 
tenth herein provided for, in any district 
or locality; and it shall be his duty 
promptly to give notice of any such de- 
termination, specifying, with reasonable 
certainty, the district or locality and the 
t)roduct, or the proportion thereof, as to 
which he so declines. 

Si;c. 4. The jiroducts received for the 
contribution herein required, shall be dis- 
posed of and accounted for in the same 
manner ;i.s those received for the tax in 
kind; and the Secretary of War may, 
whenever the exigencies of the public ser- 
vice will allow, authorize the sale of pro- 
ducts received from eitlier source, to pub- 
lic officers or agcnta charged in any State 
with the duty of providing for the families 
of soldiers. Such sale shall be at the 
prices paid or assessed for the products 
sold, including the actual cost of collec- 
tions. 

Sec. 5. If, in addition to the tax in kind 
and the contribution herein required, the 
necessities of the army or the good of the 
service shall require other supplies of food 
or forage, or any other private ])roperty, 
and the same cannot be procured by con- 
tract, then impressments may be made of 
such supplies or other property, cither for 
absolute ownership or for temporary use, 
as the j)ublic necessities may require. Such 
impressments shall be made in accordance 
with the provisions, and sulqect to the re- 
strictions of the existing impressment laws, 
exce])t so far as is herein otherwise pro- 
vided. 

Sec. 6. The right and the duty of mak- 
ing impressments is hereby confided exclu- 
sively to the officers and agents charged in 
the several districts with the assessment 
and collection of the tax in kind and of 
the contribution herein required ; and all 
officers and soldiers in any department of 
the army are hereby expressly prohibited 
from undertaking in any manner to inter- 
fere with these officers and agents in any 
part of their duties in respect to the tax in 
kind, the contribution, or the impressment 
herein provided for: Provided, That this 
prohibition shall not be applicable to any 
district, county, or parish in which there 
shall be no officer or agent charged with 
the appointment and collection of the tax 
in kind. 

Sec. 7. Supplies or other property taken 
by impressment shall be paid for by the 
post quartermasters in the several districts, 
and snail be disposed of and accounted for 
by them as is required in respect to the tax 
in kind and the contribution herein re- 
quired ; and it shall be the duty of the 
post quartermasters to equalize and appor- 
tion the impressments within their dia- 



158 



AMEEICAN POLITICS, 



tricts, as far as practicable, so as to avoid 
oppressing any portion of the community. 

Sec. 8. If any one not authorized by law 
to collect tlie tax in kind or the contribu- 
tion herein required, or to make impress- 
ments, shall undertake, on any pretence of 
such authority, to seize or impress, or to 
collect or receive any such property, or 
shall, on any such pretence, actually obtain 
such property, he shall, upon conviction 
thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding 
five times the value of such property, and 
be imprisoned not exceeding five years, at 
the discretion of the court having jurisdic- 
tion. And it shall be the duty of all offi- 
cers and agents charged with the assess- 
ment and collection of the tax in kind 
and of the contribution herein required, 
promptly to report, through the post quar- 
termasters in the several districts, any vio- 
lation or disregard of the provisions of this 
act by any officer or soldier in the service 
of the Confederate States. 

Sec. 9. That it shall not be lawful to 
impress any sheep, milch cows, broodmares, 
stud horses, jacks, bulls, or other stock 
kept or necessary for raising horses, mules, 
or cattle. 

The following is the vote by which the 
bill passed the Senate : 

Yeas — Messrs. Caperton, Graham, 
Haynes, Jemison, Johnson (Ark.), John- 
son (Mo.), Mitchell, Orr, Walker, Watson 
—10. 

Nays — Messrs. Baker, Burnett, Henry, 
Hunter, Maxwell, Semmes, Sparrow — 7. 



AOmtttlng West Virginia. 

An important political movement in the 
early years of the war was the separation 
of West Virginia from the mother State, 
which had seceded, and her admission in- 
to the Union. 

SECON^D SESSION, THIKTY-SEVEXTH CON- 
GRESS. 

In Senate, 1SG2, July 14.— The bill pro- 
viding for the admission of the State of 
West Virginia into the Union, passed — 
yeas 23, nays 17, as follows : 

Yeas— Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Colla- 
mer, Fcssenden, Foot, Fo.stor, Grimes, Hale, 
Harlan, llarri^i, Howe, Lane of Indiana, 
Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pomeroy, Rice, 
Sherman, Simmons, Ten Eyck, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson of Massachu- 
Betts— 23. 

Nays— Messrs. Bayard, Brownincr, Car- 
b'le, Chandler, Cowan, Varis, Howard, 
Kenn/'dj/, King, McDongnl, Poicell, Sauls- 
hury, Stark, Sumner, Trumbull, Wihoii of 
Missouri, Wright — 17. 

During the j)endency of this bill, July 
14, 18r.2, Mr. Sumner moved t^ strike from 
the first section of the second article the 
words : " the children of all slaves born 



within the limits of said State shall be free," 
and insert: 

Within the limits of the said State there 
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, otherwise than in pu:iishmentof 
crimes whereof the party shall be duly 
convicted. 

Which was rejected — yeas 11, nays 24, as 
follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Chandler, Clark, Grimes, 
King, Lane of Kansas, Pomeroy, Sumner, 
Trumbull, Wilkinson, Wilmot, Wilson, 
of Massachusetts— 11. 

Nays— Messrs. Anthony, Baya7-rl,Jirnv:n- 
ing, Carlile, Collamer, Doolittle, Foot Fos- 
ter, Harris, Henderson, Howe, Kennedy, 
Lane of Indiana, Poicell, Rice, Saulsbury, 
Sherman, Simmons, Stark, Ten Eyck, 
Wade, Wiley, Wilson of Missouri, Wright 
--24. 

Mr. Willey proposed to strike out all 
after the word "That" in the first section, 
and insert: 

That the State of West Virginia be, and 
is hereby, declared to be one of the United 
States' of America, and admitted into the 
Union on an equal footing with the origi- 
nal States in all respects whatever, and un- 
til the next general census shall be entitled 
to three members in the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States: Provided 
ahcays, That this act shall not take effect 
until after the proclamation of the Presi- 
dent of the United States hereinafter pro- 
vided for. 

Sec. 2. It being represented to Congress 
that since the convention of the 26th of 
November, 18G1, that framed and proposed 
the constitution for the said State of West 
Virginia, the people thereof have expressed 
a wish to change the seventh section of the 
eleventh article of said constitution by 
striking out the same, and inserting the 
following in its place, namely, "The chil- 
dren of slaves born within the limits of 
this State after the 4th day of July, 18G3, 
shall be free, and no slave shall be permit- 
ted to come into the State for permanent 
residence therein :" therefore, 

Be it further enacted. That whenever 
the people, of West Virginia shall, through 
their said convention, and by a vote to be 
taken at an election to be held within the 
limits of the State at such time as the con- 
vention may provide, make and ratify the 
change aforesaid and properly certify the 
same under the hand of the president of 
the convention, it shall be lawful for the 
President of the United States to issue his 
proclamation stating the fact, and there- 
upon this act shall take effect and be in 
force from and after sixty days from the 
date of said j)roclamation. 

I\Ir Lane of Kansas moved to amend the 
amendment by inserting after the word 
"Heicin,' and before the word, "There- 
fore" the words: 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 



l^D 



And that all slaves wilhin tlic said State 
who shiill at tiie time ulorcsaid be uiidrr 
the a;^e of ten years aliall be Tree when 
they arrive al the age of t wenty-oue years ; 
and all slaves over ten and under twenty- 
one vears shall be free when they arrive at 
the age of twenty-live years. 

Whieh was agreed to— yeas 25, nays 12, 
as follows : 

YicAS — Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Colla- 
nier, Ooolittle, Foot, Foster, (Jrinies, Har- 
lan. Harris, Howard, Howe, King, Lane of 
Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Ponie- 
rnv, Sherman, Si in mons.Siiiuner, Ten Eyek, 
Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilmot, Wil- 
son, of Mas>aehusetts — 25. 

Nays — Messrs. Browning, Carlile, Davis, 
Henderson, Ketiiu'di/, JlfcDoitgall, Poivcll, 
iSaulshiirt/, Stitr/c Willey, Wilson of Mis- 
souri, Wright — 12. 

The amendment as amended was then 
agreed to. 

A motion to postpone the bill to the first 
^londay of the next December was lost — 
ye;is 17, nays 23. 

In House, July 16 — The bill was post- 
poned until the second Tuesday of the 
next December — yeas 63, nays 33. 

THIRD SESSION, THIRTY-SEVENTH CON- 
GRESS. 

1863, Dec. 10, the House passed the bill 
— yeas 'Jii, nays 57. 

1S63, April 20, the President issued a 
nroelamntion announcing the compliance, 
!)y West Virginia, of the conditions of ad- 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS, 

Emancipation and its attendant agita- 
tions brought to the front a new class of 
political questions, which can best be 
grou[)ed under the above caption. The 
following is a summary of the legislation : 

Second Session, Tlilrty-Seventh Congress. 

To Remove DUqu.dijlcatioa of Color in Carrying the MiUs. 

In Senate, 1862, April 11 -The Senate 
considered a bill "to remove all disquali- 
fication of color in carrying the mails of 
the United States." It directed that after 
the passage of the act no person, by reason 
of color, shall be disqualified from em- 
ployment in carrying the mails, and all 
acts and parts of acts establishing such dis- 
qualification, including especially the 
seventh section of the act of March 3, 1825 
are hereby repealed. ' ' 

The vote in the Senate was, veas 24. navs 
11, as follows: ^ 

YE.A.S — Messrs. Anthnnv, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark. Collamcr. Dixon, Doolit- 
tle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster. Grimes, Hale, 
Howard, Howe, King, Lane of Kansasj 
Morrill, Pomeroy, Sherman, Simmons, 



Sumner, Wade, Wilkinson, am! Wilson of 
MassachusetLs— 2 1. 

Nays— Messrs. Davis, Henderson, A77i- 
ntdij, Lane of Indiana, l.(Uliain, iXcsmil/i, 
I'ouiU, Slar/c, Willey, ll'Usun of Missouri, 
Wright— 11.* 

In House, May 21 — It was considered in 
the House and laid on the table— yeas 83, 
nays 43. 

Fiitit ScNKion, Thlrty-ElRhtli ron^rnnd. 

1SG4, February 26 — The Senate con- 
sidered the bill — the question being on 
agreeing to a new section proposed liy the 
Committee on Post Ollices and Post lloads 
— as follows : 

Sec. 2. That in the courts of the United 
States there shall be no exclusion of any 
witness on account of color. 

Mr. Powell moved to amend by inserting 
after the word "States" the words: "in 
all cases for robbing or violating the mails 
of the United States." 

No further progress was made on the 

bin. 

NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN MONTANA TERRI- 
TORY. 

1864, March IS — The House passed,with- 
out a division, a bill in the usual form, to 
provide a temporary government for the 
Territory of Montana. 

March 31 — The Senate considered it, 
when Mr. Wilkinson moved to strike from 
the second line of the filth section, (defin- 
ing the qualifications of voters,) the words 
"white male inhabitant" and insert the 
words: " male citizen of the United States, 
and those who have declared their inten- 
tion to become such ;" which was agreed 
to — yeas 22, nays 17, as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Brown, Chandler, Clark, 
Collamer,Conncss, Dixon, Fessenden, Foot, 
Foster, Grimes, Hale, Hnrlan, Harris, 
Howard, Howe, Morgan, ]\Ir)rrill, Pome- 
roy, Sumner, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilson — 
22.^ 

Nays— ]\Iessrs. Buckalnc, Cnrlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Harding, Henderson, Johnson. Lane 
of Indiana, Nesmith, Potcell, Riddle, Sauls- 
hnry, Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey— 17. 

The bill was then passed — yeas 20, nays 
8, (Messrs. Burl-alvw, Davis, Jo'h t\snn. Poivcll, 
Riddle, Saulyhurj/, Van Winkle, Willey. ) 

April 15 — The Senate adopted the report 
of the Committee of Conference on the 
Montana bill, which recommended the 
Senate to recede from their second amend- 
ment, and the House to agree to the first 
and third amendments of the Senate, (in- 
cluding the above.) 

April 15 — !Mr. Reaman presented the re- 
port of the Committee of Conference on 
the >\Iontana bill, a feature of which was 
that the House should recede from its dis* 

* BcpubUcaos Id roman ; Democrat In Itallci, 



160 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



agreement to the Senate amendment strik- 
ing out the word "white" in the descrip- 
tion of those authorized to vote. 

Mr. Ilolmau moved that the report be 
tabled ; which was lo ^t by the casting vote 
of the Speaker — yeas 66, nays 66. 

Upon agreeing to the report the yeas 
were 54, nays 85. 

On motion to adhere to its amendments, 
and ask anotlier Committee of Conference, 
Mr. Wel)stcr moved instructions : 

And that said committee be instructed 
to agree to no report that authorizes any 
other than free wliite male citizens, and 
those who have declared their intention to 
become such, to vote. 

Which was agreed to — yeas 75, nays 67. 

April 15 — The Senate declined the con- 
ference upon the terms proposed by the 
House resolution of that day. 

April 18 — The House proposed a further 
free conference, to which, Ai)ril 25, the 
Senate acceded. 

May 17 — In Senate, Mr. Morrill sub- 
mitted a report from the Conference Com- 
mittee who recommend that qualified 
voters shall be : 

All citizens of the United States, and 
those who have declared their intention to 
become such, and who are otherwise de- 
scribed and qualified under the fifth sec- 
tion of the act of Congress providing for a 
temporary government for the Territory of 
Idaho ai)proved March 3, 1863. 

The report was concurred in — yeas 26, 
nays 13. 

May 20 — The above report was made by 
Mr. Webster in the House, and agreed to 
— ^yeas 102, nays 26. 

IN WASHINGTON CITY.* 

1864, May 6 — The Senate considered the 
bill for the registration of voters in the city 
of Washington, when 

Mr. Cowan moved to insert the word 
" white " in the first section, so as to con- 
fine the right of voting to wliite male 
citizens. 

May 12 — Mr. Morrill moved to amend 
the amendment by striking out the words — 

* In IFfiO ft vote was had in the State of New Tork on 
a pro)iositii>n to permit negro suffrage withouta property 
qiuilifK-alion. Tlio result of the cifv was— yejw 1,6*10, 
nays l!7,47 . In the State— yeas 107,505. nays 337,984. 
In 1804 a like proposition was defeated — yeas 85,406, nays 
2-'4,33G. 

In ISG2, in August, a rote was, had in the State of Illi- 
nois, on several propositions relating to negroes and 
mulattoe';, with this result: 

Fcr excluding them from the State 171.85)3 

Against 71,306 

100,587 

Agninst granting thcra sufTrage or right 

to office 21',020 

For 35,G49 

176,271 

For the enartment of laws to prohihit 

thi'm frwm going to, or voting in, the 

State 19S,938 

Against 44,414 

154,524 

—^om UcPhononU UitUny of the Great Bcbellkin. 



And shall have paid all schr>«)\ taxes and 
all taxes on personal property properly as- 
sessed against him, shall be entitled to 
vote for mayor, collector, register, members 
of the board of aldermen and board of 
common council, and assessor, and for 
every officer authorized to be elected at 
any election under any act or acts to which 
this is amendatory or supplementary, 
and inserting the words — 

And shall within the year next preced- 
ing the election have paid a tax, or been 
assessed with a part of the revenue of the 
District, county, or cities, therein, or been 
exempt from taxation having taxable 
estate, and who can read and write with 
facility, shall enjoy the privileges of an 
elector. 

May 26 — Mr. Sumner moved to amend 
the bill by adding this proviso : 

Provided, That there shall be no exclu- 
sion of any person from the registiy on ac 
count of color. 

May 27 — Mr. Harlan moved to amend 
the amendment by making the word " per' 
son " read *' persons," and adding the 
words — 

Who have borne arms in the military 
service of the United States, and have been 
honorably discharged therefrom. 

Which was agreed to yeas 26, nays 12, 
as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, 
Clark, CoUamer, Conness, Dixon, Fessen- 
den. Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, 
Harris, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Lane 
of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
Ramsey. Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Wade, Willey, Wilson— 26. 

Nays — Messrs. Buckaleir, Carlile, Cow- 
an, Davis, Hendricks, McDmigall, Foicell 
Richardson, Smdsh^try, Sumner, Van 
Winkle, Wilkinson— 12. 

May 28 — Mr. Sumner moved to add 
these words to the last proviso : 

And provided further, That all persons, 
without distinction of color, who shall, 
within the year next preceding the election, 
have paid a tax on any estate, or been as- 
sessed with a part of the revenue of said 
District, or been exempt from taxation 
having taxable estate, and who can read 
and write with facility, shall enjoy the 
privilege of an elector. But no person 
now entitled to vote in the said District, 
continuing to reside therein, shall be dis- 
franchised hereby. 

Which was rejected — yeas 8, nays 27, as 
follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Lane of 
Kansas, Morgan, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sum- 
ner, Wilkinson — 8. 

Nays — Messrs. Bnchalew, Carlile, CoUa- 
mer, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Har- 
ris, Hendricks, Hicks, Johnson, Lane of 
Indiana, McDougall, Morrill, Powell, Sauls- 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 



161 



huiii, Shi-rmiin, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey, Wilsjn— 27. 

Tlu' ntiiLT proposition of Mr. Sumner, 
aiiH'inieil on motion of Mr. JIarhui, w:is 
tlicn rejei'ted — yoii.-* IS, nays 2U, a.s follows: 

Ykas — Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, 
Clark, nixon, Foot. Foster, Hale, Marian, 
Howard, Hiiwe, Lane of Kansas, Mor<ran, 
roincrov, Ramsev, .Sherman, Sumner, 
Wilkinson, Wilson— 18. 

Xays — Messrs. liuckalew, Carlile, Co- 
wan, Ddri.t, Crimes, Harris, Hendricks, 
Hieks, .Tohnson, Lane of Indiana, Mclhnt- 
■/iill, Morrill, Xc.imifh, Fowell, Richardson, 
.<,nilx')>in/. Ten Evck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey— 2(V. 

The bill then passed the Senate, and 
afterward the House, without amendment. 

Thli-tl Session, TIilrty-Se%'ciitli CoiiKress. 

EjecUulvig CoUired Persons from Ckirs. 

In Senate— 1863, February 27— Pending 
a sujiplenient to the charter of the Wash- 
ington and Alexandria Railroad Company, 
Mr. Sumner ort'ered this proviso to the 
lirst seetion: 

That no person shall be excluded from 
the ears on account of color. 

Which was agreed to — yeas 19, nays 18, 
&s follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Arnold, Chandler, Clark, 
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Harris, Howard, 
King, Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
Sumner, Ten Eyck. Trumbull, Wade, Wi'l- 
kinson. Wilmot, AVilson, of ^Massachusetts 
—19. 

Nays — i\Iessrs. Anthony, Bayard, Car- 
lile, Cowan, Davis, Henderson, Hicks, 
Howe, Kennedy, Lane of Indiana, Latham, 
McDriUijall, Powell, Richardson, Saulshury, 
T\irpic, Willey, Jr?75i9?i of Missouri — 18. 

March 2. — The House concurred in the 
amendment without debate, under the pre- 
vious question. 

First Session, TlUrty^-Elghtli Congress. 

In Senate — 1864, February 10 — Mr. 
Sumner offered the following : 

Resolved, That the Committee on ttie 
District of Columbia be directed to con- 
sider the expediency of further providing 
by law against the exclusion of colored 
persons from the equal enjoyment of all 
railroad privileges in the District of Colum- 
bia. 

Which was agreed to — yeas 30, nays 10. 

February 24 — Mr. Willey, from the 
Committee on the District of Columbia, 
made this report, and the committee were 
discharged: 

The Committee on the District of Co- 
lumbia, who were required by resolution 
of the Senate, passed February S, 1S64, 
'■ to consider the expediency of further 
providing by law again.st the exclusif)n of 
colored persons from the equal enjoyment 
of all railroad pri\'ileees in the District of 
11 



Columbia," have had the matter thus re- 
ferred to them under consideration, and 
beg leave to report : 

The act entitled "An act Ut incorporate 
the. Washington and (Jeorgetown Railroad 
Company," approved >May 17, 1K(>2, makes 
no distinction as to j)assengers over said 
road on account of the color of the pas- 
sengers, and that in the opinion of the 
committee colored j)erson8 are entitled to 
all the privileges of said road which 
other persons have, and to all remedies for 
any denial or breach of such privileges 
which belongs to any person. 

The committee theretbre a.sk to be dis- 
charged from the further consideration of 
the premises. 

March 17 — The Senate considered the 
bill to incorporate the Metropolitan Rail- 
road Company, in the District of Columbia, 
the pending (juestion being an amendment, 
offered by Mr. Sumner, to add to the four- 
teenth section the words : 

Provided, That there shall be no regula- 
tion excluding any person from any car o& 
account of color. 

Which was agreed to — yeas 19, nays 17, 
as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Clark, 
Conness, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, 
Harlan, Howe, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, 
Morrill, Pomerov, Ramsev, Sumner, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Wilson— 19. ' 

Nays — Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Davis, 
Doolittle, Harding, Harris, Hendricks, 
Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Powell, Riddle, 
Saulshury, Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Van Winkle, Willey— 17. 

The bill then passed the Senate. 

June 19 — The House refused to strike 
out the proviso last adopted in the Senate 
— yeas 60, nays 76. 

And the bill pa~ssed the House and was 
approved by the President. 

Second Session, Thtrty-Seventlx Congress. 

Colored Persons as Witnesses. 

In Senate — Pending the confiscation bill, 
June 28, 1862. 

I\Ir. Sumner moved these words as an 
addition to the 14th section : 

And in all the proceedings under this 
act there shall be no exclusion of any wit- 
ness on account of color. 

Which was rejected — yeas 14, nays 25, 
as follows : 

Yea.s — Messrs. Chandler, Grimes, Har- 
lan, Howard, King, Lane of Kan-sas, 'Slor- 
rill, Pomerov, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Wilmot— 14. 

Nays — Messrs. Anthony. Browning, 
Carlile, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Davis, 
Dixon, Doolittle, Fc^ssenden, Foot, Foster, 
Harris, Henderson, Lane of Indiana, Xes- 
inifh, Pearce, Powell, Sherman. Simmons, 
Stark, Ten Eyck, Willey, Wilson of Mis- 
souri, Wright — 25. 



162 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Pending the consideration of the supple- 
ment to the emancipation bill for the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, 

1862, July 7 — Mr. Sumner moved a new 
section : 

That in all the judicial proceedings in 
the District of Columbia there shall be no 
exclusion of any witness on account of 
color. 

Which was adopted — yeas 25, nays 11. 

The bill then jiassed — yeas 29, nays 6 ; 
(Messrs. Carlile, Davis, Kennedy, Powell, 
Wilson, of Missouri, Wright.) 

July 9 — The bill passed the House — 
yeas 09, nays 36. There was no separate 
vote on the above proposition. 

Pending the consideration in the Senate 
of the House bill in relation to the com- 
petency of witnesses in trials of equity and 
admiralty, 

1862, July lo — Mr. Sumner offered this 
proviso to the first section : 

Provided, That there shall be no exclu- 
sion of any witness on account of color. 

Which was rejected — yeas 14, nays 23. 

First Session, TUlrty-Elghtli Congress. 

1864, June 25 — Pending the civil appro- 
priation bill, in Committee of the Whole, 
Mr. Sumner oflFered this proviso : 

Provided, That in the courts of the 
United States there shall be no exclusion 
of any witness on account of color. 

Mr. Buckalew moved to add : 

Nor in civil actions because he is a party 
to or interested in the issue tried. 

Which was agreed to ; and the amend- 
ment as amended was agreed to — yeas 22, 
nays 16. 

The Senate subsequently concurred in 
this amendment — yeas 29, nays 10. 

IN HOUSE. 

June 29 — The question being on agree- 
ing to the amendment, 

Mr. Mallory moved to add this proviso 
to the section amended in the Senate : 

Provided, That negro testimony shall 
only be taken in the United States courts 
in those States the laws of which authorize 
such testimony. 

Which was rejected — yeas 47, nays 66. 

The amendment of the Senate was then 
agreed to — yeas 67, nays 48. 

COLORED SCHOOLS. 

June 8.— The House passed a bill to pro- 
vide for the public instruction of vouth in 
Washington city, with an amendment pro- 
viding for separate schools for the colored 
children, l)y setting apart such a propor- 
tion of the entire school fund as the num- 
ber of colored ciiildren l)etween the ages of 
six and seventeen ])ear to the whole num- 
ber of children in the District. The bill, 
with amendments, passed both Houses 
without a division. 



On all of these questions of color, the 
Democrats invariably, on test votes, were 
found against any concession of rights to 
the negro. These were frequently aided 
by some Republicans, more conservative 
than their colleagues, or representing closer 
districts where political prejudices would 
ati'ect their return to their seats. It will 
be observed that on nearly all these ques- 
tions Senator Charles Sumner took the 
lead. He was at that time pre-eminently 
the Moses of the colored man, and led him 
from one right to another through Sena- 
torial difficulties, which by the way, were 
never as strong as that in the House, where 
Thaddeus Stevens was the boldest cham- 
pion of " the rights of the black man." In 
the field, rather in the direction of what 
should be done with the " contrabands " 
and escaped slaves, the Secretary of War, 
General Cameron, was their most radical 
friend, and his instructions were so out- 
spoken that Lincoln had to modify them. 
As early as December 1, 1861, General 
Cameron wrote : 

" While it is plain that the slave prop- 
erty of the South is justly subjected to all 
the consequences of this rebellious war, 
and that the Government would be untrue 
to its trust in not employing all the rights 
and powers of war to bring it to a speedy 
close, the details of the plan for doing so, 
like all other militaiy measures, must, in 
a great degree, be left to be determined by 
particular exigencies. The disposition of 
other property belonging to the rebels that 
becomes subject to our arms is governed by 
the circumstances of the case. The Gov- 
ernment has no power to hold slaves, none 
to restrain a slave of his liberty, or to ex- 
act his service. It has a right, however, 
to use the voluntary service of slaves lib- 
erated by war from their rebel masters, like 
any other property of the rebels, in what- 
ever mode may be most efficient for the de- 
fence of the Government, the prosecution 
of the war, and the suppression of rebel- 
lion. It is clearly a right of the govern- 
ment to arm slaves when it may become 
necessary as it is to take gunpowder from 
the enemy. Whether it is expedient to do 
so is purely a military question. The right 
is unquestionable by the laws of war. The 
expediency must be determined by circum- 
stances, keeping in view the great object 
of overcoming the rebels, re-establishing 
the laws, and restoring peace to the na- 
tion. 

" It is vain and idle for the Government 
to carry on this war, or hope to maintain 
its existence against rebellious force, with- 
out enjoying all the rights and powers of 
war. As has been said, the right to de- 
prive the rebels of their property in slaves 
and slave labor is as clear and absolute as 
the right to take forage from the field, or 
cotton from the warehouse, or powder and 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 



168 



arms from the magazine. To leavi- tho 
enemy in the possession of sneh projterty 
as forage and cotton and military stores, 
and the means of constantly n'])rodncirij,f 
them, would be madness. It is, therefore, 
equal madness to leave them in peaceful 
and secure possession of slave property, 
mi)re valuable antl elHcient to them for war 
than forage, cotton and military stores. 
Such j)olicy would be national suicide. 
What to do with that species of property 
is a (piestiori that time and circumstunces 
will solve, and need not be anticipated 
further than to repeat that they cannot be 
hi'lil by the (lovernment as slaves. It would 
bo useless to keep them as prisoners of war ; 
and self-preservation, the highest duty of 
a Government, or of individuals, demands 
that they should be disposed of or em- 
ployed in the most effective manner that 
will tend most speedily to suppress the in- 
surrection and restore the authority of the 
Government. If it shall be found that the 
men who have been held by the rebels as 
slaves are capable of bearing arms and per- 
forming efficient military service, it is the 
right, and may become the duty, of this 
Government to arm and equip them, and 
employ their services against the rebels, 
under proper military regulations, disci- 
pline and command. 

" Rut in whatever manner they may be 
used by the Government, it is plain that, 
once liberated by the rebellious act of their 
mastera, they should never again be re- 
stored to bondage. By the master's trea- 
son and rebellion he "forfeits all right to 
the labor and service of his slave ; and the 
slave of the rebellious master, by his ser- 
vice to the Government, becomes justly en- 
titled to freedom and protection. 

"The disposition to be made of the 
slaves of rebels, after the close of the war, 
can be safely left to the wisdom and pat- 
riotism of Congress. The representatives 
of the people will unquestionably secure 
to the loyal slaveholders every right to 
which they are entitled under the Consti- 
tution of the country." 

[Subsequent events proved the wisdom 
of this policy, and it wna eventually adopt- 
ed by an Administration which jjroclaimed 
its policy " to move not ahead but with the 
people."] 

President Lincoln and his Cabinet mod- 
ified the above language so as to make it 
read: 

" It is already a grave question what 
shall be done with those slaves who were 
abandoned by their owners on the advance 
of our troops into southern territory, as at 
Beaufort district, in South Carolina. The 
number left within our control at that 
point is very considerable, and similar 
cases will probably occur. What shall be 
done with them? " Can we afford to send 
them forward to their masters, to be by 



them armed against us, or lined in pro- 
ducing suj)plies to sustain the rebellion? 
Their labor may be useful to us; withheld 
from the enemy it le.s.sens his military re- 
sources, and withholding them ha.s no ten- 
ilency to induce the horrors of insurrec- 
tion, even in the rebel communities. They 
constitute a military resource, and, being 
such, that they should not be turned over 
to the enemy is too plain to discuss. Why 
dej)rive him of supplies by a blockade, and 
voiuntarilv give nim men to produce 
them ? 

" The disposition to be made of the 
slaves of rebels, after the close of the war, 
can be safely left to the wi.sdom and pat- 
riotism of Congress. The Representatives 
of the people will unquestionably secure to 
the loyal slaveholders every right to which 
they are entitled under the Constitution of 
the country." 

Secretary Cameron was at all times in 
favor of " carrying the war into Africa," 
and it was this stern view of the situation 
which eventually led him to sanction 
measures which brought him into plainer 
differences with the Administration. Lin- 
coln took offense at the printing of his re- 
port before submitting it to him. As a re- 
sult he resigned and went to Russia as 
Minister, on his return being again elected 
to the United States Senate — a jdace which 
he filled until the winter of 1877, when he 
resigned, and his .son, J. Donald Cameron, 
was elected to the vacancy, and re-elected 
for the term ending in 1885. General B. 
F. Butler was the author of the " contra- 
band " idea. A year later the views of the 
Administration became more radical on 
questions of color, and July 22, 1862, Sec- 
retary Stanton ordered all Generals in 
command " to seize and use any property, 
real or personal, which may be necessary 
or convenient for their several commands, 
for supplies, or for other military' purposes ; 
and that while property may be destroyed 
for proper military objects, none shall be 
destroyed in wantonness or malice. 

" Seco7id. That military and naval com- 
manders shall employ as laborers, within 
and from said States, so many persons of 
African descent as can be advantageously 
used for military or naval purposes, giving 
them reasonable wages for their labor. 

" Third. That, as to both property, and 
persons of African descent, accounts shall 
be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail 
to show quantities and amounts, and from 
whom both property and such persons 
shall have come, as a ba.sis upon which 
compensation can be made in proper ca.ses ; 
and the several departments of this (tov- 
ernment shall attend to and perform their 
appropriate jiarts towards the execution of 
these orders." 

The manner and language employed by 
General McClellan in promulgating this 



1^4 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



order to the Army of the Potomac, led to 
his political differerces with the Adminis- 
tration, and in the end caused him to be 
the Democratic candidate tor President in 
1864, against Lincoln. His language is 
peculiar and some of it worthy of presenta- 
tion as of political importance. He said : 

" Inhabitants, especially women and 
children, remaining peaceably at their 
homes, must not be molested; and wher- 
ever commanding officers find families 
peculiarly exposed in their persons or 
property to marauding from this army, they 
will, as heretofore, so far as they can do 
with safety and without detriment to the 
service, post guards for their protection. 

" In protecting private property, no refer- 
ence is intended to persons held to service 
or labor by reason of African descent. 
Such persons will be regarded by this 
army, as they heretofore have been, as oc- 
cupying simply a peculiar legal status 
under State laws, which condition the mili- 
tary authorities of the United States are 
not required to regard at all in districts 
where military operations are made neces- 
sary by the rebellious action of the State 
governments. 

" Persons subject to suspicion of hostile 
purposes, residing or being near our forces, 
will be, as heretofore, subject to arrest and 
detention, until the cause or necessity is 
removed. All such arrested parties will 
be sent, as usual, to the Provost Marshal 
General, with a statement of the facts in 
each case. 

" The general commanding takes this 
occasion to remind the officers and soldiers 
of this army that we are engaged in sup- 
porting the Constitution and the laws of 
the United States and suppressing rebel- 
lion against their authority; that we are 
not engaged in a war of rapine, revenge, 
or subjugation ; that this is not a contest 
against populations, but against armed 
forces and political organizations ; that it 
is a struggle carried on with the United 
States, and should be conducted by us upon 
the highest i)rinciples known to Christian 
civilization." 

At this time such were the prejudices of 
Union soldiers against negroes, because of 
growing political agitation in the North, 
that many would loudly jeer them when 
seen within the lines. The feeling was 
even greater in the ranks of civilians, and 
yet Congress moved along, step by step. 
The 37th abolished slavery in the District 
of Columbia ; prohibited it in all the terri- 
tories; confirmed the freedom of the slaves 
owned by those in arms against the govern- 
ment; authorized the employment of 
colored men in fortifications, tlieir enlist- 
ment, etc. ; and enacted an additioiuil 
article of war, which prohibited any officer 
from returning or aiding the return of any 
fugitive slave. These were rapid strides, 



but not as rapid as were demanded by the 
more radical wing of the Republican party. 
We have shown that most of them were 
opposed by the Democrats, not solidly sure 
where they were plainly political, but this 
party became less solid as the war ad- 
vanced. 

Senator Wilson w^as the author of the 
bill to abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia. It excited much debate, and 
the range of the speeches covered the en- 
tire question of slavery. Those from the 
Border States opposed it (a few Republicans 
and all Democrats) but some of the Demo- 
crats of the North supported it. The vote 
in the Senate was 29 for to G against. In 
the House Frank P. Blair, Jr., advocated 
colonization in connection with the bill, 
but his idea met with little favor. Crit- 
tenden, W'ickliflfe and Vallandigham were 
prominent in opposition. Its most promi- 
nent advocates were Stevens of Pennsyl- 
vania, and Bingham of Ohio. The vote 
was 92 for to 38 against. 

The bill of Arnold, of Illinois, " to ren- 
der freedom national and slavery sectional," 
the leading idea in the platform of the 
convention which nominated Lincoln, pro- 
hibited slavery in "all the Territories of 
the United States then existing, or there- 
after to be formed or acquired in any way." 
It was vehemently opposed, but passed 
with some modifications by 58 ayes to 50 
noes, and it also passed the Senate. 

In the Spring of 1862 General David 
Hunter brought the question of the enlist- 
ment of colored troops to a direct issue by 
raising a regiment of them. On the 9th of 
June following, Mr. Wickliffij of Ken- 
tucky, succeeded in getting the House to 
adopt a resolution of inquiry. Corres- 
pondence followed with General Hunter. 
He confessed the fact, stated that " he found 
his authority in the instructions of Secre- 
tary Cameron, and said that he hojK'd by 
fall to enroll about fifty thousand of these 
hardy and devoted soldiers." When this 
reply was read in the House it was greeted 
with shouts of laughter from the Republi- 
cans, and signs of anger from the others. 
A great debate followed on the amendment 
to the bill providing for the calling out of 
the militia, clothing the President with full 
power to enlist colored troops, and to pro- 
claim " he, his mother, and wife and chil- 
dren forever free," after such enlistment. 
Preston King, of New York, was the author 
of this amendment. Davis, of Kentucky, 
and Carlisle of West Virginia, were promi- 
nent Senators in oi)position ; while Ten 
Eyck, of New Jersey, Sherman of Ohio, 
aiid Browning of Illinois sought to modify 
it. Garrett Davis said in opposition : 

" Do you expect us to give our sanc- 
tion and apjiroval to these tilings ? No, no ! 
We would regard their authors as our worst 
enemies; and there is no foreign despot- 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 



Hi5 



i(jni tliiit (.oiiM come to our ri'-^ciK', that we 
would not t'omlly cmbraci,', bctbrcwe would 
submit to iiny such condition of things.'' 

Seuiitor Fos-jciidcn of Maine, in aclvo- 
cacy of the anu'tidinent, said : 

"I tell tlie I'lv-sidont from my place here 
lus a Senator, and I tell the generals of our 
army, they must reverse their practices 
and course of proceeding? on tliis subject. 
r * Mr Xreat your enemies as enemies, as 
tlie worst of enemies, and avail yourselves 
like men of every power which God has 
j)laced in your hands, to accomplish your 
purpose, within the rules of civilized war- 
fare." 

The bill passed, so modified, as to give 
freedom to all who should perform military 
service, but restricting liberty to the fami- 
lies of such only as belonged to rebel mas- 
ters. It passed the House July Kith, LS(32, 
and received the .sanction of the President, 
who said : — " And the promise made must 
be kept!" General Huiiter for his part in 
beginning colored enlistments, was out- 
lawed by the Confederate Congress. Hunter 
followed with an order freeing the slaves 
in South Carolina. 

In January. lS'i3, pursuant to a sugges- 
tion in the annual report of Secretary 
Stanton, who was by this time as radical 
as his predecessor in office, the House 
passed a bill authorizing the President to 
enroll into the land and naval service such 
number of volunteers of African descent 
as he might deem useful to suppress the 
rebellion, and for such term as he might 
^prescribe, not exceeding five years. The 
slaves of loyal citizens in the Border 
States were excluded from the provisions 
of this bill. In the Senate an adverse re- 
port was made on the ground that the 
President already possessed these powers. 

In January, 1801?, Senator Wilson, who 
was by this time chairman of the Military 
Committee of the Senate, secured the pas- 
sage of a bill which authorized a draft for 
the National forces from the ranks of all 
male citizens, and those of foreign birth 
who had declared their intentions, etc. 
The bill contained the usual exemp- 
tions. 

CONFEDERATE USE OF COLORED MEN. 

In June, 1861, the rebel Legislature of 
Tennessee passed this enlistment bill, 
which became a law : 

Seq. 1. Be if. enacted by the General 
Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That 
from and after the passage of this act the 
Governor shall be, and he is hereby, 
authorized, at his discretion, to receive 
into the military service of the State all 
male free persons of color between the ages 
of fifteen and fifty, or such numbers as 
may be necessary, who may be sound in 
mind and body, and capable of actual ser- 
Tice. 



2. That such free persons of color ^-hall 
receive, each, eight dollars ner monlli, jia 
pay, and such persons shall be entitled to 
araw, each, one ration ner day, and shall 
be entitled to a yearly allowance each for 
clotiiing. 

.'}. That, in order to carry out the provi- 
sions of this act, it shall lie the duty of the 
sheritis of the several counties in thia 
State to collect accurate information as to 
the numl)er and condition, with the nainea 
of free persons of color, subject to the i>ro- 
visions of this act, and shall, as it is prac- 
ticable, report the same in writing to the 
Governor. 

4. That a failure or refusal of the 
sheriffs, or any one or more of them, to 
j)erform the duties required, shall be 
deemed an offence, and on conviction 
thereof shall be i)unished as a misde- 
meanor. 

5. That in the event a sufficient number 
of free persons of color to meet the wanta 
of the State shall not tender their services, 
the Governor is empowered, through the 
sheriffs of the different counties, to press 
such persons until the requisite number is 
obtained. 

(3. That when any mess of volunteers 
shall keep a servant to wait on the mem- 
bers of the mess, each servant shall be al- 
lowed'one ration. 

This act to take effect from and after its 
passage. 

W. C. Whitthorxe, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

B. L. Stovall, 

Speaker of the Senate. 
Passed June 28, 1861. 

1862, November 2 — Governor Joseph E. 
Brown, of Georgia, issued a call announc- 
ing that if a sufficient supply of negroes be 
not tendered within ten days, General 
Mercer will, in pursuance of autliority 
given him, proceed to impress, and asking 
of every planter of Georgia a tender of one 
fifth of his negroes to complete the fortifi- 
cations around Savannah. This one fifth 
is estimated at 15,000. 

1863. The Governor of South Carolina 
in July, issued a proclamation for .S.OOO 
negroes to work on the fortifications, '" the 
need for them being pressing." 

THE niAXGIXf! SENTIMENT OF C'ONORESS. 

In the Rebel House of Represent:!' ives, 
December 29th, Mr. Dargan, of Alabama, 
introduced a bill to receive into the mili- 
tary service all that portion of population 
in Alal^ama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
Florida, known as "Creoles." 

Mr. Dargan sui)ported the bill in some 
remarks. He said the Creoles were a 
mixed-blooded race. Under the treaty of 
Paris in 1803, and the treaty of Spain in 
1810, they were recognized as freemen. 



166 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Many of them owned large estates, and 
were intelligent men. They were as much 
devoted to our cause as any class of men in 
the South, and were even anxious to go 
into service. They had applied to him to 
be received into service, and he had ap- 
plied to Mr. Randolph, then Secretary of 
War. Mr. Randolph decided against the 
api)lication, on the ground that it might 
lurnish to the enemy a pretext of arming our 
slaves against us. Some time after this 
•he was again applied to by them, and he 
went to the present Secretary of War, Mr. 
Seddon, and laid the matter before him. 
Mr. Seddon refused to entertain the 
proposition, on the ground that it did not 
come up before him through the military 
authorities. To obviate this objection. 
Gen. Maury, at Mobile, soon afterwards 
rei)resented their wishes to the War De- 
partment. Mr. Seddon refused the offer of 
their services, on the ground that it would 
be incompatible with the position we occu- 
pied before the world ; that it could not be 
done. 

Mr. Dargan said he differed Avith the 
Secretaiy of War. He cared not for " the 
world." He cared no more for their 
opinions than they did for ours. He was 
anxious to bring into service every free 
man, be he who he may, willing to strike 
for our cause. He saw no objection to 
employing Creoles ; they would form a 
potent element in our army. In his dis- 
trict alone a brigade of them could be 
raised. The crisis had been brought upon 
us by the enemy, and he believed the time 
would yet come Avhen the question would 
not be the Union or no Union, but 
whether Southern men should be permitted 
to live at all. In resisting subjugation by 
such a barbarous foe he was for employing 
all our available force. He tvould go 
further and say that he teas for arming and 
putting the slaves into military service. He 
was in favor even of emlpoijing them as a 
military arm in the defence of the country. 

1864. The Mayor of Charleston, Charles 
Macbeth, summons all slaveholders within 
the city to furnish to the military authori- 
ties forthwith, one-fourth of all their male 
slaves between the ages of fifteen and fifty, 
to labor upon the fortifications. The penalty 
announced, in case of failure to comply 
with this requisition is a fine of $5200 for 
every slave not forthcoming. Compensa- 
tion is allowed at the rate of $400 a year. 

All free male persons of color between 
the ages of fifteen and fifty are required to 
give themselves up for tlie same purpose. 
Those not complying will be imprisoned, 
and set to work upon the fortifications 
along the coast. To free negroes no other 
compensation than rations is allowed. 

NKOROES IN THE ARMY. 

The Richmond press publish the official 



copy of " An act to increase the efficiency 
of the army by the employment of free 
negroes ^.nd slaves in certain capacities," 
lately passed by the Rebel Congress. The 
negroes are to perform " such duties as the 
Secretary of War or Commanding General 
may prescribe.'' The first section is as 
follows : 

The Congress of the Confederate States of 
America do enact, That all male free ne- 
groes, and other free persons of color, not 
including those who are free under the 
treaty of Paris, of 1803, or under the treaty 
of Spain, of 1819, resident in the Confed- 
erate States, between the ages of eighteen 
and fifty years, shall be held liable to per- 
form such duties with the army, or in con- 
nection with the military' delences of the 
country, in the way of work upon the 
fortifications, or in government works for 
the production or preparation of materials 
of war, or in military hospitals, as the Sec- 
retaiy of War or the Commanding General 
of the Trans-Mississippi Department may, 
from time to time, prescribe; and while 
engaged in the performances oi' such duties 
shall receive rations and clothing and 
compensation at the rate of eleven dollars 
a month, under such rules and regulations 
as the said Secretary may establish : Fro' 
tided, That the Secretary of War or the 
Commanding General of the Trans-Missis- 
sippi Department, with the ap])roval of the 
President, may exempt from the opera- 
tions of this act such free negroes as the 
interests of the country may require should 
be exempted, or such as he may think 
proper to exempt on the ground of justice,' 
equity or necessity. 

The third section provides that when 
the Secretary of War shall be unable to 
procure the services of slaves in any mili- 
tary department, then he is authorized to 
imj^ress the services of as many male 
slaves, not to exceed twenty thousand, as 
may be required, from time to time, to dis- 
charge the duties indicated in the first sec- 
tion of the act. 

The owner of the slave is to be paid for 
his services; or, if he be killed or "escape 
to the enemy," the owner shall receive his 
full value. 

Governor Smith, of Virginia, has made 
a call for five thousand male slaves to work 
on the batteries, to be drawn from fifty 
counties. The call for this force has been 
made by the President under a resolution 
of Congress. 

" CONFEDEEATE " LEGISLATION UPON NE- 
GRO PRISONERS AND THEIR WHITE 
OFFICERS WHEN CAPTURED.* 

1863, May 1 — An act was approved de- 
claring that the commissioned officers of 

*r)ecoinber 23, 1862 — .Tofferson Davis issued a proclv 
matidii of DUtlawrv against IMajor General B. F. ButUi; 
the larit two clauses of which are : 



COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 



167 



the itieiny ought not to be delivered to the 
autliorities of the resjx'rtive Slates, (as 
suggested in Davis's message ;) hut all eap- 
tives taken by the (Jonlederati' loires ought 
to be dealt with and disposed ol" by the 
Confederate (loverninent. 

I'resideut Lvneoln's emancipation pro- 
clamations of September 22, LS()2, and 
January 1, 18G3, were resolved to be in- 
consistiMit with the usages of war among 
civilized nations, and should be re- 
pressed by retaliation ; and the President 
IS authorizeil to cause full and complete 
retaliation for every such violation, in such 
manner and to such extent as he may think 
proper. 

Kvery white commissioned officer com- 
manding negroes or mulattoes in arms 
against the Confederate States shall be 
deemed as inciting servile insurrection, 
and shall, if captured, be put to death, or 
be otherwise punished, at the discretion of 
the court. 

Every person charged with an offence 
nuide puni-^hal)le under the act shall be 
tried by the military court of the army or 
corps of troops capturing him; a.nd, affrr 
conviction, the President may commute tlie 
punishment in such manner and on such 
terms as h" m<f>j deem proper. 

All negroes and mulattoes who shall be 
engaged in war or taken in arms against 
the Confederate States, or shall give aid or 
comfort to the enemies of the Confederate 
States, shall, when captured in the Con- 
federate States, be delivered to the author- 
ities of the State or States in which they 
shall be captured, to be dealt with accord- 
ing to the jiresent or future laws of such 
State or States. 



Passage of tiie Tlilrtceiitli Amendment. 

The first amendment to the Constitution 
growing out of the war, and one of its di- 
rect results, was that of abolishing slavery. 
It was first introduced to the House De- 
cember 14th, 1SI)3, by James M. Ashley of 
Ohio. Similar measures were introduced 
by Jame> !\I. Wilson, Senators Henderson, 
Sumner and others. On the 10th of Feb- 
ruary, Senator Trumbull reported Hen- 
derson's joint resolution amended as fol- 
lows : 

" That the following article be proposed 
to the Legislatures of the several States, as 
an amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, which, when ratified bv 
three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall l)'e 

Third. Tliat all necrro slaves ca|iturfd in amis he at 
onciMlfliveivil iner to the executive authurilii-; <if the 
respective Statea to which viiey ba )!!■,', to be dealt with 
acconling to the laws of said States. 

Fourth Tliaf the like orders be executed in all cases 
with respei't t-i all comuiissioned officers tjf the I'mted 
States www fiiuiid S'Tving in company witli said slaves 
in insurreotiin against the authorities of the different 
Slates of thi3 Confederacy. 



valid to all intents and i)urpose3 as a part 
of (he said Constitution, namelv : 

''Airr. i;}, See. 1. Neitiu-r slavery nor 
involuntary .servitude except as a jiunish- 
ment for crime, whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist with- 
in the United State.s, or any place subject 
to their jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by apjiropriate Icgisla- 
tion." 

The Senate began the consideration of 
the question Marcli2.stli, Senator TnnnbuU 
opening the debate in favor of the amend- 
ment. He predicted that within a year 
the necessary number of States would rat- 
ify it. Wilson of Massachusetts made a 
long and able speech in favor. Davis of 
Kentucky and Saulsbury of Delaware led 
the opposition, but Keverdy Johnson, an 
independent Democratic Senator from 
^laryland, surprised all by his bold sup- 
port of the measure. Among other things 
he said : 

" I think history will bear me out in the 
statement, that if the men by whom that 
Constitution was framed, and the people 
by whom it was adopted, had anticipated 
the times in which we live, they would 
have provided by constitutional enactment, 
that that evil and that sin should in .some 
comparatively unremote day be removed. 
Without recurring to authority, the writ- 
ings public or private of the men of that 
day, it is sutticient for my purpose to state 
what the facts will justify me in saying, 
that every man of them who largely' par- 
ticipated in the deliberations of the Con- 
vention by which the Constitution was 
adopted, earnestly desired, not only upon 
grounds of political economy, not only up- 
on reasons material in their character, but 
upon grounds of morality and religion, 
that sooner or later the institution should 
terminate." 

Senator McDougall of California, op- 
posed the amendment. Harhui of Iowa, 
Hale of New Hampshire, and Sumner, 
mtide characteristic s[)eeches in favor. 
Saulsbury advocated the divine right of 
slavery. It passed April Sth, by 38 ayes to 
G noes, the latter comprising Davis and 
Powell of Kentucky; McDougall of Cali- 
fornia ; Hendricks of Indiana; Saulsbury 
and Kiddle of Delaware. 

Arnold of Illinois, was the first to se- 
cure the adoption in the House (Feb. 15, 
1804,) of a resolution to abolish slaver}'; 
but the Constitutional aniendinrnt required 
a two-thirds vote, and this it was difiicult 
to obtain, though all the power of the Ad- 
ministration was bent to that purpose. The 
discussion began May 31st ; the vote was 
reached June loth, but it then failed of 
the required two-thirds — 03 for to 65 
against, 23 not voting. Its more pro- 
nounced advocates were Arnold, Ashley, 



1G8 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Broo:n;ill, Stevens, and Kelly of Pennsyl- 
vania; Farnsworth and Ingersoll of Illi- 
nois, and many others. Its ablest oppo- 
nents were Holman, Wood, Mallory, Cox 
and Pendleton — the latter rallying nearly 
all of the Democrats against it. Its Dem- 
ocratic friends were Mi-AUister and Bailey 
of Pennsylvania; Cobb of AVisconsin ; 
Griswold and Odell of New York. Before 
the vote was announced Ashley changed 
his vote so as to move a reconsideration and 
keep control of the question. At the next 
session it was passed, receiving every Re- 
publican and 16 Democratic votes, 8 Dem- 
ocrats purposely refraining, so that it would 
surely pass. 



Admission of Representatives 
from Louisiana. 

The capture of New Orleans by Admiral 
Farragut, led to the enrollment of 60,000 
citizens of Louisiana as citizens of the 
United States. The President thereupon 
appointed a Military Governor for the en- 
tire State, and this Governor ordered an 
election for members of Congress under 
the old State constitution. This was held 
Dec. 3, 1862, when Messrs. Flanders and 
Hahn were returned, neither receiving 
3,000 votes. They received certificates, pre- 
sented them, and thus opened up a new 
and grave political question. The Demo- 
crats opposed their admission on grounds 
so well stated by Voorhees of Indiana, that 
we quote them : 

" Understand this principle. If the 
Southern Confederacy is a foreign power, 
an independent nationality to-day, and you 
have conquered back the territory of Lou- 
isiana, you may then substitute a new sys- 
tem of laws in the place of the laws of that 
State. You may then supplant her civil in- 
stitutions by institutions made anew for her 
by the proper authority of this Government 
— not by the executive — but by the legisla- 
tive branch of the Government, assisted by 
the Executive simply to the extent of sign- 
ing his name to the bills of legislation. If 
the Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, (Mr. Stevens) is correct; if the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Conway) is 
correct, and this assumed power in the 
South is a power of the earth, and stands 
to-day upon equal terms of nationality • 
^, <f with ourselves, and, reconquer back State' 
by State its territory by tlie power of arms, 
then we may govern them independently 
of their local laws. But if the theory we i 
have been proceeding u])on here, that this ; 
Union is unbroken ; that no States have' 
sundered the bonds that bind us together; 
that no successful disunion has yet taken 
place, — if that theory is still to prevail in 
these halls, then this cannot be done. You 
are as much bound to uphold the laws of- 
Louisiana in all their extent and ia all i 



their p;irls, as you are to uphold the laws 
of Pennsylvania or New York, or any 
other State whose civil policy has not been 
disturbed." 

Michael Hahn, one of the Representa- 
tives elect, closed a very effective speech, 
Avhich secured the personal good will of 
the House in favor of his admission, in 
these words: 

"And even, sir, within the limits of the 
dreary and desolated region of the rebel- 
lion itself, despair, which has already tak- 
en hold of the people, will gain additional 
power and strength, at the reception of the 
news that Louisiana sends a message 'of 
peace, good-will, and hearty fellowship to 
the Union. This intelligence will sound 
more joyful to patriot ears than all the 
oft repeated tidings of ' Union victories.' 
And of all victories, this will be the most 
glorious, useful and solid, for it speaks of re- 
organization, soon to become the great and 
difficult problem with which our statesmen 
will have to familiarize themselves, and 
when this shall have commenced, we will 
be able to realize that God, in his infinite 
mercy has looked down upon our misfor- 
tunes, and in a spiiit of paternal love and 
pity, has addressed us in the language as- 
cribed to him by our own gifted Longfel- 
low: 

" I am wearj' of your quarrels, 
Weary of your wars and bloodshed, 
Weary of your prayers for vengeance, 
Of your wranglings and dissensions ; 
All your strength is in your Union, 
All your danger is in discord, 
Therefore, be at peace, henceforward, 
And as brvthers live together." 

Mr. Speaker, Louisiana — ever loyal, hon- 
orable Louisiana — seeks no greater bles- 
sing in the future, than to remain a part of 
this great and glorious Union. She has 
stood by you in the darkest hours of the 
rebellion ; and she intends to stand by you. 
Sir, raise your eyes to the gorgeous ceil- 
ings which ornament this Hall, and look 
upon her fair and lovely escutcheon. Care- 
fully read the patriotic words Avhicli sur- 
round her affectionate pelican family, and 
you will find there inscribed, 'Justice, 
Union, Conjidenrc.' Those words have 
with us no idle meaning; and Avould to 
God that other members of this Union, 
could properly appreciate our motto, our 
motives and our position ! " 

The debate attracted much attention, 
because of the novelty of a (jucstion upon 
which, it has since been contended, would 
have turned a different plan of reconstruct- 
ing the rebellious States if the President's 
plans had not been destroyed by his assas- 
sination. Dawes, of I\rassachusctts, was 
the Chairman of the Commiitt e on Elec- 
tions, and he closed the debute in favor of 
admission. The vote stood 92 for to 44 
against, almost a strict party test, th« 
Democrats voting no. 



RECONSTRUCTION. 



169 



RECONSTRUCTION. 

In the House an early a.s Dec. 15, 18G3, 
Henry WiiiU-r Davis moveil that so inucli 
of the President's message as rehites to 
the lUity of the I'nited States to guaranty 
a Republican form of government t« the 
States in which the governments recog- 
nized hy the United Statt'S have been ab- 
rogated' or overthrown, be referred to a 
select committee of nine to report the bills 
necessary and proper for carrying into ex- 
ecution the foregoing guarantee, was ])assed, 
and on May 4th, 18154, the House adopted 
the lirst reconstruction bill by 74 yeas to 
<3(j nays — a strict party vote.* The Senate 
nassed it by yeas 18, nays 14 — Doolittle, 
Henderson, Lane of Indiana, Ten Eyck, 
Truml)ull, and Van Winkle voting with 
the Democrats against it. 

The bill autliDrizes the President to ap- 
point in each of the States declared in re- 
Dellion, a Provisional Governor,|with the 
pay and emoluments of a brigadier; to be 
charged with the civil administration until 
a Stat« government therein shall be recog- 
nized. As soon as the military resistance 
to the United States shall have been sup- 
pressed, and the people sufficiently re- 
turned to their obedience to the Constitu- 
tion and laws, the Governor shall direct 
the marshal of the United States to enroll 
all the white male citizens of the United 
States, resident in the State in their re- 
spective counties, and whenever a majority 
of them take the oath of allegiance, the 
loyal people of the State shall be entitled 
to elect delegates to a convention to act 
upon the re-establishment of a State gov- 
ernment — the proclamation to contain de- 
tails prescribed. Qualified voters in the 
army may vote in their camps. No person 
who has held or exercised any civil, mili- 
tary, State, or Confederate office, under the 
rebel occupation, and who has voluntarily 
borne arms against the United States, shall 
vote or be eligible as a delegate. The 
convention is re(iuired to insert in the con- 
stitution provisions — 

1st. No person who has held or exercised 
any civil or military office, (except offices 
merely ministerial and military offices be- 
low a colonel,) State or Confederate, under 
the usurping power, shall vote for, or be 
a member of the legislature or governor. 

'2d. Involuntary servitude is forever pro- 
hibited, and the freedom of all persons is 
guarantied in said State. 

'M. Xo debt. State or Confederate, cre- 
ated by or UTider the sanction of the usurp- 
ing power, shall be recognized or paid by 
the State. 

Upon the adoption of the constitution by 
the convention, and its ratification by the 
electors of the State, the Provisional Gov- 

• McPherson'a Uistory, page 317. 



ernor shall so certify to the President, who, 
alter obtaining the assent of Congress, 
shall, by proclamution, recognize the gov- 
ernment as established, anil none other, a.H 
the constitutional government of the State; 
and from the date of such recognition, and. 
not before. Senators and Ilepre^sentatives 
and electors for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent may be elected in such State. Until 
ru-organization the Provisional (iovernor 
shall enforce the laws of the Union and of 
the State before the rebellion. 

The remaining sections are iis follows: 

Sec. 12. That all persons held to invol- 
untary servitude or labor in the States 
aforesaid are hereby emancipated and dis- 
charged therefrom, and they and their pos- 
terity shall be forever free. And if any 
such persons or their posterity shall be re- 
strained of liberty, under pretence of any 
claim to such service or labor, the courta 
of the United States shall, on habeas cor- 
pus, discharge them. 

Sec. 13. Thatif any person declared free 
by this act, or any law of the United States, 
or any proclamation of the President, be 
restrained of liberty, with intent to be held 
in or reduced to involuntary .servitude or 
labor, the person convicted before a court 
of competent jurisdiction of such act shall 
be punished by fine of not less than $1,500, 
and be imprisoned not less than five, nor 
more than twenty years. 

Sec. 14. That every person who shall 
hereafter hold or exercise any office, civil 
or military, except offices merely minis- 
terial and military offices below the grade 
of colonel, in the rebel service. State or 
Confederate, is hereby declared not to be 
a citizen of the United States. 



lilncolii's Proclamation on Reconstmctlon 

President Lincoln failed to sign the above 
bill because it reached him less than one 
hour before final adjournment, and there- 
upon issued a proclamation which closed 
as follows : 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the L^nitcd States, do pro- 
claim, declare, and make known, that, 
while I am (as I was in December last, 
when by proclamation T propounded a plan 
for restoration) unprepared, by a formal 
approval of this bill, to be inflexibly com- 
mitted to any single plan of restoration ; 
and, while I am also unprepared to declare 
that the free State constitutions and gov- 
ernments already ado]>ted and installed in 
Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside 
and held for nought, thereby repelling and 
discouraging the loyal citizens who have 
set up the same as to further effort, or to 
declare a constitution.al competency in 
Congress to abolish slavery in States, but 
am at the same time sincerelv hoping and 



170 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



expecting that a constitutional amendment 
abolishing slavery throughout the nation 
may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully 
satisfied with the system for restoration 
contained in the bill as one very proper 
plan lor the loyal people of any State 
choosing to adopt it, and that I am, and at 
all times sliall be, prepared to give the Ex- 
ecutive aid and assistance to any such peo- 
ple, so soon as the military resistance to 
the United States shall have been sup- 
pressed in any such State, and the people 
thereof shall have sufficiently returned to 
their obedience to the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, in which cases 
Military Governors will be appointed, with 
directions to proceed according to the bill." 



Admission of Arkansas. 

On the 10th of June, 1864, introduced a 
joint resolution for the recognition of the 
free State government of Arkansas. A 
new State government had then been or- 
ganized, with Isaac Murphy, Governor, 
who was reported to have received nearly 
16,000 votes at a called election. The 
other State officers are : 

Lieutenant Governor, C. C. Bliss ; Secre- 
tary of State, R. J. T. White ; Auditor, J. 
B. Berry ; Treasurer, E. D. Ayers ; Attor- 
ney General, C. T. Jordan ; Judges of the 
Supreme Court, T. D. W. Yowley, C. A. 
Harper, E. Baker. 

The Legislature also elected Senators, 
but neither Senators nor Representatives 
obtained their seats. Trumbull, from the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, made a long 
report touching the admission of the Sen- 
ators, which closed as folloAvs: 

" When the rebellion in Arkansas shall 
have been so far suppressed that the loy- 
al inhabitants thereof shall be free to re- 
establish their State government upon a 
republican foundation, or to recognize the 
one already set up, and by the aid and not 
in subordination to the military to main- 
tain the same, they will then, and not be- 
fore, in the opinion of your committee, be 
entitled to a representation in Congress, 
and to ])articipate in the administration of 
the Federal Government. Believing that 
such a state of things did not at the time 
the claimants were elected, and does not 
now, exist in the State of Arkansas, the 
committee recommend for adoption the 
following resolution : 

" liejiolved, That William M. Fishback 
and Elisha I'axter are not entitled to seats 
as Senators from the State of Arkansas." 

1864, June 29— Tlie resolution of the 
Committee on the Judiciary was adopted 
— yeas 27, nays 6. 

President Lincoln wiis known to favor 
the immediate admission of Arkansas and 
Louisiana, but the refusal of the Senate to 



admit the Arkansas Senators raised an is- 
sue which partially divided the Republi- 
cans in both Houses, some of whom fa- 
vored forcible reconstruction through the 
aid of Military Governors and the machin- 
ery of new State governments, while others 
opposed. The views of those opposed to 
the President's policy are well stated in a 
paper signed by Benjamin F. Wade and 
Henry Winter Davis, published in the New 
York Tribune, August 5th, 1864. From 
this we take the more pithy extracts : 

The President, by preventing this bill 
from becoming a law, holds the electoral 
votes of the rebel States at the dictation of 
his personal ambition. 

If those votes turn the balance in his 
favor, is it to be supposed that his compe- 
titor, defeated by such means, will ac- 
quiesce ? 

If the rebel majority assert their su- 
premacy in those States, and send votes 
which elect an enemy of the Government, 
will we not repel his claims ? 

And is not civil war for the Presidency 
inaugurated by the votes of rebel States? 

Seriously impressed with these dangers, 
Congress, " the pr-oper constitutional au- 
thority '' formally declared that there are 
no State governments in the rebel States, 
and provided for their erection at a proper 
time ; and both the Senate and the House 
of Representatives rejected the Senators 
and Representatives chosen under the au- 
thority of what the President calls the 
free constitution and government of Ar- 
kansas. 

The President's j^roclamation '^ holds for 
naught " this judgment, and discards the 
authority of the Supreme Court, and strides 
headlong toward the anarchy his pro- 
clamation of the 8th of December inaugu- 
rated. 

If electors for President be allowed to 
be chosen in either of those States, a sinis- 
ter light will be cast on the motives which 
induced the President to " hold for naught" 
the will of Congress rather than his gov- 
ernment in Louisiana and Arkansas. 

That judgment of Congress which the 
President defies was the exercise of an 
authority exclusively vested in Congress 
by the Constitution to determine what is 
the established government in a State, and 
in its own nature and by the highest judi- 
cial authority binding on all other depart- 
ments of the Government. * * * * 

A more studied outrage on the legisla- 
tive authority of the people has never been 
jjcrpetrated. 

Congress passed a bill ; the President re- 
fused to apiirove it, and then by proclama- 
tion puts :.s much of it in force as he sees 
fit, and proposes to execute those parts by 
officers unknown to the laws of the United 
States and not subject t" '' - confirmation 
of the Senate ! 



EECUNSTUUCTION. 



171 



The bill dircctcfl tho apimintmcnt of 
Provisional (.Joveriiors by ami with the ad- 
vice and consent of" the iSenate. 

The President, after defeating tho law, 
proposes to aijpoint without law, and with- 
out the advice and consent of the Senate, 
Milititry governors for the rebel States! 

He has already exercised this dictatorial 
iisur|iation in Louisiana, ami he del'eated 
the bill to prevent its limitation. * * * 
• The President has -greatly i)resunied on 
the iMrbearance which the supporters of 
his Adnunistration have so long practiced, 
in view of the arduous conllict in which 
we are engaged, and the reckless ferocity 
of our ])olitical opponents. 

Hut he must understand that our sup- 
port is of a cause and not of a man; that 
the authority of Congress is ])aramount 
and must be respected; that the whole 
body of the Union men of Congress will 
not submit to be impeached by him of 
rash and unconstitutional legislation ; and 
if he wishes our support, he must confine 
himself to his executive duties — to obey 
and execute, not make the laws — to sup- 
press by arms armed rebellion, and leave 
political reorganization to Congress. 

If the supporters of the Government 
fail to insist on this, they become responsi- 
ble for the usurpations which they fail to 
rebuke, and are justly liable to the indig- 
nation of the people wiiose rights and 
security, committed to their keeping, they 
sacrifice. 

Let them consider the remedy for these 
usuri)ations, and, having found it, fear- 
lessly execute it. 

The question, as presented in 1864, now 
passed temporarily from public considera- 
tion because of greater interest in the 
closing events of the war and the Presi- 
^dential succession. The passage of the 
14th or anti-slavery amendment by the 
States also intervened. This was officially 
announced on the 18tli of Deceml)er 1865, 
by Mr. Seward, 27 of the then .'36 States 
having ratified, as follows : Illinois, Rhode 
Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, 
West Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Massachu- 
setts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Mis- 
souri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minne- 
sota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Ar- 
kansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, 
South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, 
and Georgia. 



TEXT OF THE RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES. 

Il^tli Coustitntlonal Amendment. 

JtiiU Resolution propo^hu] an A metidmetit to the ConMitu- 
lioii of the United Statft:. 

Be it resolved bij the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America, in Congress assembled, (two- 
thirds of both houses concurring,) That 



the following article bo propo.'jed to the 
].,cgihhitnres of tin; several States as an 
amciiidment to the Constitution (jf tho 
United States, which, when ratified by 
three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be 
valid as jmrLof the Cunstitution, namely: 
I Hen: follows the 14th amendment. See 
Hook IV. 1 



Reconatmctlon Act of Thirty-Ninth Cou- 

An Act to provide for the more eJHcieiU yorernmnU of the 
rebel hitnlei. 

Whereas no legal State governments or 
adeipiati- protection for lifeor j)r()])erty now 
exists in the rebel States of Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
^Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, 
Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is 
necessary that peace and good order 
should be enforced in said States until 
loyal and republican State governments 
can be legally established : Therefore 

Be it enacted, &c., That said rebel States 
shall be divided into military districts and 
made subject to the military authority of 
the United States, as hereinafter i)rescribed, 
and for that purpose Virginia shall consti- 
tute the first district; North Carolina and 
South Carolina the second district ; Geor- 
gia, Alabama, and Florida the third dis- 
trict ; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth 
district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth 
district. 

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the 
President to assign to the command of 
each of said districts an officer of the army, 
not below the rank of brigadier general, 
and to detail a sufficient military force to 
enable such officer to ])erform his duties 
and enforce his authority within the dis- 
trict to which he is assigned. 

Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of each 
officer assigned as aforesaid to j^rotect all 
l)ersons in their rights of person and 
])roperty, to suppress insurrection, disor- 
der, and violence, and to punisn, or cause 
to be punished, all disturuersoi the public 
peace and criminals, and to this end ne 
may allow local civil tribunals to take 
jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, 
when in his judgment it may be necessary 
for the trial of offenders, he shall have 
power to organize military commissions 
or tribunals for that purpose; and all in 
terferenee under color of State authority 
with the exercise of military authority un- 
der this act shall be null and void. 

Sec. 4. That all persons put under mili- 
tary arrest by virtue of this act shall be 
tried without unnecessary delay, and no 
cruel or unusual jmnishment shall be in- 
flicted ; and no sentence of any military 
commission or tribunal hereby authorized, 
aflecting the life or liberty of any person, 
shall be executed until it is approved by 
the officer in command of the district, and 



172 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the laws and regulations for the govern- 
nient of the army .shall not he affected hy 
this act, except in so far as they conflict 
with its provisions: Provided,' That no 
sentence of death under tlie provisions of 
this act shall he carried into effect without 
the approval of the President, 

Sec. 5. That when the peo^^le of any one 
of said rebel States shall have formed a 
constitution of government in conformity 
with the Constitution of the United States 
in all respects, framed by a convention of 
delegates elected by the male citizens of 
said State twenty-one years old and up- 
ward, of whatever race, color, or previous 
condition, who have been resident in said 
State for one year previous to the day of 
such election, except such as may be dis- 
franchised for participation in the rebel- 
lion, or for felony at common law, and 
when such constitution shall provide that 
the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by 
all such persons as have the qualifications 
herein stated for electors of delegates, and 
when such constitution shall be ratified by 
a majority of the persons voting on the 
question of ratification who are qualified as 
electors for delegates, and when such con- 
stitution shall have been submitted to 
Congress for examination and approval, 
and Congress shall have approved the 
same, and when said State, by a vote of its 
legislature elected under said constitution, 
shall have adopted the amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, proposed 
by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known 
as article fourteen, and when said article 
shall have become a part of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, said State shall 
be declared entitled to representation in 
Congress, and Senators and Representa- 
tives shall be admitted therefrom on their 
taking the oaths prescribed by law, and 
then and thereafter the preceding sections 
of this act shall be inoperative in said 
State : Provided, That no person excluded 
from the privilege of holding office by said 
proposed amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States shall be eligible to 
election as a member of the convention to 
frame a constitution for any of said rebel 
States, nor sludl any such person vote for 
members of such convention. 

Sec. 6. That until the people of said rebel 
States shall be by law admitted to repre- 
sentation in the Congress of the United 
States, any civil governments which may 
exist therein shall be deemed provisional 
only, and in all respects subject to the 
paramount authority of the itnited States 
at any time to abolish, modify, control, or 
supersede the same ; and in all elections to 
any office under such provisional govern- 
ments all }>ersons shall be entitled to vote, 
and none others, who are entitled to vote 
under the provisions of the fifth section of 
this act ; and no person shall be eligible to 



any office under any such provisional goT- 
ernments who would be disqualified from 
holding oflice under the provisions of the 
third article of said constitutional amend- 
ment. 
Passed March 2, 1867. 



Supplemental Reconstruction Act of For- 
tieth Congress. 

An Act supplementary to an act entitled 
" An act to provide for the more efficient 
government of the rebel States," passed 
March second, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-seven, and to facilitate restora- 
tion. 

Be it enacted, d-c., That before the first 
day of September, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-seven, the commanding general in 
each district defined by an act entitled 
" An act to provide for the more efficient 
government of the rebel States," passed 
March second, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
seven, shall cause a registration to be 
made of the male citizens of the United 
States, twenty-one years of age and up- 
wards, resident in each county or parish 
in the State or States included in his dis- 
trict, which registration shall include only 
those persons who are qualified to vote for 
delegates by the act aforesaid, and who 
shall have taken and subscribed the fol- 
lowing oath or affirmation : " I, , 

do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in the 
presence of Almighty God, that I am a 

citizen of the State of ; that I have 

resided in said State for months 

next preceding this day, and now reside in 

the county of , or the parish of 

, in said State, (as the case maybe;) 

that I am twenty-one years old ; that I 
have not been disfranchised for ])articipa- 
tion in any rebellion or civil war against 
the United States, nor for felony commited 
against the laws of any State or of the 
United States ; that I have never been a 
member of any State legislature, nor held 
any executive or judici.il office in any 
State and afterwards engaged in insurrec- 
tion or rebellion against the United States, 
or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof; that I have never taken an oath 
as a member of Congress of the United 
States, or as an officer of the United States, 
or as a member of any State legislature, or 
as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the 
United States, and afterwards engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States or given aid or comfort to 
the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully 
support the Constitution and obey the 
laws of the United States, and will, to the 
best of my ability, encourage others so to ' 
do, so help me God;" which oath or affirm- 
ation may be administered by any register- 
ing officer. 



RECONSTRUCTION. 



178 



Sec. 2. Thut after the completion of the 
registration hereby jiroviiled for in any 
State, at sueh time and places therein as 
the commanding general shall a|)p(/inl and 
direct, of which at least thirty days' pniilic 
n.itice shall he given, an election shall hi' 
held of delegates to a convention for the 
purpose of establishing a eonstitntion and 
civil government for such State loyal to 
the Union, said convention in each State, 
/excej)t Virginia, to consist of the same 
'numl»er of members its the most numerous 
branch of the State legislature of such 
State in the year eighteen hundred and 
sixty, to be apportioned among the several 
districts, counties, or parishes of such 
State by the commanding general, giving 
to each rei)resentation intlie ratio of voters 
or registered as aforesaid, as nearly as may 
be. The convention in Virginia shall con- 
sist of the same number of members as 
represented the territory now constituting 
Virginia in the most numerous branch of 
the legislature of said State in the year 
eiglitcen hundred and sixty, to be ap- 
pointed as atbresaid. 

Skc. 3. That at said election the regis- 
tered voters of each State shall vote for or 
against a convention to form a constitution 
therefor under this act. Those voting in 
favor of such a convention shall have 
written or printed on the ballots by which 
they vote for delegates, as aforesaid, the 
words" For a convention," and those vot- 
ing against such a convention shall have 
written or printed on such ballots the 
words ■' Against a convention." Tlie per- 
son appointed to superintend said election, 
and to make return of the votes given 
thereat, as herein provided, shall count 
and make return of the votes given for and 
against a convention ; and the command- 
ing general to whom the same shall have 
been returned shall ascertain and declare 
the total vote in each State for and against 
a convention. If a majority of the votes 
given on that question shall be for a con- 
vention, then such convention shall be held 
as hereinafter provided ; but if a majority 
of said votes shall be against a convention, 
then no such convention shall be held un- 
der this act : Provided, That such con- 
vention shall not be held unless am;yority 
of all such registered voters shall have 
voted on the question of holding such con- 
vention. 

Sec. 4. That the commanding general of 
each district shall appoint as many boards 
of registration as may be necessary, con- 
sisting of three loyal officers or persons, to 
make and complete the registration, su- 
perintend the election, and make return to 
nim of the votes, lists of voters, and of the 
pei-sons elected as delegates by a plurality 
of the votes cast at said election ; and upon 
receiving said retiirns he shall open the 
same, ascertain the persons elected as dele- 



gates according U) the returns of the offi- 
cers who conducted said election, and 
make proclamation thereof; anil if a ma- 
jority of the votes given on that (jue-ilion 
shall be for a c(jnvention, the commanding 
general, within sixty days from the date of 
election, shall notify the delegates to as- 
semble in convention, at a time and place 
to be mentioned in the tuttitication, and 
said convention, when organized, shall pro- 
ceed to I'rame a constitnti<jn ami civil gov- 
ernment according to tlu' provisions of this 
act and the act to which it is supplement- 
ary ; and when tiie same shall nave been 
so framed, saiil constitution shall be sub- 
mitted by the convention for ratification to 
the persons registered under the provisions 
of this act at an election to be conducted 
by the officers or persons appointed or to 
be appointed by the commanding general, 
as hereinbefore provided, and to be held 
after the expiration of thirty days from the 
date of notice thereof, to be given by said 
convention ; and the returns thereof shall 
be made to the commanding general of the 
district. 

Sec. 5. That if, according to said re- 
turns, the constitution shall be ratified by 
a majority of the votes of the registered 
electors qualified as herein specified, cast 
at said election, (at lea.st one-half of all the 
registered voters voting upon the question 
of such ratification,) the president of the 
convention shall transmit a copy of the 
same, duly certified, to the President of 
the United States, who shall forthwith 
transmit the same to Congress, if then in 
session, and if not in session, then imme- 
diately upon its next assembling ; and if it 
shall, moreover, appear to Congress that 
the election was one at which all the reg- 
istered and qualified electors in the State 
had an opportunity to vote freely and with- 
out restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud; 
and if the Congress shall be satisfied that 
such constitution meets the approval of a 
majority of all the qualified electors in the 
State, and if the said constitution shall be 
declared by Congress to be in conformity 
with the provisions of the act to which this 
is supplementary, and the other provisions 
of said act shall have been complied with, 
and the said constitution shall be approved 
by Congress, the State shall be declared 
entitled to representation, and Senators 
and Representatives shall be admitted 
therefrom as therein provided. 

Sec. 6. That idl elections in the States 
mentioned in the said " Act to jirovide for 
the more efficient government of the rebel 
States," shall, during the operation of said 
act, be by ballot; and all officers making 
the said registration of voters and conduct- 
ing said elections shall, before entering 
upon the discharge of their duties, take 
and subscribe the oath prescribed by the 
act approved July second, eighteen hun* 



174 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



dred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to 
prescribe an oath of ofMce : * Provided, That 
if any person shall knowingly and falsely 
take and subscribe any oath in this act 

Erescribed, such person so offending and 
eing thereof duly convicted, shall be sub- 
ject to the pains, penalties, and disabilities 
which by law are provided for the punish- 
ment of the crime of wilful and corrupt 
perjury. 

8ec. 7. That all expenses incurred by 
the several commanding generals, or by 
virtue of any orders issued, or appoint- 
ments made, by them, under or by virtue 
of this act, shall be paid out of any moneys 
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

Sec. 8. That the convention for each 
State shall prescribe the fees, salary, and 
compensation to be paid to all delegates 
and other officers and agents herein au- 
thorized or necessary to carry into eflect 
the purposes of this act not herein other- 
wise provided for, and shall provide for 
the levy and collection of such taxes on 
the property in such State as may be ne- 
cessary to pay the same. 

Sec. 9. That the Avord article, in the 
sixth section of the act to which this is 
supplementary, shall be construed to mean 
section. 

Passed March 23, 1867. 



Votes of State Legislatures ou the Four- 
teeuth Constitutional Amendment.! 

LOYAL STATES. 
Ratified — TwerUij-one States. 

Maine — Senate, January 16, 1867, yeas 

* This act is in these words : 

Be it euacttd, <i-f., That hereafter every person elected 
or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the 
government of the United States, either in the civil, mili- 
tary, or naval departments of thr public service, except- 
ing the President of the United States, shall, before en- 
tering upon the duties of such office, and before being 
entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments there- 
of, take and subscribe the following oath nr affirmation: 
" I, A B, do solemnly swear 'or affirm) that I have never 
voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I 
have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily 
given no aid, countenance, counsid, or encouragement to 
persons engaged in armed hostility thereto ; tliat I have 
never souglit nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the 
functions of any office whatever, uncier any authority or 
pretended authority, in hostility tu the United States ; 
that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pre- 
t<'nded government, authority, power, or constitutiim 
within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto; 
and I do further swear lor affirm) tliat, to the best of my 
knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the 
Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, 
foreign and dumchtic; that I will bear true faith and al- 
legiance to the same ; that I take this obligatinn freely, 
without any im'nial reservatinn or purpciKi' of evasion, 
and that I will well and faithfully discharge the (bities 
of the office on which I am about to enter; so help me 
Ood ;" which said oath, so taken and signed, shall be 
preserved among the files of the Court, Ilouse of (5on- 
gjess, or Department to which th(^ said office may apper- 
tain. Ami any jicrson who shall falsely take the said 
oath shall be guilty of perjury, and cm conviction, in ad- 
dition to the j)enaities now prescribed for that offense, 
shall l)e deprived of his office, and rendered incapable 
forever after, of holding any office or place under the 
United Slates. 

tComjiib-d by Hon. Edward McPhereon in hiu Hand 
Book of Politics for 1868. 



31, navs ; House, January 11, 1867, yeas. 
126, nays 12. 

Xew Hampshire — Senate, July 6, 1866, 
yeas 9, navs 3 ; House, June 28, 1866, yeas 
207, nays 112. 

Vermont — SENATE, October 23, 1866,, 
yeas 28, nays ; House, October 30, 

1866, yeas 199, nays 11. 
jlfrt.s'sacAHsert.s— Senate, March 20, 1867, 

yeas 27, nays 6 ; House, March 14, 1867, 
yeas 120, nays 20. 

Rhode Island — Senate, February 5, 

1867, yeas 26, nays 2 ; House, February 7, 
1867, yeas 60, nays 9 

Connecticut — Senate, June 25, 1866, 
yeas 11, nays 6; House, June 29, 1866, 
yeas 131, nays 92. 

New York — Senate, January 3, 1867, 
yeas 23, nays 3 ; House, January 10, 1867, 
yeas 76, nays 40. 

Nev- Jersey — Senate, September 11, 1866,. 
veas 11, nays 10; House, September 11, 

1866, yeas 34, nays 24. 
Pcnnsylvariia — Senate, January 17,. i 

1867, yeas 20, nays 9 ; House, February 6,.. 
1867, yeas 58, nays 29. 

West Virginia — Senate, January 15, 
1867, yeas 15, nays 3 ; House, January 16,. ; 
1867, yeas 43, nays 11. 

Ohio — Senate, January 3, 1867, yeas 21,' 
nays 12; House, January 4, 1867, yeas 54, 
nays 25. 

Tennessee — Senate, July 11, 1866, yeas 
15, nays 6 ; House, July 12, 1866, yeas 
43, nays 11. 

Indiana — Senate, January 16, 1867, 
yeas 29, nays 18 ; House, January 23, 
1867, yeas — , nays — . 

Illinois — Senate, January 10, 1867, 
yeas 17, nays 7 ; House, January 15, 1867, 
yeas 59, nays 25. 

Michigan — SeNATE, 1867, yeas 25, 

nays 1 ; House, 1867, yeas 77, nays 

15. 

Missouri — Senate, January 5, 1867, 
yeas 26, nays 6 ; House, January 8, 1867, 
yeas 85, nays 34. 

Minnesota — Senate, January 16, 1867, 
yeas 16, nays 5 ; House, January 15, 1867, 
yeas 40, nays 6. 

A7/risas— Senate, January 11, 1867, 
unanimously ; House, January 10, 1867, 
yeas, 75, nays 7. 

Wisconsin — Senate, January 23, 1867, 
veas 22, nays 10; House, February 7, 
1867, veas 72, nays 12. 

Oregon—* Senate, , 1866, yeas 13, 

nays 7; House, September 19, 1866, yeas 
25, nays 22. 

Nevada — * Senate, January 22, 1867, 
yeas 14, nays 2; House, January 11, 1867, 
yeas 34, nays 4. 

Rejected — Hiree States. 

Delaware— Senate, ; Housi^ 

February 7, 1867, yeas 6, nays 15. 

*nnofflci*l. 



GENERAL M.CLELLAN'S LETTERS, 



176 



}f,in/l(ind—SKS ATE, March 2.'i, 1.S07, 
yuu- -i, nays 13; HousK, March 2:i, 1SG7, 
yoa-i 1:^, nays 45. 

Kcnturki/ — SiCNATK, January 8, 1867, 
yeas 7, nays 24; HoUSK, .laiuiary 8, 1807, 
yejw 20, nays 02. 

Sol acUd— Three Ulate*. 

Iowa, California, Nebraska. 

IN'SaRRECTIONARY STATKS. 
Ji^jected^Ten Slatrii. 

Virijiniit — Sknatk, January 9, 1807, 
unauiuiiiusly ; I lousK, January 9,1807, 1 
for aineudinent. 

North ('(iro/ina — SENATE, December 13, 
1800, yeas 1, nays 44 ; House, December 
13, IsiiO, yeas K), nays 93. 

South Ciirolina — Sh.vate ; 

House. December 20, 1800, yeas 1, nays 9'). 

Cri'ori/ia -Senate, November 9, 1800, 
yeas 0, nays 30 ; House, November 9, 1800, 
yeas 2, nays 131. 

Florida— SE>i ATE, December 3, 18()0, 
yeas 0. nays 20 ; House, December 1, 1800, 
yeas 0, nays 49. 

Alabama — SENATE, December 7, 1800, 
yeas 2, nays 27 ; House, December 7, 
180(), yeas 8, nays 69. 

Mississippi — Senate, January 30, 1807, 
yeas 0, nays 27 ; House, January 25, 1867, 
yeas 0, nays 8.-^. 

Louisiana - Senate, February 5, 1807, 
unanimously ; House, February 6, 1867, 
unanimously. 

2'exas — Senate, ; House, Oc- 
tober 13, 1800, yeas 5, nays 67. 

Arkansas — Senate, December 15, 1866, 
yeas 1, navs 24 ; House, December 17, 
1860, yeas 2, nays 68. 

The passage of thel4thx\.men(.lment and 
of the Reconstruction Acts, was followed 
by Presidential proclamations dated August 
20, 180(), declaring tlie insurrection at an 
end in Texas, and civil authority existing 
throughout the whole of the United 
States. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864. 

The Rei)ublican National Convention 
met at Baltimore, June 7th, 1804, and re- 
nominated President Lincoln unanimous- 
ly, save the vote of Missouri, which was 
cast for Gen. Grant. Hannibal Hamlin, 
the old Vice-President, was not re-nomi- 
nated, because of a desire to give part of 
the ticket to the Union men of the South, 
who pressed Senator Andrew Johnson of 
Tennessee. " Parson " Brownlow made a 
strong appeal in his behalf, and by his elo- 
quence captured a majority of the Con- 
vention. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at Chicago, August 29th, 1864, and 
nominated General George B. McClellan, 
of New Jersey, for President, and (Jeorge 
H. Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 
General McClellan was made available for 
the Democratic nomination through cer- 



tain political letters which lie had written 
on points of dilVereiice between liiiiisell'and 
the Lincoln adminislralion. Two of these 
letters are suliiiient to show his own and 
the views of the party which nominated 
him, in the canvass which followed: 



Gen. McClellan'* Letters. 

Oil PoVUifal Adminvlratinn, July 7, \Hi\2. 

llKADyCAKTK.KH AhMY (IKTIIK i'oTOMAC, 

Camp nkau IIahuison'b La.nuimj, Va., July 7, IW>. 

Mr. President: — You have been fully 
iiilbrmc'd that the rebel army is in the 
front, with the purpose of overwhelming 
us by attacking our positions or reducing 
us by blocking our river conimunication.s. 
I cannf)t but regard our condition as criti- 
cal, and 1 I'arncstly desire, in view of pos- 
sible contingencies, to lay before your ex- 
cellency, ibr your private consideration, 
my general views concerning the existing 
state of the rebellion, although they do 
not strictly relate to the situation of this 
army, or strictly come within the scope of 
my official duties. These views amount to 
convictions, and are deeply impressed upon 
my mind and heart. Our cause must never 
be abandoned ; it is the cause of free in- 
stitutions and self-government. The Con- 
stitution and the Union must be preserved, 
whatever may be the cost in time, treasure, 
and blood. If secession is successful, other 
dissolutions are clearly to be seen in the 
future. Let neither military disaster, j>olit- 
ical faction, nor foreign war shake your 
settled purpose to enforce the equal opera- 
tion of th.^ laws of the Llnited States upon 
the people of every State. 

The time has come when the govern- 
ment must determine upon a civil and 
military policy, covering the whole ground 
of our national trouble. 

The responsil)ility of determining, de- 
claring, and supporting such civil and mil- 
itary policy, and of (lirecting the whole 
course of national affairs in regard to the 
rebellion, must now be assumed and exer- 
cised by you, or our cause will be lost. The 
Constitution gives you power, even for the 
present terrible exigency. 

This rebellion has assumed the charac- 
ter of a war ; as such it should be regarded, 
and it should be conducted ujion the high- 
est principles known to Christian civiliza- 
tion. It should not be a war looking to 
the subjugation of the people of any State, 
in any event. It should not be at all a 
war upon population, but against armed 
forces and political organizations. Neither 
confiscation of property, political execu- 
tions of persons, territorial organization of 
States, or forcible abolition of slaven.', 
should be contetn])latcd lor a moment. 

In prosecuting the war, all private 
property and unarmed persons should be 
strictly protected, subject only to the ne- 
cessity of military operations ; all private 



176 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



property taken for military use should be 
paid or receipted for; pillage and waste 
should be treated as high crimes ; all un- 
necessary trespass sternly prohibited, and 
offensive demeanor by the military towards 
citizens promptly rebuked. Military ar- 
rests should not be tolerated, except in 
places where active hostilities exist; and 
oaths, not required by enactments, consti- 
tutionally made, should be neither de- 
manded nor received. 

Military government should be confined 
to the preservation of public order and the 
protection of political right. Military 
power should not be allowed to interfere 
with the relations of servitude, either by 
supporting or impairing the authority of 
the master, except for repressing disorder, 
as in other cases. Slaves, contraband under 
the act of Congress, seeking military pro- 
tection, should receive it. The right of 
the government to appropriate permanent- 
ly to its own service claims to slave labor 
should be asserted, and the the right of the 
owner to compensation therefor should be 
recognized. This principle might be ex- 
tended, u]ion grounds of military necessity 
and security, to all the slaves of a particu- 
lar State, thus working manumission in 
such State ; and in Missouri, perhaps in 
Western Virginia also, and possibly even 
in Maryland, the expediency of such a 
measure is only a question of time. A 
system of policy thus constitutional, and 
pervaded by the inflnences of Christianity 
and freedom, would receive the support of 
almost all truly loyal men, would deeply 
impress the rebel masses and all foreign 
nations, and it might be humbly hoped 
that it would commend itself to the favor 
of the Almighty. 

Unless the principles governing the 
future conduct of our struggle shall be 
made known and approved, the etfort to 
obtain requisite forces will be almost hope- 
less. A declaration of radical views, es- 
pecially upon slavery, will rapidly disin- 
tegrate our present armies. The policy of 
the government must be supported by con- 
centrations of military power. The na- 
tional forces should not be dispersed in 
expeditions, posts of occupation, and nu- 
merous armies, but should be mainly col- 
lected into masses, and brought to bear 
upon the armies of the Confederate States. 
Those armies thoroughly defeated, the 
political structure which they support 
would soon cease to exist. 

In carrying out any system of policy 
which you may form, you will require a 
commander-in-chief of the army, one who 
possesses your confidence, understands 
your views, and who is comj)etent to exe- 
cute your orders, by directing the military 
forces of the nation to the accomplishment 
of the objects by you proposed. I do not 
ask that place for myself. I am willing to 



serve you in such position as you may as- 
sign me, and I will do so as faithfully as 
ever subordinate served superior. 

I may be on the brink of eternity ; and 
as I hope forgiveness from my Maker, I 
have written this letter with sincerity to- 
wards you and from love for my country. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
George B. McClellan, 
Major- General Commanding. 
His Excellency A. Lincoln, President. 



IN FAVOR OF the ELECTION OF GEORGE 

W. WOODWARD AS GOVERNOR OF 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Orange, New Jersey, October 12, 1863. 

Dear Sir : — My attention has been 
called to an article in the Philadelj^hia 
Press, asserting that I had written to the 
managers of a Democratic meeting at 
Allentown, disapproving the objects ol the 
meeting, and that if I voted or spoke it 
would be in favor of Governor Curtin. oiid 
I am informed that similar assertions have 
been made throughout the State. 

It has been my earnest endeavor hereto- 
fore to avoid participation in party politics. 
1 had determined to adhere to this course, 
but it is obvious that I cannot longer 
maintain silence under such misrepresen- 
tations. I therefore request you to deny 
that I have written any such letter, or 
entertained any such views as those at- 
tributed to me in the Philadelphia Press, 
and I desire to state clearly and distinctly, 
that having some days ago had a full con- 
versation with Judge Woodward, I find 
that our views agree, and I regard his elec- 
tion as Governor of Pennsylvania called 
for by the interests of the nation. 

I understand Judge Woodward to be in 
favor of the prosecution ol' the war with all 
the means at the command of the loyal 
States, until the military power of the re- 
bellion is destroyed. I understand him to 
be of the opinion that while the war is 
urged with all possible decision and 
energy, the policy directing it should be 
in consonance with the principles of 
humanity and civilization, working no in- 
jury to private rights and property not 
demanded by military necessity and recog- 
nized by military law among civilized na- 
tions. 

And, finally, I understand him to agree 
with me in the opinion that the sole great 
objects of this war are the restoration of 
the unity of the nation, the i)reservation of 
the Constitution, and the supremacy of 
the laws of the country. Believing our 
opinions entirely agree upon these points, 
I would, were it in my power, give to 
Judge Woodward my voice and vote. 

1 am, very respectfully, yours, 

George B. McClellait. 
Hon. Charles J. Biddlb. 



LINCOLN'S SECOND A D M I N ISTH AT I N, 



177 



The vii'ws (if Mr. Lincoln were well 
known ; they woro felt in the general con- 
duct of the war. The Republicuns a(loi)tecl 
as one of their maxims the words of their 
candidate, " tiiat it w;u< dangerous to swap 
horses while crossing a stream." The cam- 
paign was exciting, and \v:us watched by 
l)Oth armies with interest and anxiety. In 
this election, by virtue of an act of Con- 
gress, the soldiers in the field were per- 
mitted to vote, and a large majority of 
very branch of the service sustained the 
\dmin'.>tration, though two years before 
< icneral McClellan had been the idol of 
the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln and 
.lohnson received 212 electoral votes, 
against 21 for McClellan and Pendleton. 



liiucolii'8 Second Atlniliilstratioii. 

In President Lincoln's second inaugural 
address, delivered on the 4th of March, 
18G"), he si)oke the following words, since 
ort quoted as typical of the kindly disposi- 
tion of the man believed by his party to be 
the greatest President since Washington : 
"With malice toward none, with charity 
for all, with firmness in the right, as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
hnish the work we are in, to bind up the 
Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow 
and orphans — to do all which may achieve 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations." 

Lincoln could well afford to show that 
generosity which never comes more prop- 
erly than from the hands of the victor. 
His policy was about to end in a great 
triumph. In less than five weeks later on 
General Lee had surrendered the main 
army of the South to General Grant at 
Appomattox, on terms at once magnani- 
mous and so briefly stated that they won 
the admiration of both armies, for the 
rebels had been permitted to retain their 
horses and side arms, and to go at once to 
their homes, not to be disturbed by United 
States authority so long as they observed 
their paroles and the laws in force where 
they resided. Lee's surrender w.o-s rapidly 
followed by that of all Southern troops. 

Next came a grave political work — the 
actual reconstruction of the States lately in 
rebellion. This work gave renewed fresh- 
ness to the leading political issues incident 
to the war, and likewise gave rise to new 
issues. It was claimed at once that Lin- 
coln had a recon.struction policy of his 
own, because of his anxiety for the prompt 
admission of Louisiana and Arkansas, but 
it had certainly never taken definite shape, 
nor was there time to get such a policy in 
shape, between the surrender of Lee and 
his own assassination. On the night of 
the loth of April, six days after the sur- 
render, J.Wilkes Booth shot him while 

12 



sitting in a box in Ford's theatre. The 
nation stood appalled at the deed. No 
man wa.s ever more sincerely mourned in 
all .sections and by all classes. The .'South- 
ern leaders thought that this rash ai t liad 
lost to them a life which had never been 
harsh, and while firm, was ever generous. 
The North had looked iifion him as "rather 
Abraham," and all who viewed the result 
of the shooting from sectional or partisan 
standj)oints, thought his j)olicy of "keep- 
ing with the people," would have shielded 
every proper interest. No public man ever 
felt less "pride of opinion" than Lincoln, 
anil we do believe, had he lived, that he 
would have shaped events, as he did dur- 
ing the war, to the best interests of the 
victors, but without unnecessan,' agitation 
or harshness. All attempts of writers to 
evolve from his i)roclamation a reconstruc- 
tion policy, applicable to peace, have been 
vain and impotent. He had none which 
would not have changed with changing 
circumstances. A "policy" in an execu- 
tive office is too often but another name for 
executive egotism, and Lincoln was almost 
absolutely free from that weakness. 

On the morning of Mr. Lincoln's death, 
indeed within the same hour (and verv' 
properly so under the circumstances), the 
Vice President Andrew Johnson was in- 
augurated as President. The excitement 
was painfully high, and the new President, 
in speeches, interviews and proclamations 
if possible added to it. From evidence 
in the Bureau of Military Justice he 
thought the assassination of Lincoln, and 
the attempted assassination of Secretary 
Seward had been procured by Jefferson 
Davis, Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, 
Geo. N. Saunders, Beverly Tucker, Wm. C. 
Cleary, and " other rebels and traitors 
harbored in Canada." The evidence, how- 
ever, fully drawn out in the trial of the co- 
conspirators of J. Wilkes Booth, showed 
that the scheme was hair-brained, and 
from liO responsible political source. The 
proclamation, however, gave keenness to 
the search for the fugitive Davis, and he 
wsis soon captured while making his way 
through Georgia to the Florida coast with 
the intention of escaping from the country. 
He was imprisoned in Fortress ^lonroe, 
and an indictment for treason was found 
against him, but he remained a close pris- 
oner for nearly two years, until times when 
political policies had been changed or 
modified. Horace Greeley was one of his 
bondsmen. By this time there was grave 
doubt whether he could be legally con- 
victed, * " now that the charge of inciting 
Wilkes Booth's crime had been tacitly 
abandoned. Mr. Webster (in his Bunker 
Hill oration) had only given clearer ex- 
pression to the American doctrine, that, 

♦From Greeley's BecoUoctions uf a Busy Life, p«ge 413^ 



178 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



after a revolt has levied a regular army, 
and fought therewith a pitched battle, its 
champions, even though utterly defeated, 
cannot be tried and convicted as traitors. 
This may be an extreme statement ; but 
surely a rebellion which has for years main- 
tained great armies, levied taxes and con- 
scriptions, negotiated loans, fought scores 
of sanguinary battles with alternate suc- 
cesses and reverses, and exchanged tens of 
thousands of prisoners of war, can hardly fail 
to have achieved thereby the position and 
the rights of a lawful belligerent." This 
view, as then presented by Greeley, was 
accepted by President Johnson, who from 
intemperate denunciation had become the 
fi-icnd of his old friends in the South. 
Greeley's view was not generally accepted 
by the" North, though most of the leading 
men of both parties hoped the responsi- 
bility of a trial would be avoided by the 
escape and flight of the prisoner. But he 
was confident by this time, and sought a 
trial. He was never tried, and the best 
reason for the fact is given in Judge Un- 
derwood's testimony before a Congressional 
Committee (and the Judge was a Reijubli- 
can) "that no conviction was possible, ex- 
cept by packing a jury." 



Aiidre-w Jolmson. 

On the 29th of April, 1865, President 
Johnson issued a proclamation removing 
all restrictions upon internal, domestic and 
coastwise and commercial intercourse in 
all Southern States east of the Mississippi ; 
the blockade was removed May 22, and on 
]\Iay 29 a proclamation of amnesty was 
issued, with fourteen classes excepted 
therefrom, and the requirement of an 
"iron-clad oath" from those accepting its 
provisions. Proclamations rapidly fol- 
lowed in shaping the lately rebellious 
States to the conditions of peace and re- 
storation to the Union. These States were 
required to hold conventions, repeal seces- 
sion ordinances, accept the abolition of 
slavery, repudiate Southern war debts, pro- 
vide for Congressional representation, and 
elect new State Officers and Legislatures. 
The several constitutional amendments 
were of course to be ratified by the vote of the 
people. These conditions were eventually 
all complied with, some of the States being 
more tardy than others. The irreconcila- 
bles charged uj)on the Military officers, 
the Freedmen's Bureau, and the stern ap- 
plication of the reconstruction acts, these 
results, and many of them showed a politi- 
cal hostility which, after the election of 
the new Legislatures, took shape in what 
were in the North at the time denounced as 

"the black codes." 
These were passed by all of the eleven 
States in the rebellion. " The codes varied 



in severitj', according to the views of the 
Legislatures, and for a time they seriously 
interfered with the recognition of the 
States, the Republicans charging that the 
design was to restore slavery under new 
forms. In South Carolina Gen'l Sickles 
issued military orders, as late as January 
17, 1866, against the enforcement of such 
laws. 

To a.ssure the rights, of the freedmen 
the 14th amendment of the Constitution 
was passed by Congress, June 18th, 1866. 
President Johnson opposed it, refused to 
sign, but said he would submit it to the 
several States. This was done, and it was 
accepted by the required three-fourths, 
January 28th, 1868. This had the effect 
to do away with many of the "black 
codes," and the States which desired re- 
admission to the Union had to finally give 
them up. Since reconstruction, and the 
political ousting of what were called the 
"carpet bag governments," some of the 
States, notably Georgia, has passed class 
laws, which treat colored criminals differ- 
ently from white, under what are now 
known as the " conduct laws." Terms of 
sentence are served out, in any part of the 
State, under the control of public and 
private contractors, and " vagrants " are 
subjected to sentences which it is believed 
would be less extended under a system of 
confinement. 



Johnson's Policy. 

While President Johnson's policy did 
not materially check reconstruction, it en- 
couraged Southern politicians to political 
effort, and with their well known tact they 
were not long in gaining the ascendancy 
in nearly every State. This ascendancy 
excited the fears and jealousies of the 
North, and the Republicans announced as 
their object and platform " that all the re- 
sults of the war" should be secured before 
Southern reconstruction and representa- 
tion in Congress should be completed. On 
this they were almost solidly united in 
Congress, but Horace Greeley trained an 
independent sentiment which favored com- 
plete amnesty to the South. President 
Johnson sought to utilize this sentiment, 
and to divide the Republican party 
through his policy, which now looked to 
the same ends. He had said to a delega- 
tion introduced by Gov. Oliver P. Morton, 
April 21, 1865 : 

"Your slavery is dead, but I did not 
murder it. As Macbeth said to Banquo's 
bloody ghost: 

' Never shake thy gory locks at me ; 
Thou canst not say I did it.' 

" Slavery is dead, and you must pardon 
me if I do not mourn over its dead body ; 
you can bury it out of sight. In restoring 



F.MPEAniMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 



179 



l)he Stati', Ifiivi- out that di.sturldiijj; and 
dangerous element, and list- only those 
parts of the machinery \vlu(h will move in 
narmony. 

" i5ut in callini^ a convention to restore 
the State, who shall restore aiul re-estah- 
lish it? Shall the man who gave his in- 
fluence and his means to destroy the 
(rovernnn-nt? Is lie to participate in the 
great work of reorganization? Shall he 
who hrought this misery U[)on the State he 
permitted to control its destinies? If this 
be so, then all this precious blood of our 
brave soldiers and otlicers so freely i)oured 
out will have been wantonly spilled. All 
the glorious victories won by our noble ar- 
mies will go for nought, and all the battle- 
fields which have been sown with dead 
heroes during the rebellion will have been 
made memorable in vain." 

In a speech at Washiugton, Feb. 22nd, 
ISGG, Johnson said : 

" The Government has stretched forth 
its strong arm, and with its jdiysical power 
it has put down treason in the field. That 
is, the section of country that arrayed itself 
against the Government has been con- 
qiiered by the force of the Government itself. 
Now, what had we said to those people? 
We said, 'No compromise; we can settle 
this question with the South in eight and 
forty hours.' 

" I have said it again and again, and I 
repeat it now, 'disband your armies, ac- 
knowledge the supremacy of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, give obedience 
to the law, and the whole question is set- 
tled.' 

" What has been done since ? Their ar- 
mies have been disbanded. They come 
now to meet us in a spirit of magnanimity 
and say, ' We were mistaken ; we made 
the effort to carry out the doctrine of se- 
cession and dissolve this Union, and hav- 
ing traced this thing to its logical and 
Physical results, we now acknowledge the 
ag of our country, and promise obedience 
to the Constitution and the supremacy of 
the law.' 

" I say, then, when you comply with the 
Constitution, when you yield to the law, 
when yuu acknowledge allegiance to the 
Government — I say let the door of the 
Union be opened, and the relation be re- 
stored to those that had erred and had 
strayed from the fold of our fathers." 

It is not partisanship to say that John- 
son's views had undergone a change. He 
did not admit this in his speeches, but the 
fact was accepted in all sections, and the 
leaders of parties took position accordingly I 
— nearly all of the Republicans against I 
him, nearly all of the Democrats for him. '■ 
So radical had this difference become that ; 
he vetoed nearly all of the political bills [ 
passed by the Republicans from ISGO until i 
the end of his administration, but such was ! 



the Republican preponderance in both 
Houses of Congress that they pas.sed them 
over his head by tiie necessary two-thirds 
vote. He vetoed the several P'reedmen's 
Hureau Rills, the Civil Rights Rill, that 
for the admission of Nebraska and Colo- 
rado, the Rill to i)ermit Colored Suffrage 
in the District of Cohnubia, one of the 
Reconstruction lUlls, and fiiudly made a 
direct issue with the i)owers ot' ( 'ongress by 
his veto of the Civil Tenure Rill, March 2, 
1867, the substance of which is shown in 
the third section, as follows: 

Sec. 3. That the President shall have 
power to fill all vacancies which may hap- 
pen during the recess of the Senate, by rea- 
son of death or resignation, by granting 
commissions which shall expire at the end 
of their next session thereafter. And if 
no appointment, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, shall be made 
to such office so vacant or temporarily 
filled as aforesaid during such next session 
of the Senate, such office shall remain in 
abeyance without any .salary, fees, or 
emoluments attached thereto, until the 
same shall be filled by appointment 
thereto, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate ; and during such time 
all the powers and duties belonging to such 
office shall be exercised by such other offi- 
cer as may by law exercise such powers and 
duties in case of a vacancy in such office. 

The bill originally passed the Senate by 
22 to 10 — all of the nays Democrats save 
Van Winkle and Willey. It passed the 
House by 112 to 41 — all of the yeas Re- 
jniblicans; all of the nays Democrats save 
Hawkins, Latham and Whaley. The 
Senate passed it over the veto by 35 to 11 
— a strict party vote ; the House by 138 to 
40 — a strict party vote, except Latham 
(Rep.) who voted nay. 

The refusal of the President to enforce 
this act, and his attempted removal of 
Secretary Stanton from the Cabinet w'hen 
against the wish of the Senate, led to the 
effort to impeach him. Stanton resisted 
the President, and General Grant took an 
active part in stistaining the War Secre- 
tary. He in fact publicly advised him to 
" stick," and his attitude showed that in 
the great political battle which must fol- 
low, they would surely have the support of 
the army and its great commander. 



Impeachment Trial of Andre\v Johnsom. 

* The events which led to the impeach- 
ment of President Johnson, maybe nriefly 
stated as follows: On the 21st of Febru- 
ary, 1868, the President issued an order to 
Mr. Stanton, removing him from office as 
Secretary of War, and another to General 
Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General of the 

* From the Century of iDdepeudence by Jubn Sully, 
BustoD. 



180 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Army, apiJoiiiting him Secretary of War 
ad interim, directing the one to surrender 
and the other to receive, all the books, pa- 
pers, and public property belonging to the 
^Var Department. As these orders fill an 
inii)ortant place in the history of the im- 
peachment, we give them here. The or- 
der to Mr. Stanton reads : 

" By virtue of the i^ower and authority 
vested in me as President by the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States, you are 
hereby removed from office as Secretary 
for the Department of War, and your 
functions as such will terminate upon the 
receipt of this communication. You will 
transfer to Brevet Major-General Lorenzo 
Thomas, Adjutant-General of the Army, 
who has this day been authorized and em- 
}>owered to act as Seci'etary of War ad 
interim, all records, books, papers, and other 
l)ublic property now in your custody and 
charge." 

The order to General Thomas reads : 

" The Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having 
been this day removed from office as Secre- 
tary for the Department of ^Var, you are 
hereby authorized and empowered to act 
as Secretary of War ad interim, and will 
immediately enter upon the discharge of 
the duties pertaining to that office. Mr. 
Stanton has been instructed to transfer to 
you all the records, books, and other 2>ublic 
property now in his custody and charge." 

These orders having been officially com- 
municated to the Senate, that body, after 
an earnest debate, passed the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, by the Senate of the United 
States, That under the Constitution and 
laws of tlie United States the President 
has no power to remove the Secretary of 
War and designate any other officer to per- 
form the duties of that office." 

The President, upon the 24th, sent a 
message to the Senate, arguing at length 
that not only under the Constitution, but 
also under the laws as now existing, he had 
the right of removing Mr. Stanton and 
ai)pointing another to fill his place. The 
point of his argument is: That by a special 
proviso in the Tenure-of-Office Bill the va- 
rious Secretaries of Departments "shall 
hold their offices resj^ectively for and dur- 
ing the term of the President by whom 
they may have been appointed, and for one 
month thereafter, subject to removal by 
and with the advice of the Senate." The 
President affirms that ]\Ir. Stanton was ap- 
pointed not by him, but by his predeces- 
sor, Mr. Lincoln, and held office only by 
the sufferance, not the appointment, of the 
present Executive ; and that therefore his 
tenure is, by the express reading of the 
law excepted from the general provision, 
that every i)erson duly appointed to office, 
" by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate," etc., shall be " entitled to hold 



office until a successor shall have been in 
like manner appointed and duly qualified, 
except as herein otherwise provided." The 
essential point of the President's argument, 
therefore, is that, as Mr. Stanton was not 
appointed by him, he had, under the Ten- 
ure-of-Office Bill, the right at any time to 
remove him ; the same right which his own 
successor would have, no matter whether 
the incumbent had, by suflTerance, not by 
appointment of the existing Executive, 
held the office for weeks or even years. 
" If," says the President, "my successor 
would have the power to remove Mr. Stan-. 
ton, after permitting him to remain a peri- 
od of two weeks, because he was not ap- 
pointed by him, I who have tolerated Mr. 
Stanton for more than two years, certainly 
have the same right to remove him, upon 
the same ground, namely that he was not 
appointed by me but by my predecessor." 

In the meantime Gener;'.! Thomas pre- 
sented himself at the War Department and 
demanded to be placed in the position to 
which he had been assigned by the Pres- 
ident. Mr. Stanton refused to surrender 
his post, and ordered General Thomas to 
proceed to the apartment which belonged 
to him as Adjutant-General. This order 
was not obeyed, and so the two claimants 
to the Secretaryship of War held their 
ground. A sort of legal by-play then en- 
sued. Mr. Stanton entered a formal com- 
plaint before Judge Carter, Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the District of 
Columbia, charging that General Thomas 
had illegally exercised and attempted to 
exercise the duties of Secretary of War; 
and had threatened to " forcibly remove the 
complainant from the buildings and apart- 
ments of the Secretary of War in the War 
Department, and forcibly take possession 
and control thereof under his pretended 
appointment by the President of the 
United States as Secretary of War ad in- 
terim ; " and praying that he might be ar- 
rested and held to answer this charge. 
General Thomas Avas accordingly arrested, 
and held to bail in the sum of $15,000 to 
appear before the court on the 24th. Ap- 
pearing on that day he was discharged 
from custody and bail ; whereupon he en- 
tered an action against Mr. Stanton for 
false imprisonment, laying his damages at 
$150,000. 

On the 22d of February the " House 
Committee on Reconstruction, through its 
Chairman, Mr. Stevens, presented a brief 
report, merely stating the fact of the at- 
tempted removal by the President of Mr. 
Stanton, and closing as follows : 

" Upon the evidence collected by the 
Committee, which is hereafter presented, 
and in virtue of the powers with which 
they have been invested by the House, 
they are of the opinion that Andrew John- 
son, President of the United States, should 



IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 



181 



be iuipoailu'il of high rrinics aifl inisdc- 
meanors. They, tlierefore, recoiumi'iid to 
the House the adoption of the following 
resolution : 

" RcMlvrd, That Andrew Johnson, Pres- 
ident of the United States be inii)eaehed of 
high crimes and niisdeiiioanors." 

Atler earnest debate, the question on the 
resolution was adopted, on the 24th, by a 
vote of 120 to 47. A committee of two 
members — Stevens and Bingham — were to 
notify the Senate of the action of the 
House; and another committee of seven — 
Boutwell, Stevens, Bingham, Wilson, Lo- 
gan, Julian, and Ward — to prepare the 
articles of impeachment. On the 2")th 
(February) Mr. Stevens thus announced 
to the Senate the action which had been 
taken by the House : 

" In obedience to the order of the House 
of Representatives we have appeared be- 
fore you, and in the name of the House of 
Representatives and of all the people of 
the United States, we do impeach Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
of high crimes and misdemeanors in office. 
And we further inform the Senate that the 
House of Representatives will in due time 
exhibit particular articles of impeachment 
against him, to make good the same; and 
in their name we demand that the Senate 
take due order for the appearance of the 
said Andrew Johnson to answer to the 
said impeachment." 

The Senate thereupon, by a unanimous 
vote, resolved that this message from the 
House should be referred to a select Com- 
mittee of Seven, to be appointed by the 
chair, to consider the same and report 
thereon. The Committee subsequently 
made a report laying down the rules of 
procedure to be observed on the trial. 

On the 29th of February the Committee 
of the House appointed for that purpose 
presented the articles of impeachment 
which they had drawn up. These, with 
slight modification, were accepted on the 
2d of ^larch. They comprise nine articles, 
eight of which are based upon the action 
of the President in ordering the removal 
of Mr. Stanton, and the appointment of 
General Thomas as Secretary of War. The 
general title to the impeachment is : 

" Articles exhibited by the House of 
Representatives of the United States, in 
the name of themselves and all the people 
of the United States, against Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
as maintenance and support of their im- 
peachment against him for high crimes 
and misdemeanors in office." 

Each of the articles commences with a 
preamble to the effect that the President, 
"unmindful of the high.dutiesof his office, 
of his oath of office, and of the require- 
ments of the Constitution that he should 
take care that the laws be faithfully exe- 



cuted, did unlawfully and in violatif)n of the 
lawsan<l Cnu.-iitulion of the United StaU-fl, 
perform the several acts specified in the 
articles respectively ;" closing with the de- 
claration: "Whereby the said Andrew 
.Johnson, President of the United States, 
did then and there commit and w;w guilty 
of a high misdemeanor in office." The 
phraseology is somewhat varied. In .soine 
cases the offense is designated as a "mis- 
demeanor," in others as a "crime." The 
whole closes thus : 

" And the House of Representatives, by 
protestation, saving to themselves the lib- 
erty of exhibiting at any time hereafter 
any further articles or other accusation or 
impeachment against the .said Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
and also of replying to his answers which 
he shall make to the articles herein pre- 
ferred against him, and of offering proof 
to the same and every part thereof, and to 
all and every other article, accusation, or 
impeachment which shall be exhibited by 
them as the case shall require, do demand 
that the said Andrew Johnson may be put 
to answer the high crimes and misdemean- 
ors in office herein charged against him, 
and that such proceedings, examinations, 
trials, and judgments may be thereupon 
had and given as may be agreeable to law 
and justice." 

The following is a summary in brief of 
the points in the articles of impeachment, 
lea:al and technical phraseology being omit- 
ted: 

Article 1. Unlawfully ordering the re- 
moval of 3Ir. Stanton as Secretary of War, 
in violation of the provisions of the Tenure 
of-Office Act.— Article 2. Unlawfully ap- 
pointing General Lorenzo Thomas as Sec- 
retary of War ad interim. — Article 3 is sub- 
stantially the same as Article 2, with the 
addition that there was at the time of the 
appointment of General Thomas no va- 
cancy in the office of Secretary' of War. — 
Article 4 charges the President with " con- 
spiring with one Lorenzo Thomas and other 
persons, to the House of Representatives 
unknown," to prevent, by intimidation and 
threats, Mr. Stanton, the legally-appointed 
Secretary of War, from holding that office. 
— Article 5 charges the President with con- 
spiring with General Thomas and others 
to hinder the execution of the Tenure-of- 
Office Act ; and, in pursuance of this con- 
spiracy, attempting to prevent Mr. Stanton 
from acting as Secretary' of War. — Article 6 
charges that the President conspired with 
General Thomas and others to take forcible 
possession of the War Department. — Arti- 
cle 7 repeats the charge, in other terms 
that the President conspired with General 
Thomas and others to hinder the execution 
of the Tenure-of-(Mfice Act, and to pre- 
vent Mr. Stanton from executing the office 
of Secretary of War. — Article 8 again 



182 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



charges the President with conspiring with 
General Thoni:is and others to take posses- 
sion of the property in the War Depart- 
ment. — Article 9 cliarges that the President 
called before him (iLMieral Emory, who was 
in command of the forces in the Depart- 
ment of Washington, and declared to him 
that a law, passed on the 30th of June, 
1867, directing that " all orders and in- 
structions relating to military operations, 
issued by the President or Secretary of 
War, shall be issued through the General 
of the Army, and, in case of his inability, 
through the next in rank," was unconsti- 
tutional, and not binding upon General 
Emory ; the intent being to induce General 
Emory to violate the law, and to obey or- 
ders issued directly from the President. 

The foregoing articles of impeachment 
were adopted on the 2d of March, the 
^t>tes upon each slightly varying, the aver- 
age being 125 ayes to 40 nays. The ques- 
tion then came up of appointment of man- 
agers on the part of the House to conduct 
the impeachment before the Senate. Upon 
this question the Democratic members did 
not vote ; 118 votes were cast, 60 being 
necessary to a choice. The following was 
the result, the number of votes cast for 
each elected manager being given : Stevens 
of Penn., 105; Butler, of Mass., 108; Bing- 
ham, of Ohio, 114; Boutwell, of Mass., 
113 ; Wilson, of Iowa, 112 ; Williams, of 
Penn., 107 ; Logan, of 111., 106. The fore- 
going seven Representatives were, there- 
fore, duly chosen as Managers of the Bill 
of Impeachment. The great body of the 
Democratic members of the House entered 
a formal protest against the whole course 
of proceedings involved in the impeach- 
ment of the President. They claimed to 
represent " directly or in principle more 
than one-half of the people of the United 
States." This protest was signed by forty- 
five Representatives. 

On the 3d the Board of Managers pre- 
sented two additional articles of im})each- 
ment, which were adopted by the House. 
The first charges, in substance, that 

" The President, unmindful of the high 
duties of his office and of the harmony 
and courtesies which ought to be main- 
tained between the executive and legisla- 
tive branches of the Government of the 
United States, designing to set aside the 
rightful authority and powers of Congress, 
did attempt to bring into disgrace the Con- 
gress of the L'''nited States and the several 
branches thereof, to iinnair and destroy the 
regard and respect of all the good people 
of the United States for the Congress and 
legislative })ower thereof, and to excite the 
odium and resentment of all the good 
peo))le of the United States against Con- 
gress and the laws by it enacted ; and in 
pursuance of his said design openly and 
publicly, and before divers assemblages 



convened in divers parts thereof to meet 
and receive said Andrew Johnson as the 
Chief Magistrate of the United States, did 
on the 18th day of August, in the year of 
our Lord 1866, and on divers other days 
and times, as well before as afterward, 
make and deliver with a loud voice certain 
intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous 
harangues, and did therein utter loud 
threats and bitter menaces as well against 
Congress as the laws of the United States 
duly enacted thereby." 

To this article are appended copious ex- 
tracts from speeches of Mr. Johnson, The 
second article is substantially as follows : 

" The President did, on the 18th day of 
August, 1866, at the City of Washington, 
by public si^eech, declare and affirm in 
substance that the Thirty-ninth Congress 
of the United States was not a Congress 
of the United States, authorized by the 
Constitution to exercise legislative power 
under the same, but, on the contrary, was 
a Congress of only a part of the States, 
thereby denying and intending to deny 
that the legislation of said Congress was 
valid or obligatory upon him, except in so 
far as he saw fit to approve the same, and 
did devise and contrive means by which he 
might prevent Edwin M. Stanton from 
forthwith resuming the iunctions of the 
office of Secretary for the Department of 
War; and, also, by further unlawfully de- 
vising and contriving means to prevent the 
execution of an act entitled 'An act mak- 
ing appropriations for the supjiort of the 
army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1868, and for other purposes,' approved 
March 2, 1867 ; and also to prevent the 
execution of an act entitled ' An act to 
l>rovide for the more efficient government 
of the rebel States,' passed March 2, 1867, 
did commit and was guilty of a high mis- 
demeanor in office." 

On the 4th of March the Senate notified 
the House that they were ready to receive 
the Managers of the Impeachment. They 
appeared, and the articles were formallv 
read. The Senate had meanwhile adopted 
the rules of procedure. Chief Justice Chase 
sent a communication to the Senate to the 
effect that this body, when acting upon an 
impeachment, was a Court presided over by 
the Chief Jr.stice, and that all orders an(i 
rules should be framed by the Court. Ov 
the 5th the Court was formally organizeci. 
An exception was taken to the eligibility 
of Mr. Wade as a member of the Court, on 
the ground that he was a party interested, 
since, in the event of the impeachment be- 
ing sustained, he, as President of the Senate, 
would become Acting President of the 
United States. This objection was with- 
drawn, and Mr. Wade was sworn as a mem- 
ber of the Court. On the 7th the summons 
for the President to ai)pear was formally 
served upon him. On the 13th the Court 



l.Ml'KACIIMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 



183 



v\-as again formully rcopciu'd. The IVtHi- 
dt'Ut uppoiiretl by lii.'< ttniiisol, lion. Henry 
Stjinbery, of Ohio; Hon. Wui. M. Evarts, 
of .\e\v Yoriv ; Hon. Wni. S. Groesbeck, >f 
Ohio; Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis, of Massa- 
chusetts; Hon. Thoiniis A. R. Nelson, of 
Tennessee, wlio asked for forty days to ore- 
!)are an answer to the indii'tnient. This 
was refused, and ten days granted ; it be- 
ing ordered that the |>roceedings shouhl 
reopen on the '2M. Upon tiiat day the 
President appeannl by his counsel, and 
presented his answer to the articles of ini- 
peachnient. This reply was in substance 
as iollows: 

The Hrst eight articles in the Rill of Im- 
peaclunent, as briefly sun\med up in our 
last record, are based upon the action of 
the President in ordering the removal of 
Mr. Stanton, and the temporary appoint- 
ment of General Thomas as Secretary of 
War. The gist of them is contained in the 
first article, charging the unlawful removal 
of Mr. Stanton ; for, this failing, the others 
would tail also. To this article a con- 
siderable part of the President's answer 
is devoted. It is mainly an amplifica- 
tion of the points put forth in the Mes- 
sage of February 24tli, in which he gave 
his reasons for liis orders. The President 
cites the laws by which this department of 
the administration was created, and the 
rules laid down for the duties pertaining to 
it; prominent among which are: that the 
Secretary shall " conduct the business of 
the department in such manner as the 
President of the United States shall from 
time to time order and instruct; " and that 
he should " hold the office during the plea- 
sure of the President ; " and that Congress 
had no legal right to deprive the President 
of the power to remove the Secretary. He 
wa<. however, aware that the design of the 
Tenure-of-Office Bill was to vest this power 
of removal, in certain cases, jointly in the 
Executive and the Senate ; and that, while 
believing this act to be unconstitutional, 
yet it having been passed over his veto by 
the requisite majority of two-thirds, he con- 
sidered it to be his duty to ascertain in how 
far the case of Mr. Stanton came within the 
provisions of this law ; after consideration, 
he came to the conclusion that the case did 
not come within the prohibitions of the , 
law, and that, by that law he still had the 
riirht of removing Mr. Stanton ; but that, 
wishing to have the case decided by the Su- I 
preme Court, he, on the 12th of August, ' 
issued the order merely suspending, not ' 
removing, Mr. Stanton, a power expreslv 
granted by the Tenure-of-Offioe Act, and 
appointed General Grant St'cretary of War 
ad interim. The President then recites 
tlie subsequent action in the case of Mr. 
bt'inton ; and, as he avers, still believing 
that he had the constitutional power to re- 
move him from office, issued the order of ^ 



i February 21st, for such removal, designing 

to thus l)ring the matter before tlie Su- 

' jireme Court. He then ]>ro{feds formally 

, to deny that at this time Mr. Stanton wiw 

i in lawful possession of the office of Secre- 

I tary of War; and that, consequently, the 

I order for his removal w:i.s in violation of the 

Tenure-of-OfHce Act; and that it was in 

violation of the Constitution or of any law ; 

or that it constituted any official crime or 

misdemeanor. 

in regard to the seven succeeding arti- 
cles of impeachment the President, while 
admitting the facts of the order appointing 
General Thonuis as Secretary of War ad 
interini, denies all and every of the crimi- 
nal charges therein set forth. So of the 
ninth arti( le, charging an effort to induce 
General Emory to violate the law, the 
President denies all such intent, and calls 
attention to the fact that while, for urgent 
reasons, he signed the l)ill prescribing that 
orders to the army should be issued only 
through the General, he at the same time 
declared it to be, in his judgment, unconsti- 
tutional ; and affirms that in his interview 
with General Emory he said no more than 
he had before officially said to Congress — • 
that is, that the law was unconstitutional. 

As to the tenth article, the first of the 
supplementary ones, the President, while 
admitting that he made certain public 
sjteeches at the times and places specified, 
does not admit that the passages cited are 
fair reports of his remarks ; denies that he 
has ever been unmindful of the courtesies 
which ought to be maintained between 
the executive and legislative departments ; 
but he claims the perfect right at all times 
to express his views as to all j)ublic mattere. 

The reply to the eleventh article, the 
second supplementary one, is to the same 
general purport, denying that he ever af- 
firmed that the Thirty-ninth Congress was 
not a valid Congress of the United States, 
and its acts obligatory only as they were 
ap])rovcd by him ; and denying that he 
had, as charged in the article, contrived 
unlawful means for 2)reventing Mr. Stanton 
from resuming the functions of Secretary 
of War, or for preventing the execution of 
the act making appropriations for the sup- 
port of the army, or that to provide for the 
more efficient government of the rebel 
States. In his answer to this article the 
President refers to his reply to the first ar- 
ticle, in which he sets forth at length all 
the steps, and the reasons therefor, relating 
to the removal of Mr. Stanton. In brief, 
the answer of the President to the articles 
of impeachment is a general denial of each 
and every criminal act charged in the ar- 
ticles of impeachment. 

The counsel for the President then asked 
for a delay of thirty days after the replication 
of the managers of the impeachment should 
have been rendered, before the trial should 



1 vl 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



forr-inlly proceed. This was refused, and 
the managers of the impeachment stated 
that their replication would be presented 
the next day : it was that, 

" The Senate will commence the trial of 
the President upon the articles of impeach- 
ment exhibited against him on Monday, 
the 30th day of March, and proceed there- 
in with all dispatch under the rules of the 
Senate, sitting upon the trial of an im- 
peachment." 

The replication of the House of Repre- 
sentatives was a simple denial of each and 
every averment in the answer of the Pres- 
ident, closing thus : 

" The House of Representatives .... do 
say that the said Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, is guilty of the 
high crimes and misdemeanors mentioned 
in the said articles, and that the said House 
of Representatives are ready to prove the 
same." 

The trial began, as appointed, on March 
30. There being twenty-seven States rep- 
resented, there were fifty-four Senators, 
who constituted the Court, presided over 
by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, of 
Ohio. Senators : California, Cole, Con- 
ness ; Connecticut, Dixon, Ferry; Delaware, 
Bayard, Saulsbury; Indiana, Hendricks, 
Morton ; Illinois, Trumbull, Yates ; Iowa, 
Grimes, Harlan ; Kansas, Pomeroy, Ross ; 
Kentucky, Davis, McCreery ; Maine, Fes- 
senden, Morrill (LotM.) ; Maryland, John- 
son, Vickers ; Ma.'isachusetfs,^\xmiiQr,\\[\\- 
son ; Michigan, Chandler, Howard ; Minne- 
sota, Norton, Ramsay ; Missouri, Drake, 
Henderson ; Nebriiska, Thayer, Tipton ; 
Nevada, Nye, Stewart; New Hampshire, 
Cragin, Patterson (J. W.) ; New Jersey, 
Cattell, Frelinghuysen ; New York, Conk- 
lin. ]\Iorgan ; Ohio, Sherman, Wade ; Ore- 
gon, Corbett, Williams ; Pennsylvania, 
Buckalew, Cameron; Rhode Island, An- 
thony, Sprague ; Tennessee, Fowler, Patter- 
son (David); Vermont, Edmunds, Merrill, 
( J. S.) ; West Virginia, Van Winkle, Wil- 
ley ; Wisconsin, Doolittle, Howe. 

Managers for the Prosecution: Messrs. 
Bingham, Boutwcll, Butler, Logan, Ste- 
vens, Williams, Wilson. 

Counsel for the President. Messrs. Cur- 
tis, Evarts, Groesbeck, Nelson, Stanbery. 

The following was the order of proce- 
dure: The Senate convened at 11 or 12 
o'clock, and was called to order by the 
president of that body, who, after prayer, 
would leave the chair, which was immedi- 
ately assumed by the Chief Justice, who 
wore his official robes. The prosecution 
was mainly conducted by Mr. Butler, who 
examined the witnesses, and, in conjunc- 
tion with the others, argued the points of 
law which came up. The defense, during 
the early part of the trial, was mainly con- 
ducted by Mr. Stanbery, who had resigned 
the office of Attorney-General for this pur- 



pose, but, being taken suddenly ill, Mr. 
Evarts to(jk his place. According to the 
rule at first adopted, the trial was to be 
opened by one counsel on each side, and 
summed up by two on each side ; but this 
rule was subsequently modified so as to al- 
low as many of the managers "and counsel 
as chose to sum ujd, either orally or by 
filing written arguments. 

THE PROSECUTION. 

The whole of the first day (March 30) 
was occupied by the opening speech of Mr. 
Butler. After touching upon the import- 
ance of the case, and the wisdom of the 
framers of the Constitution in providing for 
it'H possible occurrence, he laid down the fol- 
lowing proposition, supporting it by a copi- 
ous array of authorities and precedents : 

" We define, therefore, an impeachable 
high crime or misdemeanor to be one, in 
its nature or consequences, subversive of 
some fundamental or essential principle of 
government, or highly prejudicial to the 
public interest, and this may consist of a- 
violation of the Constitution, of law, of an 
official oath, or of duty, by an act com- 
mitted or omitted, or, without violating a 
positive law, by the abuse of discretionary 
powers from improper motives, or for any 
imj)roper purpose." 

He then proceeded to discuss the nature 
and functions of the tribunal before which 
the trial is held. He asked : " Is this pro- 
ceeding a trial, as that term is understood, 
so far as relates to the rights and duties of 
a court and jury upon an indictment for 
crime ? Is it not rather more in the nature 
of an inquest?" The Constitution, he 
urged, " seems to have determined it to be 
the latter, because, under its provisions, 
the right to retain and hold office is the 
only subject to be finally adjudicated ; all 
preliminary inquiry being carried on solely 
to determine that question, and that alone." 
He then proceeded to argue that this body 
now sitting to determiiie the accusation, is 
the Senate of the United States, and not a 
court. This question is of consequence, 
he argued, because, in the latter case, it 
would be bound by the rules and prece- 
dents of common law-statutes; the mem- 
bers of the court would be liable to chal- 
lenge on many grounds ; and the accused 
might claim that he could only be convicted 
when the evidence makes the fact clear be- 
yond reasonable doubt, instead of by a pre- 
ponderance of the evidence. The fact that 
in this case the Chief Justice presides, it 
was argued, does not constitute the Senate 
thus acting a court, for in all cases of im- 
peachment, save that of the President, its 
regular presiding officer presides. Moreo- 
ver, the procedures have no analogy to 
those of an ordinary court of justice. The 
accused merely receives a notice of the 
case pending against him. He is not re- 



IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JuIINSON, 



185 



quired to appear personally, ami the case 
will go on without his pieseiuc. Mr. 
Butler thus summed up his position in this 
regard : 

'' A constitutional tribunal solely, you 
are bountl by no law, either statute or com- 
mon, which may limit your constitutional 
prerogative. You consult no i)reccdcnts 
save those of the law and custom of par- 
liamentary bodies. You are a law unto 
yourselves, bound only by the natural 
principles of equity and justice, and that 
salus popiili siiprema est hx." 

Mr. Butler then proceeded to consider 
the articles of impeachment. The first 
eight, he says, "set out. in several distinct 
forms, the acts of the iTesident in remov- 
ing Mr. Stanton and appointing General 
Thomas, differing, in lej^al effect, in the 
purposes for which, and the inti'nt with 
which, either or both of the acts were 
done, and the legal duties and rights in- 
fringed, and the Acts of Congress violated 
in so doing." In respect to all of these 
articles, Mr. Butler says, referring to his 
former definition of what constituted an 
impeachable high crime : 

" All the articles allege these acts to be 
in contravention of his oath of office, and 
in disregard of the duties thereof. If they 
are so, however, the President might have 
the power to do them under the law. Still, 
being so done, they are acts of official mis- 
conduct, and, as we have seen, impeacha- 
ble. The President has the legal power to 
do many acts which, if done in disregard 
of his duty, or for improper purposes, then 
the exercise of that power is an official 
misdemeanor. For example, he has the 
power of pardon ; if exercised, in a given 
case, for a corrupt motive, as for the pay- 
ment of money, or wantonly pardoning all 
criminals, it would be a misdemeanor." 

^Ir. Butler affirmed that every fact 
charged in the first article, and substan- 
tially in the seven following, is admitted 
in the reply of the President; and also 
that the general intent to set aside the 
Tenure-of-Office Act is therein admitted 
and justified. He then proceeded to dis- 
cuss the whole question of the poM'er of 
the President for removals from office, and 
especially his claim that this power was 
imposed upon the President by the Consti- 
tution, and that it could not be taken from 
him, or be vested jointly in him and the 
Senate, partly or in whole. This, Mr. 
Butler affirmed, was the real question at 
issue before the Senate and the American 
people. He said : 

" Has the President, under the Constitu- 
tion, the more than royal prerogative at 
will to remove from office, or to suspend 
from office, all executive officers of^ the 
United States, either civil, military or 
naval, and to fill the vacancies, without 
any restraint whatever, or possibility of re- 



straint, by the Senate or by Congress, 
through laws duly enacted? The House 
of Rejiresentatives, in behalf of the people, 
join issue by affirming that tiie exercise of 
such powers is .i high misdemeanor in 
office. If the affirmative is maintained by 
the respondent, then, so far as the first 
eight articles are concerned — unless such 
corrupt purposes are slir)wn iis will of 
themselves make the exercise of a legal 
l)ower a crime — the respondent must gft, 
and ought to go, cjuit and free. 

This point as to the legal right of the 
President to make removals from office, 
which constitutes the real burden of the 
articles of impeachment, was argued at 
length. Mr. Butler assumed that the Sen- 
ate, by whom, in conjunction with the 
House, the Tenure-of-Office Act had been 
passed over the veto of the President, 
would maintain the law to be constitu- 
tional. The turning point was whether 
the special case of the removal of Mr. 
Stanton came within the provisions of this 
law. This rested upon the proviso of that 
law, that — 

" The Secretaries shall hold their office 
during the term of the President by whom 
they may have been appointed, and for 
one month thereafter, subject to removal 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate." 

The extended argument upon this point, 
.iiade by 3Ir. Butler, was to the effect that 
Mr. Stanton having been appointed by Mr. 
LincolUj whose term of office reached to 
the 4th of March, 1869, that of Mr. Stanton 
existed until a month later, unless he was 
previously removed by the concurrent ac- 
tion of the President and Senate. The 
point of the argument is, that Mr. Johnson 
is merely serving out the balance of the 
term of Mr. Lincoln, cut .short by his as- 
sassination, so that the Cabinet officers ap- 
pointed by Mr. Lincoln held their places, 
by this very proviso, during that term and 
for a month thereafter; for, he argued, if 
Mr. Johnson was not merely serving out 
the balance of Mr. Lincoln's term, then he 
is entitled to the office of President for four 
full years, that being the period for which 
a President is elected. If, continues the 
argument, Mr. Stanton's commission was 
vacated by the Tenure-of-Office Act, it 
ceased on the 4th of April, 1865; or, if the 
act had no retroactive effect, still, if ^Ir. 
Stanton held his office merely under his 
commission from Mr. Lincoln, then his 
functions would have ceased upon the 
passage of the bill, March 2, 1867; and, 
consequently, Mr. Johnson, in "employ- 
ing" him after that date as Secretary of 
War, was guilty of a hi^h misdemeanor, 
which woidd give ground for a new arti- 
cle of impeachment. 

After justifying the course of Mr. Stan- 
ton in holding on to the secretaryship in 



186 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



opposition to the wish of the President, 
on the ground that " to desert it now 
would be to imitate the treachery of his 
accidental chief," Mr. Butler proceeded to 
discuss the reasons assigned by the Presi- 
dent in his answer to the articles of im- 
peachment for the attempt to remove Mr. 
Stanton. These, in substance, were, that 
the President believed the Tenure-of-Of- 
fice Act was unconstitutional, and, there- 
lore, void and of no efiect, and that he 
bad the right to remove him and a])point 
iiQother person in his place. Mr. Butler 
urged that, in all of these proceedings, the 
President professed to act upon the as- 
sumption that the act was valid, and that 
his action was in accordance with its pro- 
visions. He then went on to charge that 
the appointment of General Thomas as 
Secretary of War ad interim, was a sepa- 
rate violation of law. By the act of Feb- 
ruary 20, 1863, which repealed all previous 
laws inconsistent with it, the President 
was authorized, in case of the " death, 
resignation, absence from the seat of Gov- 
ernment, or sickness of the head of an 
executive department," or in any other 
case where these officers could not perform 
their resjjective duties, to appoint the head 
of any other executive department to ful- 
fil the duties of the office "until a succes- 
sor be appointed, or until such absence or 
disability shall cease." Now, urged Mr. 
Butler, at the time of the appointment of 
General Thomas as Sectary of War ad 
interim, Mr. Stanton "had neither died 
nor resigned, was not sick nor absent," 
and, consequently, General Tliomas, not 
being the head of a department, but only 
of a bureau of one of them, was not eligi- 
ble to this appointment, and that, there- 
fore, his appointment was illegal and void. 

The ninth article of imiaeachment, 
wherein the President is charged with en- 
deavoring to induce General Emory to 
take orders directly from himself, is dealt 
with in a rather slight manner. Mr. But- 
ler says, "If the transaction set forth in 
this article stood alone, we might well ad- 
mit that doubts might arise as to the suffi- 
ciency of the proof;" but, he adds, " the 
surroundings are so pointed and signifi- 
cant as to leave no doubt in the mind of 
an impartial man as to the intents and 
purposes of the President" — these intents 
being, according to ]\Ir. Butler, "to induce 
General Emory to take orders directly 
from himself, and thus to hinder the exe- 
cution of the Civil Tenure Act, and to 
prevent Mr. Stanton from holding his 
office of Secretary of War." 

As to the tenth article of impeachment, 
based upon various speeches of the Presi- 
d(mt, IMr. Butler undertook to show that 
the reports of these speec^hes, as given in 
the article, were substantially correct; 
and accepted the issue made thereuijon as 



to whether they are " decent and becom- 
ing the President of the United States, 
and do not tend to bring the office into 
ridicule and disgrace." 

After having commented upon the 
eleventh and closing article, which chargea 
the President with having denied the au- 
thority of the Thirty-ninth Congress, ex- 
cept so far as its acts were approved by 
him, Mr. Butler summed up the purport 
of the articles of impeachment in these 
words : 

" The acts set out in the first eight arti- 
cles are but the culmination of a series of 
wrongs, malfeasances, and usurpations 
committed by the resjiondent, and, there- 
fore, need to be examined in the light of 
his precedent and concomitant acts to 
grasp their scope and design. The last 
three articles presented show the perver- 
sity and malignity with which he acted, 
so that the man as he is known may be 
clearly spread upon record, to be seen and 

known of all men hereafter 

We have presented the facts in the con- 
stitutional manner ; we have brought the 
criminal to your bar, and demand judg- 
ment for his so great crimes." 

The remainder of Monday, and a por- 
tion of the following day, were devoted to 
the presentation of documentary evidence 
as to the proceedings involved in the order 
for the removal of Mr. Stanton and the 
appointment of General Thomas. The 
prosecution' then introduced witnesses to 
testify to the interviews between Mr. 
Stanton and General Thomas. They then 
brought forward a witness to show that 
General Thomas had avowed his deter- 
mination to take forcible possession of the 
War Office. To this Mr. Stanbery, for the 
defense, objected. The Chief Justice de- 
cided the testimony to be admissible. 
Thereupon Senator Drake took exception 
to the ruling, on the ground that this ques- 
tion should be decided by the Senate — not 
by the presiding officer. The Chief Jus- 
tice averred that, in his judgment, it was 
his duty to decide, in the first instance, 
upon any question of evidence, and then, 
if any Senator desired, to submit the deci- 
sion to the Senate. Upon this objection 
and appeal arose the first conflict in the 
Senate as to the powers of its presiding 
officer. Mr. Butler argued at length in 
f:\vor of the exception. Although, in this" 
case, the decision was in favor of the 
prosecution, he objected to the power of 
the presiding officer to make it. This 
point was argued at length by the mana- 
gers for the impeachment, who denied the 
right of the Chief Justice to make such 
decision. It was then moved that the 
Senate retire for private consultation on 
this point. There was a tie vote — 25 ayes 
and 25 nays. — The Chief Justice gave his 
casting vote in favor of the motion for 



IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON, 



187 



<.'onsultiiti<tn. Tlu' .'^ciiate, Uy a vote of iU 
to l'.>, sustainetl tlie (."biff Justice, Uoiidiiif; 
that " the presiding offieer miiy rule on all 
questions of evidence and on incidental 
questions, which decision will stand as the 
judgment of the Senate for decision, or he 
niav, at his option in the lirst instance, 
snimiit any such ([uestion to a vote of the 
niciiihers of the Senate." In the further 
progress of the trial the Chief , Justice, in 
most important cases, submitted the iiucs- 
tion directly to the Senate, without him- 
self giving any decision. Next morning 
(April 1) Mr. Sumner offered a resolution 
to the etfect that the Chief Justice, in giv- 
ing a ca.sting vote, "acted without autlior- 
ity of the Constition of the United States." 
This wa.s negatived by a vote of 27 to 21, 
thus deciding that the presiding officer 
had the right to give a casting vote. 
The witness (Mr. Burleigh, delegate from 
Dakotah,) who had been called to prove 
declarations of General Thomas, was then 
asked whether, at an interview between 
them, General Thomas had said anything 
as " to the means by which he intended to 
olitain, or was directed by the President to 
olitain, posession of the War I)e|)artment.'' 
To this question Mr. Stanbery objected, on 
the ground that any statements made by 
* Jeneral Thomas could not be used as evi- 
dence against the President. Messrs. But- 
ler and Bingham argued that the testi- 
mony was admissible, on the ground that 
there was, as charged, a conspiracy be- 
tween the President and General Thomas, 
and that the acts of one conspirator were 
binding upon the other ; and, also, that in 
these acts General Thomas was the agent 
of the President. The Senate, by 39 to 11, 
decided that the question was admissible. 
Mr. Burleigh thereupon testified sub- 
stantially that General Thomas informed 
him that he had been directed by the Pres- 
ident to take possession of the War De- 
partment ; that he was bound to obey his 
superior ofticer; that, if Mr. Stanton ob- 
jected, he should use force, and if he bolt- 
ed the doors they would be broken down. 
The witness was then asked whether he 
had heard General Thomas make any 
statement to the clerks of the War Office, 
to the effect that, when he came into con- 
trol, he would relax or rescind the rules of 
Mr. Stanton. To this question o]')jection 
was nuide by the counsel of the President 
on the ground of irrelevancy. The Chief 
Justice was of opinion that the question 
was not admissible, but, if any Senator de- 
niaiuled, he would submit to the Senate 
whether it shoidd be asked. The demand 
having been made, the Senate, by a vote 
of 2X to 22, allowed the question to be put, 
whereupon :\Ir. Burleigh testified that 
General Thomas, in his presence, called 
before him the heads of the divisions, and 
told them that the rules laiil down bv Mr. 



Stanton were arbitrary, and that lie should 
relax them — that he shoultl not hold tlicm 
strictly to their letters of instruction, but 
should consider them as gentlemen who 
would dotheiriluty — that tliey could come 
in or go out when they chose. Mr. Bur- 
leigh further testified that, subsequently, 
Gi'neral Thomas had said to him that the 
only thing which prevented liim from tak- 
ing possession of the War Dcjiartment wa« 
his arrest by the United Slates marshal. 
Other witnesses were called to prove the 
declarations of General Thomas. Mr. 
VV'ilkeson testified that General Thomas 
said to him that he should demand possess- 
ion of the War Department, and, in caae 
Mr. Stanton should refuse to give it up, he 
should call ujjon General (Jrant for a suf- 
ficient force to enable him to do so, and he 
did not see how this could be refused. 
Mr. Karsener, of Delaware, testified that 
he saw CJeneral Thomas at the President's 
house, told him that Delaware, of which 
State General Thomas is a citizen, expect- 
ed him to stand firm ; to which General 
Thonnis replied that he was standing firm, 
that he would not disappoint his friends, 
but, that, in a few days, he wouhl " kick 
that fellow out," meaning, as the witness 
supposed, 3Ir. Stanton. 

Thursday, April 2d. — Various witnesses 
were introduced to testify to the occur- 
rences when General Thomas demanded 
possession of the War Department. After 
this General Emory was called to testify 
to the transactions which form the ground 
of the ninth article of impeachment. Ilis 
testimony was to the effect that tlie Presi- 
dent, on the 22d of February, requested 
him to call ; that, upon so doing, the Pres- 
ident asked respecting any changes that 
had been made in the disposition of the 
troo[)s around Washington ; that he in- 
formed the President that no important 
changes had been made, and that none 
coukl be made w'ithout an order from Gen- 
eral Grant, as provided for in an order 
founded upon a law sanctioned by the 
President. The President said that this 
law was unconstitutional. Emory replied 
that the President had approved of it, ami 
that it was not the prerogative of the officei"S 
of the army to decide upon the constitu- 
tionality of a law, andinthatoi)inion he was 
justified by the opinion of eminent counsel, 
and thereuiion the conversation ended. 

The j)rosecution then endeavored to in- 
troduce testimony as to the appointment 
of Mr. Edmund "Co(qier, the Private Sec- 
retary of the IVesident, as Assistant Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, \u sujqiort of the 
eighth and eleventh articles of impeach- 
ment, which charge the President with an 
unlawful attempt to control the disposition 
of certain pid)lic funds. This testimony, 
by a vote of 27 to 22, was ruled out. 

The prosecution now, in support of the 



166 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tenth and eleventh articles of impeach- 
ment, charging the President with endeav- 
oring to " set aside the rightful authority 
of Congress," offered a telegraphic dis- 
patch from the President to Mr. Parsons, 
at that time (January 17, 1867) Provisional 
Governor of Alabama, of which the follow- 
ing is the essential part: 

" I do not believe the people of the 
whole country will sustain any set of in- 
dividuals in the attempt to change the 
whole character of our Government by en- 
abling acts in this way. I believe, on the 
contrary, that they will eventually uphold 
all who have patriotism and courage to 
stand by the Constitution, and who place 
their confidence in the people. There should 
be no faltering on the part of those who 
are honest in their determination to sustain 
the several coordinate departments of the 
Government in accordance with its origi- 
nal design." The introduction of this was 
objected to by the counsel for the Presi- 
dent, but admitted by the Senate, the vote 
being 27 to 17. 

The whole Friday, and a great part of 
Saturday, (April 3d and 4th,) were occu- 
pied in the examination of the persons 
who reported the various speeches of the 
President which form the basis of the tenth 
article, the result being that the reports 
were shown to be either substantially or 
verbally accurate. Then, after some tes- 
timony relating to the forms in whidi 
commissions to office were made out, the 
managers announced that the case for the 
prosecution was substantially closed. The 
counsel for the President thereupon asked 
that three working days should be granted 
them to prepare for the defense. This, 
after some discussion, was granted by the 
Senate by a vote of 36 to 9, and the trial 
was adjouru'ed to Thursday, April 9th. 

THE DEFENSE. 

The opening speech for the defense, oc- 
cupying the whole of Thursday, and a 
part of Friday, was made by Mr. Curtis. 
Reserving, for a time, a rejoinder to Mr. 
Butler's argument as to the functions of 
the Senate when sitting as a Court of Im- 
peachment, Mr. Curtis proceeded to a con- 
sideration of the articles of impeachment, 
in their order, his purpose being "to ascer- 
tain, in the first place, what the substantial 
allegations in each of them are, what is the 
legal proof and effect of these allegations, 
and what prnoi' is necessary to be adduced 
in order to sustain thorn." The speech is 
substantially an elaboration of and argu- 
ment for the points embraced in the an- 
swer of the President. The main stress of 
the argument related to the first article, 
which, as stated by Mr. Curtis, when 
stripped of all technical language, amounts 
exactly to these things : 

" First. That the order set out in the ar- 



ticle for the removal of Mr. Stanton, if 
executed, would have been a violation of 
the Tenure-of-Ofiice Act. 

" Second. That it Avas a violation of the 
Tenure-of-Office Act. 

" Third. That it was an intentional vio- 
lation of the Tenure-of-Office Act. 

"Fourth. That it was in violation of the 
Constitution of the United States. 

^' Fifth. That it was intended by the 
President to be so.* 

" Or, to draw all these into one sentence, 
which I hope may be intelligible and clear 
enough, I suppose the substance of this 
first article is that the order for the remo- 
val of Mr. Stanton was, and was intended 
to be, a violation of the Constitution of 
the United States. These are the allega- 
tions which it is necessary for the honor- 
able managers to make out in order to 
support that article." 

Mr. Curtis proceeded to argue that the 
case of Mr. Stanton did not come within 
the provisions of the Tenure-of-Office Act, 
being expressly excepted by the proviso 
thai Cabinet officers should hold their 
places during the term of the President by 
whom they were appointed, and for one 
month thereafter, unless removed by the 
consent of the Senate. Mr. Stanton was 
ajjpointed by Mr. Lincoln, whose term of 
office came to an end by his death. He 
argued at length against the proposition 
that Mr. Johnson was merely serving out 
the remainder of Mr. Lincoln's term. The 
object of this exception, he said, was evi- 
dent. The Cabinet officers w^ere to be 
"the immediate confidential assistants of 
the President, for whose acts he was to be 
responsible, and in whom he was expect-ed 
to repose the gravest honor, trust, and con- 
fidence ; therefore it was that this act has 
connected the tenure of office of these offi- 
cers with that of the President by whom 
they were appointed." Mr. Curtis gave a 
new interpretation to that clause in the 
Constitution which prescribes that the 
President "may require the opinion, in 
writing, of the principal officer m each of 
the executive departments upon any sub- 
ject relating to the duties of their several 
offices." He understood that the word 
" their " included the President, so that he 
might call upon Cabinet officers for advice 
" relating to the duties of the office of these 
principal officers, or relating to the duties 
of the President himself." This, at least, 
he affirmed, had been the practical inter- 
pretation put upon this clause from the 
beginning. To confirm his position as to 
the intent of the Tenure-of-Office Act in 
this respect, Mr. Curtis quoted from 
sj)eeches made in both houses at the time 
when the act was passed. Thus, Senator 
Sherman said that the act, as passed — 

"W'luldnot prevent the present Presi- L 
dent from removing the Secretary of War, ■ | 



IMPEACHMENT TRIAL UE JdIINSUN. 



]H9 



thf ;:^c"ivt:iry ni' the Navy, or the Secretary 
of State ; and, it' I supposed that either of 
these gentlemen \va.s so waiitiu}^ in man- 
hood, iu honor, as to hokl Iiis place after 
the politest intimation from the President 
of the United States that his services were 
no longer needed, I certainly, as a Senator, 
would consent to his removal at any time, 
and so would we all.'' 

Mr. Curtis proceeded to argue that there 
was really no removal of .Mr. Stanton; he 
still held his place, and so (here was " no 
case of removal within the .statute, and, 
therefore, no case of violation by removal." 
But, if the Senate should hold that the or- 
der for removal was, in etlect, a removal, 
then, unless the Tenure-of-Office Act gave 
Mr. Stanton a tenure of othce, this removal 
would not have been contrary to the pro- 
visions of this act. He proceeded to argue 
that there was room for grave doubt 
whether Mr. Stanton's case came within 
the provisions of the Tenure-of-Office Act, 
and that the President, upon due conside- 
ration, and having taken the be-^t advice 
within bis power, considering that it did 
not, and acting accordingly, did not, even 
it he was mistaken, commit an act "so wil- 
ful and wrong that it can be justly and 
properly, and for the purposes of this 

Sosecution, termed a high misdemeanor." 
e argued at length that the view of the 
President was the correct one, and that 
" the Senate had nothing whatever to do 
with the removal of Mr. Stanton, whether 
the Senate was in .session or not." 

Mr. Curtis then went on to urge that the 
President, being sworn to take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed, must carry out 
any law, even though passed over his veto, 
except in cases where a law which he be- 
lieved to be unconstitutional has cut off a 
power confided to him, and in regard to 
which he alone could make an issue which 
would bring the matter before a court, so 
as to cause "a judicial decision to come 
between the two branches of the Govern- ! 
ment, to see which of them is right." This, 
said he, is what the President has done. 
This argument, in effect, was an answer to 
the first eight articles of impeachment. 

The ninth article, charging the Presi- 
dent with endeavoring to induce General 
Emory to violate the law by receiving or- 
ders directly from him, was very briefly 
touched upon, it being maintained that, as 
shown by the evidence, " the reason why 
the President sent for General Emory was 
not that he might endeavor to seduce that 
distinguished officer from his allegiance to 
the laws and Constitution of his country, 
but because he wished to obtain informa- 
tion about military movements which 
might require his personal attention." 

As to the tenth article, based upon the 
President's speeches, it was averred that 
they were in no way in violation of the 



Coastitution, or of any law exi.sting at the 
time when they were made, and were not 
therefore, impeachable offenst«. 

The rej)ly to the eleventh article wjus very 
brief. The managers had " compounded it 
of the materials which they had previously 
worked ui) into others," and it "contained 
nothing new that needed notice." Mr. 
Curtis concluded hissj)eech by saying that 
— "This trial is and will be the mi^st con- 
.sjiicuous instance that has ever been, or 
even can be exi)ected to be found, of 
American justice or of American injustice ; 
of that justice which is the great i)olicy of 
all civilized States; of that injustice which 
is certain to be condemned, which makes 
even the wisest man mad, and which, in 
the fixed and unalterable order of God's 
providence, is sure to return and plague 
the inventor." 

At the close of this opening speech for 
the defense. General Lorenzo Thomas was 
brought forward sis a witness. His testi- 
mony, elicited upon examination and cross- 
examination, was to the effect that, having 
received the order appointing him Secre- 
tary of War ad interim, he presented it to 
'*"'- Stanton, who asked. Do you wish 



Mr. 



me to vacate the office at once, or will you 
give me time to get my private property 
together?" to which Thomas replied, "Act 
your pleasure." Afterward Stanton said, 
" I don't know whether I will obey your 
instructions." Subsequently Thomas said 
that he should issue orders as Secretary of 
War. Stanton said he should not do so, 
and afterward gave him a written direc- 
tion, not to issue any order except as Ad- 
jutant-General. During the examination 
of General Thomas a question came up 
which, in many ways, recurred upon the 
trial. He was asked to tell what occurred 
at an interview between himself and the 
President. Objection was made by Mr. 
Butler, and the point was argued.' The 
question was submitted to tne Senate, 
which decided, by a vote of 42 to 10, that 
it was admissible. The testimony of Gen- 
eral Thomas, from this point, took a wide 
range, and, being mainly given in response 
to questions of counsel, was, apparently, 
somewhat contradictor}'. The substance 
was that he was recognized by the Presi- 
dent as Secretary of War ; that, since the 
impeachment, he had acted as such only 
in attending Cabinet meetings, but had 
given no orders ; that, when he reported to 
the President that Mr. Stanton would not 
vacate the War Department, the President 
directed him to " take possession of the 
office;" that, without orders from the 
President, he had intended to do this by 
force, if necessary ; that, finding that this 
course might involve bloodshed, he had 
abandoned this purpose, but that. at\er 
this, he had, in several cases, affirmed his 
purpose to do so, but that these declara- 



r.'o 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tions were " merely boast and brag." On 
the following day (reneral Thomas was re- 
called as a witness, to enable him to cor- 
rect certain points in his testimony. The 
first was the date of an unimportant trans- 
action ; he had given it as taking place on 
the 21st of February, whereas it should 
have been the 2 2d. The second was that 
the words of the President were that he 
should " take charge," not " take posses- 
sion " of the ^Var Department. In expla- 
nation of the fact that he had repeatedly 
sworn to the words " take possession," he 
said that these were " put into his mouth." 
Finally, General Thomas, in reply to a di- 
rect question from Mr. Butler, said that 
his testimony on these points was " all 
•wrong." 

Lieutenant-Gencral Sherman was then 
called as a witness. After some unim- 
portant questions, he was asked in refer- 
ence to an interview between himself and 
the President which took place on the 14th 
of January: "At that interview what 
conversation took place between the Presi- 
dent and you in reference to Mr. Stan- 
ton?" To this question objection was 
made by Mr. Butler, and the point was 
elaborately argued. The Chief Justice 
decided that the question was admissible 
within the vote of the Senate of the i)re- 
vious day ; the question then was as to the 
admissibility of evidence as to a conversa- 
tion between the President and General 
Thomas ; the present question was as to a 
conversation between the President and 
General Sherman. " Both questions," said 
the Chief Justice, " are asked for the pur- 
pose of procuring the intent of the Presi- 
dent to remove Mr. Stanton." The ques- 
tion being submitted to the Senate, it Avas 
decided, by a vote of 28 to 23, that it 
should not be admitted. The examina- 
tion of General Sherman was continued, 
the question of the conversation aforesaid 
being frequently brought forward, and as 
often ruled out by the Senate. The only 
important fact elicited was that the Presi- 
dent had twice, on the 25th and 80th of 
January, tendered to General Sherman the 
office of Secretary of War ad inferim. 

On Monday, Ajjril 13th, after transac- 
tions of minor importance, the general 
matter of the conversations between the 
President and General Sherman again 
came up, upon a question propounded by 
Senator Johnson — '' When the President 
tendered to you the office of Secretary 
of War ad hitcrini, did he, at the very 
time of making such tender, state to you 
what his purpose in so doing was ? " This 
was admitted by the Senate, by a vote of 
26 to 22. Senator Johnson then added to 
his question, " If he did, what did he state 
his purpose was? " This was admitted by 
a vote of 25 to 26. The testimony of Gen- 
eral Sherman, relating to several inter- 



views, wiis to the effect that the President 
said that the relations between himself and 
Mr. Stanton were such that he could not 
execute the office of President without 
making provision to appoint a Secretary 
of War ad interim, and he offered that 
office to him (General Sherman), but did 
not state that his purpose was to bring the 
matter directly into the courts. Sherman 
said that, if Mr. Stanton would retire, he 
might, although against his own wishes, 
undertake to adminisier the office ad 
interim, but asked what would be d(me in 
case Mr. Stanton would not yield. To- 
this the President replied, " He will 
make no opposition ; you present the or- 
der, and he will retire. I know him bet- 
ter than you do; he is cowardly." General 
Sherman asked time for reflection, and 
then gave a written answer, declining to 
accept the appointment, but stated that 
his reasons were mostly of a personal na- 
ture. 

On the 14th the Senate adjourned, on 
account of the sudden illness of Mr. Stan- 
bery. It re-assembled on the 15th, but 
the proceedings touched wholly upon for- 
mal points of procedure and the introduc- 
tion of unimportant documentary evidence. 
On the 16th Mr. Sumner moved that all 
evidence not trivial or obviously irrelevant 
shall be admitted, the Senate to judge of 
its value. This was negatived by a vote 
of 23 to 11. 

The 17th was mainly taken up by testi- 
mony as to the reliability of the reports of 
the President's speeches. Mr. Welles, Sec- 
retary of the Navy, was then called to tes- 
tify to certain proceedings in Cabinet 
Council at the time of the appointment of 
General Thomas. This was objected to. 
The Chief Justice decided that it was ad- 
missible, and his decision was sustained by 
a vote of 26 to 23. The defense then en- 
deavored to introduce several members of 
the Cabinet, to show that, at meetings ^^re- 
vious to the removal of Mr. Stanton, it 
was considered whether it was not desira- 
ble to obtain a judicial determination of 
the unconstitutionality of the Tenure-of- 
Office Act. This question was raised in 
several shapes, and its admission, after 
thorough argument on both sides, as often 
refused, in the last instance by a decisive 
vote of 30 to 19. The defense considered 
this testimony of the utmost importance, 
as going to show that the President had 
acted upon the counsel of his constitu- 
tional advisers, while the prosecution 
claimed that he could not plead in justifi- 
cation of a violation of the law that he 
had been advised by his Cabinet, or any 
one else, that the law was unconstitutional. 
His duty was to execute the laws, and, if 
he failed to do this, or violated them, he 
did so at his own risk of the consequences. 
With the refusal of this testimony, the 



GRANT. 



191 



caxc, ixtf[>i tlK'tiiml suiimiingH up uiul the I Senators IJayani, Uiiekaliw, Oavis, Dixon, 
yenliit of the Seuatf, was virliially tlosed. ' Doolittle, Fesseiuleri, Fowler, ( Jrimcs, Hen- 

The rase had been so fully stt forth in derson, lleiidriekH, Johnson, M'Creery, 
the ojteninj; speeches of Messrs. Hutler and | Norton, Patterson of IVnuessi-e, Ross, Sauls- 
Curtis, and in the arj^ununts which came j bury, 'rruMiliull. \'an Winkle and \Mckers. 
uj) ujton points of testiuKJiiy, that there | The C'onstilution retjuiring a vote of 
remained little for the other counsfl except j two-thirds to convict, the President was 
to restate what hacl bclore been said. acquitted on this article, .\fler Uikiug 

After the evidence had been closed the this vote the Court adjourned until Tues- 
case was suniiiu'd up, on the part of the | day, May '2i\t\i, when votes were taken 



nuinagers by Messrs. Boutwell, Williams, 
Stevens, and liini^ham in oral arguments. 
and Mr. Lop:an, who lile<l a written argu- 
ment, and on the part of the President by 
Messrs. Nelson, Groesbeek, Stanbery, and 
Kvarts. Many of these speeches were dis- 
tinguished by gre.it brilliancy and power, 
but, as no new points were presented, we 
omit any sumnuiry. 

The Court decided to take a vote upon 
the articles on Tuesday, the 12th of ]\Iay, 
at 12 o'clock, M. A secret session was 
held on Mt)iiday, during which several 
Senators made short ."speeches, giving the 
grounds upon which they expected to cast 
their votes. On Tuesday the Court agreeil 
to postpone the vote until Saturday, the 
IGtli. Upon that day, at 12 o'clock, a vote 
was taken ujion the eleventh article, it 
having been determined to vote on that 
article tirst. The vote resulted in 35 votes 
for conviction, and 19 ibr acquittal. 

The question being put to each Senator, 
" How say you, is the respondent, Andrew 
Johnson, l*resident of the United States, 
guilty or not guilty of a high misdemeanor 
as charged in the article?"' — those who re- 
sponded guilty were Senators Anthony, 
Cameron, Cattell, Chandler, Cole, Conk- 
ling, Conness, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Ed- 
munds, Ferry, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, 
Howard, Howe, Morgan, Morrill, of Ver- 
mont, Morrill, of Maine, O. P. Morton, 
Nye, Patterson, N. H. Pomeroy, Sherman, 
Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, 
Wade, Willey, Williams, Wilson and Yates. 

Those who responded not guilty were 



u|)on the second and third articles, with 
precisely the same residt as on the elev- 
enth, the vote in each c:use standing -V) for 
conviction and HMbr accjuittal. A verdict 
of acquittal on the second, third, and elev- 
enth articles was then ordered to hi' en- 
tered on the record, and, without voting 
on the other articles, the Court adjourned 
sine die. So the trial was ended, and the 
President acquitted. 

The political diflferenees between Presi- 
dent Johnson and the Republicans were 
not softened by the attempted impt'ach- 
ment, and singularly enough the failure of 
their effort did not weaken the Rej)ubli- 
eans as a party. They were so well united 
that those who disagreed with them passed 
at least temporarily from public life, some 
of the ablest, like Senators Trumbull and 
Fessenden retiring permanently. Presi- 
dent Johnson pursued his policy, save 
where he was hedged by Congress, until 
the end, and retired to his native State, ap- 
parently having regained the love of his 
early political associates there. 

Grant. 

The Republican National Convention 
met at Chicago, 111., May 20th, 18(58, and 
nominated with unanimity, Ulysses S. 
Grant, of Illinois, for President, and Schuy- 
ler Colfax, of Indiana, for Vice President. 
The Democratic Convention met in New 
York City, July 4th, and after repeated 
ballots finally compromised on its presiding 
officers,* notwithstanding repeated and ap- 



* The following is a correct table of the ballots in the New York Democratic Convention: 



Candidates. 



1. 



2. 



7. 



10. 



Horatio Seymour 

tieorge H. Pendleton I(i5 

Andrew Jolinson 65 

Wintield 8. Hancock 33V$ 

Sanford K Church 33 

Asa Packer 26 

Joel Parker ' 13 

James E. English ' 16 

James R. Doolittle 13 

Rpverdy Johnson S\4 

Thomas A. Hendricks 2\4 

F. P. Blair, Jr Vl 

Thomas Ewine .. 

J. Q. Adams.... ' .. 

George B. McClellan .. 

Salmon P. Chase 

Franklin Pierce 

John T. Hoffman 

Stephen J. Field i .. 

Thomas H. Seymour ' .. 



li'n'^ iisj^j 122 



40^ 

a3 



34 ^ 
45»-< 

:« ' 

26 
13 

12 
11 



2 
10V< 



32 i 24 
43 J^ I 46 



33 
26 
13 

12 
8 

2 
1 



S3 
27 
13 
7 
15 

19V 



1223^ 
21 
47 
33 
27 
13 
6 
12 

30 
6 



137U 
12i| 
42i| 
33 
26 

7 

6 
12 

39l< 



1561^ 
f. 
28 

26 

7 

6 
12 , 

7*6 



144 
34 •! 

2C^A 

7 

6 
12 

SOU 



m]4 

si i 

... I 

27 J^ 

7 ' 

12 
821 



il 



33>^ 

26 
7 

12^ 

88 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



parently decided declarations on his part, 
Horatio Seymour, of New York, was there- 
fore nominated for President, and Francis 
P. Bhiir, Jr., of Missouri, for Vice Presi- 
dent.* 

An active canvass followed, in which the 
brief expression — " let us have peace" — in 
Grant's letter of acceptance, was liberally 
employed by Republican journals and ora- 
tors to tone down what were regarded as 
rapidly growing race and sectional difter- 
erences, and with such effect that Grant 
carried all of the States save eight, receiv- 
ing an electoral vote of 214 against 80. 

Grant inaugurated, and the Congres- 
sional plan of reconstruction was rajndly 
pushed, with at first very little opposition 
save that manifested by the Democrats in 
Congress. The conditions of readmissi(<n 
were the ratification of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth constitutional amendments. 

On the 25th of February, 1869, the fif- 
teenth amendment was added to the list by 
its adojition in Congress and submission to 
the States. It conferred the right of suf- 
frage on all citizens, without distinction of 
" race, color or previous condition of servi- 
tude." By the 30th of March, 1870, it was 
ratified by twenty-nine States, the required 
three-fourths of all in the Union. There 
was much local agitation in some of the 
Northern States on this new advance, and 
many wIkj had never manifested their hos- 
tility to the negroes before did it now, and 
a portion of these passed over to the Demo- 
cratic party. The issue, however, was 
shrewdly handled, and in most instances 
met Legislatures ready to receive it. Many 
of the Southern States were specially inter- 
ested in its passage, since a denial of suf- 
frage would abridge their representation in 
Congress. This was of course true of all 
the States, but its force was indisputable 
in sections containing large colored popu- 
lations. 



The 41st Congress met in extra session 
March 4th, 1869, with a large Republican 
majority in both branches. In the Senate 
there were 58 Republicans, 10 Democrats 
and 8 vacancies ; in the House 149 Repub- 
licans, 64 Democrats and 25 vacancies, 
Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Georgia 
not being represented. James G. Blaine, 
for several years previous its leading parlia- 
mentarian and orator, was Speaker of the 
House. All of Grant's nominations for 
Cabinet places were confirmed, except A. 
T. Stewart, of New York, nominated for 
Secretary of the Treasury, and being en- 
gaged in foreign commerce he was ineligi- 
ble under the law, and his name was with- 
drawn. The names of the Cabinet will be 
found in the list of all Cabinet officers 
elsewhere given. Their announcement at 
first created the impression that the C^rant 
administration was not intended to be par- 
tisan, rather personal, but if there ever 
was such a purpose, a little political ex- 
perience on the partof the President quick- 
ly changed it. A political struggle soon 
followed in Congress as to the admission of 
Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, which had 
not ratified the Fourteenth Amendment or 
been reconstructed. A bill was passed 
April 10th, authorizing their people to 
vote on the constitutions already prejjared 
by the State conventions, to elect members 
of Congress and State officers, and requir- 
ing before readmission to the Union, their 
Legislatures to ratifv both the Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth Amendments. This work 
done, and the extra session adjourned. 

In all of the Southern States, those who 
then prided themselves in being "unrecon- 
structed" and "irreconcilable," bitterly 
opposed both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
Amendments, and on these issues excited 
new feelings of hostility to the " carpet 
baggers" and negroes of the South. With 
th« close of the war thousands of North- 



Candidates. 



Horatio Seymour 

'ieorge H. Pendleton... 

Andrew .lohnson 

Winfield S. Hancoclv... 

Siinford E. Church 

A^a Paclier 

.Joel Parker 

James E. Enfrlish 

.James K. Doolittle 

Reverdy John.son 

Thomai A. Hendricks. 

F. P. Blair, Jr 

Thomas Ewing 

J. Q. Adams 

George B. McClellan.... 

Salmon P. Chase 

Franklin Pierce 

John T. HofTman 

Stephen J. I-'ield 

ThoiDa.s H. Seymour... 



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142M 


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Necessary to choice 212 

• Qeneral Blair was nominated unanimously on the first ballot. 



READMISSION OF REBELLIOUS STATES. 



193 



em men hml spttlcd in the South. All of 1 
them were now denomici d as political ad- 
venturers by tlie ri'bels who opposi-d tiie 
amendments, reL'oustruction ami frfednian's 
bureau acts. Many of these ori^ani/.eil 
themselves tiist into Ku Klnx K Ian-*, secret 
BOcietics, organized with a view to allVight 
necroes (Voni particii)ancy in the elections, 
anil to warn white men of opposing politi- 
cal view-* to leave the country. The object 
of the or^'anization broadened with the 
troubles whiih it produced. Elforts to 
afrriu;ht were followetl by midnifrht assaults, 
by horrible whippin<2;9, outratres and mur- 
ders, hardly a traction of which could be 
traced to the perpetrators. Doubtless 
many of the stories current at the time 
were exaegerared by partisan newspapers, 
but all of the ollicial reports made then 
and since go to sh')W the dangerous exces- 
ses which political and race hostilities 
may reach. In Georgia the whites, by 
these agencies, soon gained absolute politi- 
cal control, and this they used with more 
wisdom than in most Southern States, for 
under the advice of men like Stevens and 
Hill, they passed laws providing for free 
public schools, etc., but carefully guarded 
their newly acquired jiower by also passing 
tax laws which virtually disfranchised more 
than h:df the blacks. Later on, several 
Southern States imitated this form of po- 
litical sagacity, and soon those in favor of 
"a white man's government," (the ])()pular 
battle cry of the period) had undisputed 
control in Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Arkansa-s and Texas — States which the Re- 
publicans at one time had reason to believe 
they could control. 



The Enforcement Act«. 

To rcpresj the Ku Klux outrages, Con- 
gre-ss in May 81, 1870, passed an act giving 
to the I'resident all needed powers to pro- 
tect the frcedmen in their newly acquired 
rights, and to punish the perpetrators of 
all outr iges, whether upon whites or blacks. 
This was called in Congress the Enforce- 
ment Act, and an Amendatory Enforce- 
ment Act was inserted in the Sundry Civil 
Bill, June 10, 1872. The Ku Klux Act 
wad passed Ajiril 20, 187L All of these 
measures were strongly advocated by Sena- 
tor Oliver P. Morton, who through this 
advocacy won new political distinction as 
the special champion of the rights of the 
blacks. Later on .James G. Blaine, then 
the admitted leader of the House, opposed 
Bomc of the supplements for its better en- 
forcement, and to this fact is traceable the 
refusal on the part of the negroes of the 
South to give him th\t warm support as a 
Presidential candidate which his high abili- 
ties commanded in other sections. 

The several Enforcement Acts and their 
supplements are too voluminous for inser- 
13 



tion here, and they are of little we nave as 
relics of the bitter days of reconstruction. 
Tiiey have little force now, althougli some 
of tiicni still stand. They became a dead 
letter after the defeat of the " carpet-bag 
governments," but the I're-ident cnforce<l 
them as a rule with moderation an<l wisdom. 
The enforcement of the Ku Klux Act 
led to the disbanding of that oiganization 
after the trial, arrest and conviction of 
many of the leaders. These trials brought 
out the facts, and awakened many Sf)uth- 
ern minds, theretofore iHcredulons, to the 
enormity of the secret political crime< 
which had been committed in all theSouth- 
ern States, and for a time popular senti- 
ment even in the South, and amongst for- 
mer rebel soldiers, ran strongly against the 
Klan. With fresh political excitements, 
however, fresh means of intimidation were 
employed at elections. Rifle clubs were 
formed, notably in South Carolina and 
Mississippi, while in Louisiana the " White 
League sprang into existence, and was 
organized in all of the neighboring States. 
These were more difficult to deal with. 
They were open organizations, created un- 
der the semblance of State militia acts. 
They became very popular, especially 
among the younger men, and from this 
time until tbe close of the Presidential 
election in 1876, were potent factors in 
several Southern States, and we shall have 
occasion further on to describe their more 
important movements. 



Readmlsslon of Rebellious States. 

Before the close of 18(39 the Supreme 
Court, in the case of Texas vs. White, sus- 
tained the constitutionality of the Recon- 
struction acts of Congress. It held that 
the ordinances of secession had been " ab- 
solutely null ; " that the seceding States 
had no right to secede and had never been 
out of the LTnion, but that, during and 
after their rebellion, they had no govern- 
ments " competent to represent these St^ites 
in their relations Avith the National gov- 
ernment," and therefore Congress had the 
power to re-establish the relations of any 
rebellious State to the Union. This de- 
cision fortified the position of the Repub- 
licans, and did much to aid President 
Grant in the difficult work of reconstruc- 
tion. It modified the assaults of the Dem- 
ocrats, and in some measure changed their 
purpose to make Reconstruction the pivot 
around which smaller political issues 
should revolve. 

The regular session of the 41st Congress 
met Dec. 4th. 1869, and before its close 
Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and Mississippi 
had all complied with the conditions of re- 
construction, and were re-admitted to the 
Union. This practically completed the 
work of reconstruction. To summarize : — 



194 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Tennessee was re-admitted July 24th, 
18(JG; Arkansas, June 22d, 1868; North 
Carolina, ISouth Carolina, Louisiana, 
Georgia and Florida under the act of June 
25th, 18G8, which provided that as soon as 
they fullilled the conditions imposed by 
the acts of March, li 67, they should be re- 
admitted. All did this promptly except 
Georgia. Virginia was re-admitted Jan- 
uarv"2oth, lS70; Mississippi, Feb. 23d, 
1870 ; Texas, March 30th, 1870. Georgia, 
the most powerful and stubborn of all, had 
passed State laws declaring negroes incapa- 
ble of holding office, in addition to what 
was known as the "black code," and Con- 
gress relused full a<lmission until she had 
revoked the laws and ratified the 15th 
Amendment. The State finally came back 
into the Union July 15th, 1870. 

The above named States completed the 
ratification of the 15th amendment, and 
the powers of reconstruction were plainly 
used to that end. Some of the Northern 
States had held back, and for a time its 
ratification by the necessary three-fourths 
was a matter of grave doubt. Congress 
next passed a bill to enforce it, May 30th, 
1870. This made penal any interlerence, 
by force or fraud, with the right of free 
and full manhood suffrage, and authorized 
the President to use the army to prevent 
violations. The measure was generally 
supported by the Republicans, and opposed 
by all of the Democrats. 

The Republicans through other guards 
about the ballot by passing an act to 
amend the naturalization laws, which made 
it penal to use false naturalization papers, 
authorized the appointment of Federal 
supervisors of elections in cities of over 
20,000 inhabitants ; gave to these power of 
arrest for any offense committed in their 
view, and gave alien Africans the right to 
naturalize. The Democrats in their oppo- 
sition laid particular stress upon the extra- 
ordinary powers given to Federal super- 
visors, while the Republicans charged that 
Seymour had carried New York by gigan- 
tic natnralization frauds in New York city, 
and sought to sustain these charges by the 
unprecedented vote polled. A popular 

? notation of the time was from Horace 
Jreeley, in the New York Ti-ilmne, who 
showed that under the manipulations of 
the Tweed ring, more votes had been cast 
for Seymour in one of the warehouse wards 
of the city, "than there were men, women, 
children, and cats and dogs in it." 



The Le;;al Tender Decision. 

The Act of Congress of 1862 had made 
" greenback " notes a legal tender, and they 
passed <as such until 1869 against the pro- 
tests of the Democrats in Congress, who 
had questioned the right of Congress to 
isBue paper money. It was on this issue 



that Thaddcus Stevens admitted the Re- 
publicans were travelling " outside of the 
constitution " with a view to preserve the 
government, and this soon became one of 
his favorite ways of meeting partisan ob- 
jections to war measures. At the Decem- 
ber term of the Supreme Court, in 1869, a 
decision was rendered that the action of 
Congress was unconstitutional, the Court 
then being accidentally Democratic in its 
composition. The Republicans, believing 
they could not afford to have their favorite, 
and it must be admitted most uselul finan- 
cial measure questioned, secured an in- 
crease of two in the number of Supreme 
Justices— one under a law creating an ad- 
ditional Justiceship, the other in place of 
a Justice who had resigned — and in March, 
1870, after the complexion of the Court 
had been changed through Republican ap- 
pointments made by President Grant, the 
constitutionality of the legal tender act 
was again raised, and, with Chief Justice 
Chase (who had been Secretary of the 
Treasury in 1862 presiding) the previous 
decision was reversed. This was clearly a 
partisan struggle before the Court, and on 
the part of the Republicans an abandon- 
ment of old landmarks imjiressed on the 
country by the Jackson Democrats, but it 
is plain that without the greenbacks the 
war could not have been pressed with half 
the vigor, if at all. Neither party was 
consistent in this struggle, for Southern 
Democrats who sided with their North- 
ern colleagues in the plea of uncon- 
stitutionality, had when "out of the 
Union," witnessed and advocated the issue 
of the same class of money by the Con- 
federate Congress. The difference was 
only in the ability to redeem, and this 
ability depended upon success in arms — ■, 
the very thing the issue was designed to )i 
promote. The last decision, despite its i 
partisan surroundings and opposition, soon i 
won popularity, and this [popularity waa ^ 
subsequently taken as the groundwork for ri 
the establishment of 

The GreenhacU Party. 

This party, with a view to ease the 
rigors of the monetary panic of 1873, ad- 
vocated an unlimited issue of greenbacks, i 
or an " issue based upon the resources of '; 
the country." So vigorously did dis- 
contented leaders of both parties press this 
idea, that they soon succeeded indemoral- , 
izing the Democratic minority —which j 
was by this time such a plain minority, ' 
and so greatly in need of new issues to 
make the people forget the war, that it is 
not surprising they yielded, at least par- 
tially, to new theories and alliances. The 
present one took them away from the 
principles of Jackson, from the hard- 
money theories of the early days, and would 
land them they knew not where, nor did 



THE GREENBACK PARTY. 



195 



m;iny of thorn caro, if thoy coiikl once 
more get ui)on their feet. Soino resisted, 
and coinpanitively few of the Demoenits 
in the Mid«lle Stiites yiekk'd, hut in part 
of New EiighiTid, tlie great We-st, and 
nearly all of the South, it w:us for several 
years (juite ditfuult to draw a line hetween 
fcrreenbai'kers and Democrats. Some Re- 
publieans, too, who had tire<l of the "old 
war is.saes," or diseontentcd with the man- 
agement and leadership of their party, 
aided in the eonstrui-tion of the (Jreeii- 
baek bridge, and kept upon it as long as it 
was safe to do so. In State elections uji 
to a3 late as ISSO this (Irccnhaek element 
was a most important factor. Ohio was 
carried by an allianeeof Greenbackers and 
Democrats, Allen being elected Governor, 
only to be supplanted by Hayes (after- 
wards Pre-sident) after a most remarkable 
contest, the alliance favoring the Green- 
back, the Republicans not quite the hard- 
money, but a redeemable-in-gold theory. 
Indiana, always doubtful, passed over to 
the Democratic column, while in the 
Southern States the Democratic leaders 
made open alliances until the Greenback- 
ers became over-coniident and sought to 
win Congressional and State elections on 
their own merits. They fancied that the 
desire to re[)udiate ante-war debts would 
greatly aid them, and they openly advo- 
cated the idea of repudiation there, but 
they had experienced and wise leaders to 
cope with. They were not allowed to 
mononolize this issue by the Democrats, 
and their arrogance, if such it may be 
called, wius punished by a more complete 
assertion of Democratic power in the South 
than was ever known before. The theory 
in the South wa.s welcomed where it would 
suit the Democracy, crushed where it 
would not, as shown in the Presidential 
election of 1880, when Garfield, Hancock 
and Weaver (Greenbacker) were the can- 
didates. The latter, in his stumping tour 
of the South, proclaimed that he and his 
friends were o-s much maltreated in Ala- 
bama and other States, ;is the Republicans, 
and for some cause thereafter (the Demo- 
crat<i alleged "a bargain and sale") he 

r>ractically threw his aid to the Repub- 
icans — this when it became apparent that 
the Greenbackers, in the event of the elec- 
tion going to the House, could have no 
chance even there. 

Gen'l Weaver went from the South to 
Maine, the scene of what was regarded at 
that moment as a pivotiil struggle for the 
Presidency. Blaine had twice been the 
most prominent candidate for the Presi- 
dency— 1876 and 1880— and had both 
times been defeated by compromise candi- 
dates. He was still, as he had been for 
many years, Chairman of the Republican 
State Committee of Maine, and now as 
•ver before swallowed the mortification of 



defeat with true political grace. The 
Greenbackers had tlie year before formed 
a close alliance with the Democrats, and 
in the State election made the result »u 
close that for many weeks it remained a 
matter of doubt who was elected (iovcrnor, 
the Democratic Greenijacker or the Rc- 
I)ublican. A struggle lollowed in the 
Legislature and before the Returning 
[{oard composed of State oflicers, who 
were Democrats, (headed by Gov. Gar- 
celon) and sought to throw out returns on 
slight technii-alities. Finally the Repub- 
licans won, but not without a struggle 
which excited attentiou all over the Union 
and commanded the j)resence of the Skite 
militia. Following Garfield's uominatioa 
another struggle, its we have stated, was 
inaugurated, with Davis as the Repul)lican 
nominee for Governor, Plaisted the Demo- 
cratic-Groenback, (the latter a firmer Re- 
publican). All eyes now turned to Maine, 
which voted in September. Gen'l Weaver 
was on the stump then, as tlie Greenback 
candidate for President, and all of his 
efforts were bent to breaking the alliance 
between the Greenbackers and Demo- 
crats. 

He advocated a straight-out policy f)r his 
Greenback friends,-described his treatment 
in the South, and denounced the Demo- 
cracy with such plainness that it disi)layed 
his purpose and defeated his object. 
Plaisted was elected bv a close vote, and 
the Republicans yielded after some threats 
to invoke the "' Garceloa precedents." 
This wius the second Democratic-Green- 
back victory in Maine, the first occurring 
two years before, when through an alli- 
ance in the Legislature (no candidate 
having received a majority of all the popu- 
lar vote) Garland was returned. 

The victory of Plaisted alarmed the Re- 
publicans and enthused the Democrats, 
who now denounced Wi-aver, but still 
sought alliance with his followers. Gene- 
ral B. F. Butler, long a brilliant Republi- 
can member of Congress from Massachu- 
setts, for several years adv(K:ated Green- 
l)ack ideas without breaking Irom his Re- 
publican Congressional colleagues. Be- 
cause of this fact he lost whatever of 
chance he had for a Republican nominatioa 
for Governor, "his only remaining ]>oliti- 
cal ambition," and thereupon headed th-e 
Greenbackers in Massachusetts, and in 
spite of the protests of the hard-money 
DemocratvS in that State, captured the De- 
mocratic organization, and after these tac- 
tics twice ran for Governor, and was de- 
feateil both times by the Republicans, 
though he succeeded, upon State ana 
"anti-blue blood'' theories, in greatly re- 
ducing their majoritv. In the winter of 
1882 he still held control of the Demo- 
cratic State Committee, after the Green- 
back organization had passed from viev, 



196 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



and " what will he do next?" is one of the 
political questions of the hour. 

The Greenback labor party ceased all 
Congressional alliance with the Democrats 
after tlieir quarrel with General Weaver, 
and as late as the 47th session — 1881-82 — 
refused all alliance, and abstained from 
exercising what some still believe a " bal- 
ance of power " in the House, though 
nearly half of their number were elected 
more as Kepublicans than Greenbackers. 

As a party, the Greenbackers, standing 
alone, never carried either a State or a 
Congressional district. Their local suc- 
cesses were due to alliances with one or 
other of the great parties, and with the 
passage of the panic they dissolved in 
many sections, and where they still obtain 
it is in alliance with labor unions, or in 
strong mining or workingmen's districts. 
In the Middle States they won few local 
successes, but were strong in the coal 
regions of Pennsylvania. Advocates of 
similar theories have not been wanting in 
all the countries of Western Europe follow- 
ing great wars or panics, but it was re- 
served to the genius of Americans to estab- 
lisfh an aji;gressive political party on the 
basis of theories which all great political 
economises have from the beginning an- 
tagonized as unsafe and unsound. 



Tlic Prohiljltory Party. 

The attempt to establish a third party in 
the Greenback, begot that to establish a 
National Prohibitory Party, which in 1880 
ran James Black of Pennsylvania, as a 
candidate for the Presidency, and four 
years previous ran Neal Dow of Maine. 
He, however, commanded little attention, 
and received but sparsely scattered votes 
in all tlie States. The sentiment at the 
base of this party never thrived save as in 
States, particularly in New England, where 
it souglit to impress itself on the prevail- 
ing political party, and through it to influ- 
ence legislation. Neal Dow of Maine, first 
advocated a prohibitory law, and by his 
eloquent advocacy, secured that of Maine, 
which has stood for nearly thirty years. 
That of Ma-^sachusctts has recently been 
repealed. The prohibitory amendment to 
the Constitution of Kansas was adopted in 
1881, etc. The Prohibitory Party, how- 
ever, never accomplii^hed anything by sep- 
arate political action, and though fond of 
nominating candidates for State and local 
ofliccrs, has not as yet succeeded in hold- 
ing even a balance of power between the 
political parties, though it has often con- 
fused political calculations as to results in 
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecti- 
cut, Massachusetts, etc. It seems never to 
have taken hold in any of the Southern 
States, and comparatively little in the 



Western, until the whole country was sur- 
prised in 1880 by the passage of the Kan- 
sas amendment by over 20,000 majority in 
a vote of the people invoked by the Legis- 
lature. An effort followed to submit a sim- 
ilar amendment through the Pennsylvania 
Legislature in 1881. It passed the House 
by a large majority, but after discussion in 
the Senate, and amendments to indemnify 
manufacturers and dealers in liquor (an 
amendment which would cripple if it would 
not bankrupt the State) was adopted. Gov- 
ernor St. John of Kansas, a gentleman fond 
of stumping for this amendment, insists 
that the results are good in his State, while 
its enemies claim that it has made many 
criminals, that liquor is everywhere smug- 
gled and sold, and that the law has turned 
the tide of immigration away from that great 
State. The example of Kansas, however, 
will probably be followed in other States, 
and the Prohibitory Party will hardly pass 
from view until this latest experiment hat* 
been fairly tested. It was also the author 
of " Local Option," which for a time swept 
Pennsylvania, but was repealed by a large 
majority after two years' trial. 



Annexation of San Domingo. 

The second session of the 41st Congress i 
began December 5th, 1870. With all of ' 
the States represented, reconstruction be- 
ing complete, the body was now divided 
politically as follows : Senate, 61 Eepub- 
licans, 13 Democrats ; House 172 Republi- 
cans, 71 Democrats. President Grant's an- 
nual message discussed a new question, li 
and advocated the annexation of San Do- 
mingo to the United States. A treaty had 
been negotiated between President Grant 
and the President of the Republic of San 
Domingo as early as September 4th, 1869, 
looking to annexation, but it had been re- ! 
jected by the Senate, Charles Sumner be- ' 
ing jirominent in his opposition to the 
measure. He and Grant experienced a 
growing personal unpleasantness, because i, 
of the President's attempt to negotiate a 
treaty without consulting Mr. Sumner, who 
was Chairman of the Committee on For- 
eign Affairs, and it was charged that 
through the influence of the President he 
was removed by the Republican caucus 
from this Chairmanship, and Senator Si- 
mon Cameron put in his place. Whether 
this was true or not, the differences be- j 
tween Grant and Sumner were universally 
remarked, and Sumner's imperious pride 
led him into a very vindictive assault up- 
on the proposition. Grant gave few othei 
reasons for annexation than military ones 
suggested that as a naval station it woulc 
facilitate all home operations in the Gulf 
while in the hands of a foreign power, n 
the event of war, it would prove the depo 
for many and dangerous warlike prepa 



THE FORCE BILL. 



107 



riitioris. The qucatioa had little politiojil 
BignifKvance, it' it was ever ilesigiicd to have 
aiiy, and this second uttcinpt to bring tlie 
Bchcinc to the attention of Congress, was 
that a joint resokition (as in tiie annexa- 
tion of Texa.s) might be passed. This 
would require but a majority, but the ob- 
jection Wiis met that no Territory could be 
annexed without a treaty, and this must 
be ratified by two-thirds of tlie Senate. A 
middle course was taken, and the IVcsi- 
dent was authorized to aojioint three Com- 
missioners to visit San Domingo and as- 
certain the desires of its people. These 
reported favorably, but the subject was 
finally dropi)ed, probably because the pro- 
position could not command a two-thirds 
vote, and has not since attracted attention. 



Anivndatorjr Enforcement Act«. 

The operation of the loth Amendment, 
being still resisted or evaded in portions 
of the South, an Act was passed to enforce 
it. This extended the powers of the Fed- 
eral supervisors and marshals, authorized 
in the first, and gave the Federal Circuit 
Courts exclusive jurisdiction of all cases 
tried under the provisions of the Act and 
its supplements. It also empowered these 
Courts to punish any State officer who 
should attempt to interfere witli or try 
such ca.scs as in contempt of the Court's 
jurisdiction. The Republicans sustained, 
the Democrats opposed the measure, but 
it was passed and approved February 28, 
1871, and another supplement was insert- 
ed in the Sundry Civil Bill, and approved 
June 10th, 1872, with continued resistance 
on the part of the Democrats. After the 
appointment of a committee to investi- 
gate the condition of afiairs in the South- 
ern States, Congress adjourned March 4th, 
1871. 



The Alabama Claims. 

During this year the long disputed Ala- 
bama Claims of the United States against 
Great Britain, arising from the depreda- 
tions of the Anglo-rebel privateers, built 
and fitted out ia British waters, were re- 
ferred by the Treaty of Washington, dated 
May 8th, 1871, to arbitrators, and this 
was the first and most signal triumph 
of the plan of arbitration, so far as the 
Government of the United States was 
concerned. The arbitrators were appointed, 
at the invitation of the governments of 
Great Britain and the United States, from 
these powers, and from Brazil, Italy, and 
Switzerland. On September 14th,' 1S72, 
they gave to the United States gross dam- 
ages to the amount of $ir),r)OO,000, an 
amount which has subsequently proved to 
be really in excess of the demands of mer- 
chants and others claiming the loss of 



I property through the dopredatioa^ of tlie 
I rebel ram Alalximu and other rel»cl priva- 
■ teers. We aj)i)end a list of tlie repre*.nta- 
tives of the several govt-rurnents : 
I Aibitrntor on tUe part of the United 
' SlateA — C^iiAiiij.s Kkancis AiiAM><. 

Arhilrator on tlir jxtrt of (irent lirituin — 
The Right Honorable Sir Aluxandkb 
(Joc'KiuiiiN, Baronet, Lord Chief Justice of 
England. 

Arbitrator on tlid part of Itahj — Ilia Ex- 
cellency Senator Count Sci.ori.s. 

Arbitrator i)n the. part of tiwitzerland — 
Mr. .lAfon Stami'Ki.i. 

Arbitrator on the part of Brazil — Baron 
D'lTA.Jt;ilA. 

Afjent on the part of the United States — J. 
C. IUncroft Davih. 

Agent on the part of Great Britain-^' 
Right Honorable LordTentkkde-V. 

Counsel for the United States — Cai>EB 
Cu.siiiNG, William M. Evauts, MoaKi- 
SON R. Waite. 

Counsel for Great Britain — Sir RouN- 
DELL Palmer. 

Solicitor for the United States — CHARLES 
C. Beam AN, Jr. 



Tlie Force BUI. 

The 42d Congress met Jilarch 4, 1871, 
the Republicans having sutlered somewhat 
iu their representation. In the Senate 
there were 57 Republicans, 17 Democrats; 
in the House 138 Republicans, 103 Demo- 
crats. James G. Blaine was again chosen 
Speaker. The most exciting political 
question of the session was the pa-aige of 
the " Force Bill,'' as the Democrats called 
it. The object was more rigidly to enforce 
observance of the provisions of the 14th 
Amendment, as the Republicans claim; 
to revive a waning political power in the 
South, and save the " carpet-bag " govern- 
ments there, as the Democrats claimed. 
The Act allowed suit in the Federal courts 
against any person who should deprive 
another of the rights of a citizen, and it 
made it a penal offense to conspire to take 
away any one's rij'hts as a citizen. It also 
provided that inability, neglect, or refusal 
by any State governments to suppress such 
conspiracies, or their refusal to call upon 
the President for aid, should he deemed a 
denial by such State of the espial protec- 
tion of the laws under the 14th Amend- 
ment. It further declared such conspira- 
cies "a rebellion against the government 
of the United Stiites," and authorized the 
President, wlien in his judgment the pub- 
lic safety re<iuirod it, to suspend the privi- 
lege of habfos corpus in any district, and 
suppress any such insurrection by th« 
army and navy. 



193 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Pirsldent Hayes'a Civil Service Order. 

Executive MANSioy, Wasliington, June 22, 1877. 

Sir : — I desire to call your attention to 
the following paragraph in a letter ad- 
dressed by nie to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, "on the conduct to be observed by 
the officers of the General Government in 
relation to the elections : 

" No officer should be required or per- 
initto<l to take part in the management of 
political organizations, caucuses, conven- 
tion; or election campaigns. Their right to 
vote and to express their views on public 
questions, either orally or through the 
press, is not denied, provided it does not 
interfere with the discharge of their offi- 
cial duties. No assessment for political 
purposes on officers or subordinates should 
be allowed." 

This rule is applicable to every dejtart- 
ment of \he Civil Service. It should be 
understood by every officer of the General 
Government that he is expected to conform 
his conduct to its requirements. 

Very respectfully, R. B. Hayes. 

Some of the protests were strong, and it 
is difficult to say whether Curtis, Julian, 
or Eaton— its three leading advocates — or 
the politicians, had the best of the argu- 
ment. It was not denied, however, that a 
ptrong and very respectable sentiment had 
been created in favor of the reform, and to 
this sentiment all parties, and the President 
as well, made a show of bowing. It was 
fashionable to insert civil service planks 
in National and State platforms, but it was 
was not such an issue as could livein the 
presence of more exciting ones; and while 
to this day it has earnest and able advo- 
cates, it has from year to year fiillen into 
greater disuse. Actual trial showed the 
impracticability of some of the rules, and 
President Grant lost interest in flie subject, 
as did Congress, for in several instances it 
neglected to appropriate the funds necessary 
to carry out the provisions of the law. 
President Arthur, in his message, to Con- 
gress in December, 1381, argued against 
Its full application, and showed that it 
blocked the way to preferment, certainly 
of tiie middle-aged and older persons, who 
could not recall their early lessons ac- 
quired by rote; that its effect was to ele- 
vate the inexperienced to positions which 
required executive ability, sound judgment 
business aptitude, and experience. The 
feature of the message met the endnrsmont 
of nearly the entire Republican press, and 
at this writing the sentiment, at least of 
the Republican party, nppears to favor a 
partial modification of the rules. 

The system was begun January 1st, 1872, 
but in December, 1.S74, Congress refused to 
make any appropriations, and it was for a 
time abandoned, with slight and spasmodic 



revivals under the administration of Presi- 
dent Hayes, who issued the foregoing order. 

By letter from the Attorney-General, 
Charles Devens, August 1, 1877, this order 
was held to apply to the Pennsylvania Re- 
publican Association at Washington. Still 
later there was a further exposition, in 
which Attorney- General Devens, writing 
from Washington in October 1, 1877, ex- 
cuses himself from active participation in 
the Massachusetts State campaign, and 
says : " I learn with surprise and regret 
that any of the Republican officials hesitate 
either to speak or vote, alleging as a reason 
the President's recent Civil Service order. 
In distinct terms that order states that the 
right of officials to vote and express their 
views on public questions, either orally or 
through the press, is not denied, provided 
it does not interfere with the discharge of 
their official duties. If such gentlemen 
choose not to vote, or not to express or en- 
force their views in support of the princi- 
ples of the Republican party, either orally 
or otherwise, they, at least, should give a 
reason for such a course which is not jus- 
tified by the order referred to, and which 
is simply a perversion of it.'' 

Yet later, when the interest in the Penn- 
sylvania election became general, because 
of the sharp struggle between Governor 
Hoyt and Senator Dill for Governor, a 
committee of gentlemen (Republicans) 
visited President Hayes and induced him 
to " suspend the operation of the order " as 
to Pennsylvania, where political contribu- 
tions were collected. 

And opposition was manifested after even 
the earlier trials. Benjamin F. Butler de- 
nounced the plan as English and anti-Re- 
publican, and before long some of the more 
radical Republican papers, which had in- 
deed given little attention to the subject, 
began to denounce it as a plan to exclude 
faithful Republicans from and permit 
Democrats to enter the offices. These 
now argued that none of the vagaries of 
political dreamers could ever convince 
them that a free Government can be run 
without political parties ; that while rota- 
tion in office may not be a fundamental 
element of republican government, yet the 
right of the people to recommend is its 
corner-stone; that civil service would lead 
to the creation of rings, and eventually to 
the purchase of places; that it would es- 
tablish an aristocracy of ofiice-holders, who 
could not be removed at times when it 
might be imi)ort;!nt, as in the rebellion fofc 
the Administration to have only friends in 
public; office ; that it would establish grades 
and life-tenures in civic po^^itions, etc 

For later particulars touching civil ser- 
vice, see the Act of Congress of 18S3, and 
the regub'tious made pursuant to thcsam« 
in Book V. 



THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS. 



rj9 



Amneatjr. 

The first regular session of the 42d Con- 
gress met Dee. 4th, 1S71. The DemoerutH 
consumed much of tlie time in eHortM to 
pass hills to remove the politieal disahilities 
of former Southern rehels, jmd they were 
materially aided hy the editorials of Hor- 
ace (Jreeley, in the New York Tribmie, 
whicli had lonp: contended for universal 
amnesty. At tliis session all sueh elforts 
were defeated hy the Kepuhlicans, who in- 
variahly amended sueh jiropositionshy ad- 
din;^ Sumner's Supplementary Civil Kights 
Bill, which was intended to prevent any dis- 
crimitiation against eoIf)rcd persons hy 
common carriers, hotels, or other chartered 
or licensed servants. The Amnesty Bill, 
however was passed May 22d, 1872, after an 
an agreement to exclude from it^ provisions 
all who held the higher military and civic 
positions under the Confederacy — in all 
about 8;")!) persons. The following is a copy : 

Be it ennrtcd, etc., (two-thirds of each 
House concurring tlierein,) That all legal 
and political disabilities imposed by the 
third section of the fourteenth artiele of 
the amendments of the Constitution of the 
United States are hereby removed from 
all persons whomsoever, except Senators 
and Representatives of the Thirty-sixth 
and Tliirty-seventh Congress, oflicers in 
the judicial, military, and naval service of 
the United States, heads of Departments, 
and foreign ministers of the United States. 

Subsequently many acts removing the 
disabilities of all excepted (save Jefferson 
Davis] from the provisions of the above, 
were passed. 



Tlie Liberal Republicans. 

An issue raised in Missouri gave imme- 
diate rise to the Liberal Republican party, 
though the course of Horace Greeley had 
long pointed toward the organization of 
something of the kind, and with equal 
plainness it pointed to his desire to be its 
champion and candidate for the Presi- 
dency. In 1870 the Republican party, 
then in control of the Legislature of Mis- 
souri, split into two parts on the question 
of the removal of the disqualifications im- 
posed upon rebels by the State Constitu- 
tion during the war. Those favoring the 
removal of disabilities were headed by B. 
Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz, and they 
called them>elves Liberal Republicans ; 
those opposed were called and accepted 
the name of Radical Republicans. The 
former quickly allied themselves with the 
Democrats, and thus carried the State, 
though Grant's administration " stood in" 
with the Radicals. As a result the dis- 
abilities were quicklv removed, and those 
who believed with Greeley now sought to 
promote a reaction in Republican senti- 



ment all over the country. Greeley wvm 
the recognized head of this movement, and 
he Wiis ably aided by ex-(iovernor Curtin 
and C(d. A. K. McCJiure in Pennsylvania; 
Charles Francis Adams, .M;Lssa<liusetLs ; 
.Judge Trumbull, in Illinois; Rtiiben ]•>. 
Fenton, in New York ; lirown and Sihurz 
in Missouri, and in fad by leading Re- 
publicans in nearly all of the States, who 
at once began to lay j)laus to carry the 
next Presidential election. 

They charged that the ICnforcement Acts 
of Congress were designed more lor the 
})olitiial advancement of (irant's adherents 
than for the benefit of the country ; that 
instead of suppressing they were calcula- 
ted to promote a war of races in the South ; 
that Grant was seeking the establishment 
of a military despotism, etc.. These leaden* 
were, ius a rule, Drilliant men. They had 
tired of unappreciated and unrewarded 
service in the Republican party, or had a 
natural fondness for " pastures new," and, 
in the language of the day, they quickly 
succeeded in making political movementt* 
" lively." 

In the spring of 1871 the Liberal Repub- 
licans and Democrats of Ohio — and Ohio 
seems to be the most fertile soil for new 
ideas — prepared for a fusion, and after fre- 
quent consultations of the various leaders 
with Mr. Greeley in New York, a call wa.s 
issued from Missouri on the 2-ith of Janu- 
ary, 1872, for a National Convention of 
the Liberal Republican party to be held 
at Cincinnati, May 1st. The well-matured 
plans of the leaders were carried out in the 
nomination of Hon. Horace Greeley for 
President and B. Gratz Brown for Vioe- 
President, though not without a serious 
struggle over the chief nomination, which 
was warmly contested by the friends of 
Charles Francis Adams. Indeed he led 
in most of the six ballots, but finally all 
the friends of other candidates voted for 
Greeley, and he received 482 to 187 for 
Adams. Dissatisfaction followed, and a 
later effort was made to substitute Adams 
for Greeley, but it failed. The original 
leaders now prepared to capture the Demo- 
cratic Convention, which met at Baltimore, 
June 9th. By nearly an unanimous vote 
it was induced to endorse the Cincinnati 
platform, and it likewise finally endorsed 
Greeley and Brown — though not without 
many bitter protests. A few straight-out 
Democrats met later at Louisville, Ky., 
iSept. 3d, and nominated Charles O'Couor, 
of New York, for President, and John 
Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice- 
I'resident, and these were kept in the race 
to the end, receiving a popular vote of 
about 30,000. 

The regular Republican National Con- 
vention was held at Philadelphia, June 
6th. It renominated President Grant 
unanimously, and Henry Wilson, of Mad- 



200 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



sachusetts, for Vice-President by 3642 
votes to 321^ for Schuyler Colfax, who 
thus shared the fate of Hannibal Hamlin 
in his second candidacy for Vice-President 
on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. 
This change to Wilson was to favor the 
6olid Republican States of New England, 
and to prevent both candidates coming 
from the We^t. 



Civil Service Reform. 

After considerable and very able agita- 
tion by Geo. AV. Curtis, the editor of 
Harper'' s Weekly, an Act was passed March 
3d, 1871, authorizing the President to be- 
gin a reform in the civil service. He ap- 
pointed a Commission headed by Mr. Cur- 
tis, and after more than a year's preparation 
this body defeated a measure which se- 
cured Cong^ressional approval and that of 
President Grant. 

The civil service law (and it is still a 
law though more honored now in the 
breach than the observance) embraced in 
a single section of the act making appropri- 
ations for sundry civil expenses for the 
year ending June 30, 1872, and authorize the 
President to prescribe such rules and reg- 
ulations for admission into the civil ser- 
vice as will best promote the efficiency 
thereof, and ascertain the fitness of each 
candidate for the branch of service into 
which he seeks to enter. Under this law 
a commission was appointed to draft rules 
and regulations which were approved and 
are now being enforced by the President. 
All applicants for position in any of the 
government departments come under these 
rules : — all classes of clerks, copyists, coun- 
ters ; in the customs service all from deputy 
collector down to inspectors and clerks 
with the salaries of $1200 or more ; in ap- 
praisers' offices all assistants and clerks ; 
in the naval service all clerks ; all light- 
house keepers ; in the revenue, supervisors, 
collectors, assessors, assistants ; in the pos- 
tal really all postmasters whose pay is over 
$200, and all mail messengers. The rules 
apply to all new appointments in the de- 
partments or grades named, except that 
" nothing shall prevent the reappointment 
at discretion of the incumbents of any of- 
fice the term of which is fixed by law." 
So that a postmaster or other-^ officer 
escapes their application. Those specially 
exempt are the Heads of Departments ; 
their immediate assistants and deputies, the 
diplomatic service, the judiciary, and the 
district attorneys. Each branch of the 
service is to be grouped, and admission 
phall always be to the lowest grade of any 
group. Such appointments are made for a 
jirobationary term of six months, when if 
the l^ard of Examiners approve the in- 
cumbent is continued. This Board of Ex- 
aminers, three iu number in each case, 



shall be chosen by the President from the 
several Departments, and they shall ex 
amine at Washington for any position 
there, or, when directed by an Advisory 
Board, shall assign places for examination 
in the several States. Examinations are 
in all cases firet made of ajjplicants within 
the office or department, and from the list 
three reported in the order of excellence ; 
if those within fail, then outside applicants 
may be examined. In the Federal Blue 
Book, which is a part of this volume, we 
give the Civil Service Rules. 

When first proposed, partisan politics 
had no part or place in civil service re- 
form, and the author of the plan was him- 
self a distinguished Republican. In fact 
both ])arties thought something good had 
been reached, and there was practically no 
resistance at first to a trial. 

The Democrats resisted the passage of 
this bill with even more earnestness than 
any which preceded it, but the Republi- 
can discipline was almost perfect, and 
when passed it received the prompt ap- 
proval of President Grant, who by this 
time was classed as " the most radical of 
the radicals." Opponents denounced it as 
little if any less obnoxious than the old 
Sedition law of 1798, while the Republi- 
cans claimed that it was to meet a state of 
growing war in the South — a war of races 
— and that the form of domestic violence 
manifested was in the highest degree dan- 
gerous to the peace of the Union and the 
safety of the newly enfranchised citizens. 



Tbe Credit Mobilier. 

At the second session of the 42d Con- 
gress, beginning Dec. 2, 1872, the speaker 
(Blaine) on the first day called attention 
to the charges made by Democratic orators 
and newspapers during the Presidential 
campaign just closed, that the Vice Presi- 
dent (Colfax), the Vice President elect 
(Wilson), the Secretary of the Treasury, 
several Senators, the Speaker of the House, 
and a large number of Representatives had 
been bribed, during the years 18G7 and 
1868, by Oakes Ames, a member of the 
House from Massachusetts ; that he and 
his agents had given them 2)resents of 
stock in a corporation known as the Credit 
Mobilier, to influence their legislative ac- 
tion for the benefit of the Union Pacific 
Railroad Compay. 

Upon Speaker Blaine's motion, a com- 
mittee of investigation was appointed by 
Hon. S. S. Cox,' of New York, a noted 
Democrat temporarily called to the Chair. 

After the close of tlie camjjaign, (as was 
remarked by the Republic. Magazine at the 
time) the dominant party might well have 
claimed, and would have insisted had they 
been opposed to a a thorough investigation 



THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 



201 



and a full exposure of corruption, thut tlie 
verdict of the people in tlie hitc c;inv>.s 
was sufficient answer to these charges ; but 
the Ke|jublican party not merely granted 
all tlio invest igiitions soui^ht, but isuni- 
moned on the leadin;^ committee a ma- 
jority of its political foea to conduct the 
inquest. 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Po- 
land, of Vermont; McCreary, of Iowa; 
Banks, of Massachusetts; Niblack, of Indi- 
ana, and Merrick, uf ^laryland. 

Messrs. rolaiul and McCreary — the two 
Republic, ins — were gentlemen of ability 
and Stan. ling, well known for their integ- 
rity, moderation, and impartiality. Gen- 
eral Banks was an earnest supporter of 
Horace Crreeley, upon the alleged ground 
that the Republican organization had be- 
come ell'ete and corrupt : while Messrs. 
Niblack and Merrick are among the ablest 
representatives of the Democratic party; 
in fact, Mr. ^lerrick belonged to the ex- 
treme Southern school of political thought. 

Having patiently and carefully exam- 
ined and silted the entire testimony — often 
" painfully conflicting," as the committee 
remarked — their report ought to be con- 
sidered a judicial document commanding 
universal approval, yet scraps of the testi- 
mony and not the report itself were used 
with painful frequency against James A. 
Garfield in his Presidential canvass of 
1880. There has not been a state pai)cr 
submitted for many years upon a similar 
subject that carried with it greater weight, 
or which bore upon its face a fuller reali- 
zation of the grave responsibilities assumed, 
and it is the first time in the political his- 
tcn-y of the United States that an all-im- 
portant investigation has been entrusted by 
the dominant party to a majority of its po- 
litical foes. 

The report of the committee gives the 
best and by far the most reliable history of 
the whole affair, and its presentation here 
may aid in preventing partisan misrepre- 
sentations in the future — misrepresenta- 
tions made in the heat of contest, and 
doubtless regretted afterwards by all who 
had the facilities for getting at the facts. 
We therefore give the 

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE CREDIT MO- 
lULIER INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 

Mr. Poland, from the select committee 
to investigate the alleged Credit Mobilier 
bribery, made the following report Febru- 
ary 18, 1873 : 

The special committee appointed under 
the following resolutions of the House to 
wit : 

Whereas, Accusations have been made 
in the public press, founded on alleged 
letters of Cakes Ames, a Representative of 
Massachusetts, and upon tlie alleired affi- 
davits of Henry S. McComb, a citizen of] 



Wilmington, in tiie State of Delaware, to 
the effect that members of tliis House 
were bribed by Cakis .\ines to perform 
certiiin legislative acts for the benefit of 
the Union Pacific Railroad ( 'oinr>uny, by 
presents of stock in the (.'redil .Mobilier of 
.\meriea, or by presents of a valuable char- 
acter derived tiierefrom : therefore, 

JiesolreU, That a special committee of 
i\\ti members be appomteil by the Speaker 
pro tempore, whose duty it shall \n- U> in- 
vestigate whether any member of this 
House was bribed byOakes Ames, or any 
other person or corixiration, in any matter 
toueliing his legislative duty. 

Jirsolred, fur/her, That the committee 
have the right to employ a stenographer, 
and that they be empowered to send for 
persons and papers ; 
Oeg leave to make the following 7-eport : 

In order to a clear understanding of the 
facts hereinafter stated as to ccjntracts and 
dealings in reference to stock of the Credit 
Mobilier of America, between Mr. Cakes 
Ames and others, and members of Con- 
gress, it is necessary to make a j)reliminary 
statement of the connection of that com- 
pany with the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, and their relations to each other. 

The company called the " Credit Mo- 
bilier of America " was incorporated by 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and in 
1861 control of its charter and franchises 
had been obtained by certain persons in- 
terested in the Union Pacific Railroad 
Company, for the purpose of using it as a 
construction comj)any to build the Union 
Pacific road. In Sei)tember, 18(J4, a con- 
tract was entered into between the Union 
Pacific Company and H. M. Hoxie, for the 
building by said Hoxie of one hundred 
miles of said road from Omaha west. 

This contract was at once assigned by 
Hoxie to the Credit Mobilier Company, as 
it was expected to be when made. Under 
this contract and extensions of it some two 
or three hundred miles of road were built 
by the Credit Mobilier Company, but no 
considerable profits appear to have been 
realized therefrom. The enterprise of 
building a railroad to the Pacific was of 
such vast magnitude, and was beset by .so 
many hazards and risks that the capitalists 
of the country were generally averse to in- 
vesting in it, and, notwithstanding the lib- 
eral aid granted by the Government it 
seemed likely to fail of completion. 

In 1865 or 1866, Mr. Oakes Ames, then 
and now a member of the House from the 
State of Massachusetts, and his brother 
Oliver Ames became interested in the 
Union Pacific Company and also in the 
Credit Mobilier Company as the agents for 
the construction of the road. The Mes- 
srs. Ames were men of very large capital, 
and of known character ami integrity in 
business. By their example and credit. 



202 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



and the personal eflTorts of Mr. Oakes 
Ames, many men of capital were induced 
to embark in the enterprise, and to take 
stock in the Union Pacific Company and 
also in the Credit Mobilier Company. 
Among them were the firm of S. Hooper 
& Co., of Boston, the leading member of 
which, Mr. Samuel Hooper, was then and 
is now a member of the House ; Mr. John 
B. Alley, then a member of the House 
from IMassachusetts, and Mr. Grimes, then 
a Senator from the State of Iowa. Not- 
withstanding the vigorous efforts of Mr. 
Ames and others interacted with him, great 
difiiculty was experienced in securing the 
required capital. 

In the spring of 1867 the Credit JIo- 
bilier Company voted to add 59 per cent, 
to their capital stock, which was then two 
and a half millions of dollars ; and to cause 
it to be readily taken each subscriber to it 
was entitled to receive as a bonus an equal 
amount of first mortgage bonds of the 
Union Pacific Company. The old stock- 
holders were entitled to take this increase, 
but even the favorable terms offered did 
not induce all the old stockholders to take 
it, and the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
Company was never considered worth its 
par value until after the execution of the 
Oakes Ames contract hereinafter men- 
tioned. 

On the ICth day of August, 1867, a con- 
tract was executed between the Union Pa- 
cific Railroad Company and Oakes Ames, 
by which Mr. Ames contracted to build six 
hundred and sixty-seven miles of the Union 
Pacific road at ]irices ranging from $42,000 
to $96,000 per mile, amotinting in the ag- 
gregate to $47,000,000. Before the con- 
tract was entered into it was understood 
that Mr. Ames was to transfer it to seven 
trustees, who were to execute it, and the 
profits of the contract were to be divided 
among the stockholders in the Credit Mo- 
bilier Company, who should comply with 
certain conditions set out in the instru- 
ment transferring the contract to the trus- 
tees. The Ames contract and the trans- 
fer to trustees are incorporated in the evi- 
dence submitted, and therefore further re- 
cital of their terms is not deemed neces- 
sary. 

Substantially, all the stockholders of the 
Credit i\fobilier complied with the condi- 
tions named in the transfer, and thus be- 
came entitled to share in any profits said 
trustees might make in executing the con- 
tract. 

All the large stockholders in the Union 
Pacific were also stockholders in the Credit 
Mobilier, and the Ames contract and its 
transfer to trustees were ratified by the 
Union Pacific, and received the assent of 
the great body of stockholders, but not of 
all. 

After the Ames contract had been exe- 



cuted, it was expected by those interested 
that by reason of the enormous prices 
agreed to be paid for the work very large 
profits would be derived from building the 
road, and very soon the stock of the Cred- 
it Mobilier was understood by those hold- 
ing it to be worth much more than its par 
value. The stock was not in the market 
and had no fixed market value, but the 
holders of it, in December, 1867, consid- 
ered it worth at least double the par value, 
and in January and February, 1868, three 
or lour times the par value, but it does not 
appear that these facts were generally or 
publicly known, or that the holders of the 
stock desired they should be. 

The foregoing statement the committee 
think gives enough of the historic details, 
and condition and value of the stock, to 
make the following detailed facts intelli- 
gible. 

Mr. Oakes Ames was then a member of 
the House of Representatives, and came to 
Washington at the commencement of the 
session, about the beginning of December, 
1867. During that month Mr. Ames en- 
tered into contracts with a considerable 
number of members of Congress, both Sen- 
ators and Representatives, to let them have 
shares of stock in the Credit Mobilier 
Company at par, with interest thereon from 
the first day of the previous July. It does 
not appear that in any instance he asked 
any of these jiersons to pay a higher price 
than the jjar value and interest, nor that 
Mr. Ames used any special effort or ur- 
gency to get these persons to take it. In 
all these negotiations Mr. Ames did not 
enter into any details as to the value of 
the stock or the amount of dividend that 
might be expected upon it, but stated gen- 
erally that it would be good stock, and ia 
several instances said he would guarantee 
that they should get at least 10 per cent, 
on their money. 

Some of these gentlemen, in their con- 
versations with Mr. Ames, raised the ques- 
tion whether becoming holders of this 
stock would bring them into any embar- 
rassment as members of Congress in their 
legislative action. Mr. Ames quieted such 
suggestions by saying it could not, for the 
Union Pacific had received from Congress 
all the grants and legislation it wanted, 
and they should ask for nothing more. In 
some instances those members who con- 
tracted for stock paid to ]\Ir. Ames the 
money for the ])rice of the stock, par and 
interest; in others, where they had not the 
money, I\Ir. Ames agreed to carry the 
stock for them until they could get the 
money or it should be met by the divi- 
dends. % 

Mr. Ames was at this time a larje stock- 
holder in the Credit Mobiler, but he did 
not intend any of these transactions to be 
I sales of his own stock, but intended to fill- 



THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 



203 



fill all these contracta from stock belong- 
ing to tho company. 

At this time thcro were about six hun- 
drcdanil fifty shares of the stock of thecom- 
paiiy, whicli had for some roa.son been 
placed in the name of Mr. T. C. Durant, 
one of the leading and active men of the 
concern. 

iklr. Ames claimed that a portion of this 
st )c!c should be ivssigiied to him to enable 
him to fnlfdl engagements he had made 
for stock. Mr. Durant claimed that he 
had made similar engagements that lie 
should be allowed 8tt)ck to fuifdl. Mr. 
McComb, who was present at the time, 
claimed that ho had also made engage- 
ments for stock which he should have 
stock given him to carry out. This claim 
of McComb was refused, but alter the 
stock was assigned to Mr. Ames, McComb 
insisted that Ames shtmld distribute some 
of the stock to his (McComb's) friends, and 
nan\ed ."Senators Bayard and Fowler, and 
Representatives Allisoa and Wilson, of 
Iowa. 

It was finally arranged that three hun- 
dred and forty-three shares of t!ie stock of 
the company should be transferred to Mr. 
Ames to enable him to perform his engage- 
menfc^, and that number of shares were set 
over on the books of the company to Oakes 
Ames, trustee, to distinguish it from the 
stock held by him before. Mr. Ames at 
the time paid to the company the par of 
the stock and interest from the July pre- 
vious, and tliis stock still stands on the 
books in the name of Oakes Ames, trustee, 
except thirteen shares which have been 
transferred to parties in no way connected 
with Congress. The committee do not find 
that Mr. Ames had any negotiation what- 
ever with any of these members of Con- 
gress on the subject of this stock prior to 
the commencement of the session of De- 
cember, 18')7, except Mr. Scofield, of Penn- 
sylvania, and it was not claimed that any 
obligation existed from Mr. Ames to him 
as the result of it. 

In relation to the purpose and motives 
of Mr. Ames in contracting to let members 
of Congress have Credit Mobilier stock at 
par, which he and all other owners of it 
considered worth at least double that sum, 
the committee, upon the evidence taken 
by them and submitted to the House, can- 
not entertain doubt. When he said he did 
not suppose the Union Pacific Company 
would ask or need further legislation, he 
stated what he believed to be true. Dut 
he feared the interests of the road might 
sufl'er by adverse leorislation, and what he 
desired to accomolish was to enlist strength 
and frien<ls in Congress who would resist 
any encroachment upon or interference 
with the rights and privileges already se- 
cured, and to that end wished to create in 
them an interest identical with his own. 



This iiurj)()se is clearly avowed in his let- 
ters to ^lt (Jomb, copied in tlie i:vidence. 
Jle Kays lie intends to place the stock 
"where it will do most good to u-»." And 
again, "we want more Iricnds in this Con- 
gress." In his letter to MeComl),and also 
in his statement jirepared by c(jun.sel, ho 
gives the philosojdiy of his action, to wit, 
"That he has found there is no diJliculty 
in getting men to look alter their own 
[iroperty." The committee are also satis- 
fied that Mr. Ames enlerlaine<I a fear that, 
when tile true relations i)etween tiie Credit 
Mobilier Company and the Union J'acific 
l)eeanie generally knov.n, and the means 
by which the great piofita expected to be 
made were fully understood, there was 
danger that congressional investigation and 
action would be invoked. 

The members of Congress with whom he 
dealt were generally those who had been 
friendly and favorable to a Pacific Kail- 
road, and Mr. Ames did not fear or expect 
to find them favorable to movements hos- 
tile to it; but he desired to stimulate their 
activity and watchfulness in opposition to 
any unfavorable action by giving them a 
personal interest in the success of the en- 
terprise, especially so far as it affected the 
interest of the Credit Mobilier Company. 
On the 9th day of December, 18G7, Mr. C. C. 
Washburn, of Wisconsin, introduced in the 
House a bill to regulate by law the rates 
of transportation over the I'acific Railroad. 

Mr. Ames, as well as others interested in 
the Union Pacific road, was opposed to 
this, and desired to defeat it. Other mea- 
sures apparently hostile to that company 
were subsequently introduced into the 
House by Mr. Washburn of Wisconsin, and 
Mr. Washburne of Illinois The commit- 
tee believe that Mr. Ames, in his distribu- 
tions of stock, had specially in mind the 
hostile efforts of the INIcssrs. Washburn, 
and desired to gain strength to secure their 
defeat. The reference in one of his letters 
to "Washburn's movo" makes this quite 
apparent. 

The foregoing is deemed by the commit- 
tee a sufficient statement of facts as to Mr. 
Ames, taken in connection with what will 
be subsequently stated of his transactions 
with particular persons. Mr. Ames made 
some contracta for stock in the Credit 
Mobilier with members of the Senate. In 
public discussions of this subject the names 
of members of both Houses have been so 
connected, and all these transactions were 
so nearly simultaneous, that the committee 
deemed it their duty to obtain all evidence 
in their power, as to all persons then mem- 
bers of either House, and to report the 
same to the House. Having done this, and 
the House having directed that evidence 
transmitted to tlie Senate, the committee 
consider their own power and duty, as well 
as tliat of the House, fully performed, so 



204 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



far as members of the Senate are concerned. 
Some of Mr. Adics's contractii to sell stock 
were with gentlemen who were then mem- 
bers of the House, but are not members of 
the present Congress. 

The committee have sought f:)r and ta- 
ken all the evidence within their reach as 
to those gentlemen, and reported the same 
to the House. As the House has ceased 
to have jurisdiction over them as members, 
the committee have not deemed it their 
duty to make any special finding of facts 
as to each, leaving the House and the 
country to their own conclusions upon the 
testimony. 

In regard to each of the members of the 
present House, the committee deem it 
their duty to state specially the facts they 
find proved by the evidence, which, in 
some instances, is painfully conflicting. 

MR. JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE. 

Among those who have in the public 
press been charged with improper ]">artici- 
pation in Credit Mobilier stock is the pre- 
sent Speaker, Mr. Blaine, who moved the 
resolution for this investigation. The com- 
mittee have, therefore, taken evidence in 
regard to him. They find irom it that Mr. 
Ames had conversation with Mr. Blaine in 
regard to taking ten shares of the stock, 
and recomiiiended it as a good investment. 
Upon consideration Mr. Blaine concluded 
not to take the stock, and never did take 
it, and never jmid or received anything on 
account of it; and Mr. Blaine never had 
any interest, direct or indirect, in Credit 
Mobilier stock or stock of the Union 
Pacific Eailroad Company. 

MB. HENRY L. DAWES, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
Mr. Dawes had, prior to December, 1867, 
made some small investments in railroad 
bonds through Mr. Ames. In December, 
1807, Mr. Dawes applied to Mr. Ames to 
purchase a thousand-dollar bond of the 
Cedar Rapids road, in Iowa. Mr. Ames 
informed him that he had sold them all, 
but that be would let him have for his 
thousand dollars ten shares of Credit ^Mo- 
bilier stock, which he thought was better 
than the railroad bond. In answer to in- 
quiries by Mr. DaAves Mr. Ames said the 
Credit Mobilier Company had the con- 
tract to build (he Union Pacific road, and 
thouglit they would make money out of it, 
and that it would l)e a good thing; tliat he 
would guarantee that he should get 10 per 
cent, on his money, and that if at any 
time; Mr. Dawes did not want the stock he 
would pay back his money with 10 per 
cent, interest. Mr. Dawes made some fur- 
ther inquiry in relation to the stock of Mr. 
John B. Alley, who said he thought it was 
good sto(;k, but not as good as Mr. Ames 
thought, but that Mr. Ames's guarantee 
would make it a perfectly btife investment. 



Mr. Dawes thereupon concluded to pur- 
chase the ten shares, and on the 11th of 
January he paid Mr. Ames $800, and in a 
few days thereafter the balance of the 
price of this stock, at par and interest from 
July previous. In June, 18G8, Mr. Ames 
received a dividend of GO per cent, in 
money on this stock, and of it paid to Mr. 
Dawes $400, and applied the balance of 
§200 upon accounts between them. This 
$400 was all that was paid over to Mr. 
Dawes as a dividend upon this stock. At 
some time prior to December, 18G8, Mr. 
Dawes was informed that a suit had been 
commenced in the courts of Pennsylvania 
by former owners of the charter of the 
Credit Mobilier, claiming that those then 
claiming and using it had no right to do 
so. Mr. Dawes thereupon informed Mr. 
Ames that as there was a litigation about 
the matter he did not desire to keep the 
stock. On the 9th of December, 1868, Mr. 
Ames and Mr. Dawes had a settlement of 
their matters in which Mr. Dawes was al- 
lowed for the money he paid for the stock 
with 10 per cent, interest upon it, and ac- 
counted to Mr. Ames for the $400 he had 
received as a dividend. Mr. Dawes re- 
ceived no other benefit under the contract 
than to get 10 per cent, upon his money, 
and after the settlement had no further in- 
terest in the stock. 

MR. GLENNI W. SCOFIELD, OF PENN- 
SYLVANIA. 

In 1860 Mr. Scofield purchased some 
Cedar Rapids bonds of Mr. Ames, and in 
that year they had conversations about 
Mr. Scofield taking stock in the Credit 
Mobilier Company, but no contract was 
consummated. In December, 1867, Mr. 
Scofield applied to Mr. Ames to purchase 
more Cedar Rapids bonds, when Mr. Ames 
suggested he should purchase some Credit 
Mobilier stock, and explained generally 
that it was a contracting company to build 
the Union Pacific road ; that it was a 
Pennsylvania corporation, and he would 
like to have some P&nnsylvanians in it; 
that he would sell it to him at par and in- 
terest, and that he would guarantee he 
should get 8 per cent, if Mi-. Scofield would 
give him half the dividends above that. 
Mr. Scofield said he thought he would 
take $1,000 of the stock; but before any- 
thing further was done Mr. Scofield was 
called home by sickness in his family. On 
his return, the latter part of January, 
18G8, he spoke to Mr. Ames about the 
stock, when Mr. Ames said he thought it 
was all sold, but he would take his money 
and give him a receipt, and get the stock 
for him if he could. Mr. Scofield there- 
upon paid Mr. Ames $1,041, and took his 
receipt therefor. 

Not long after Mr. Ames informed Mr. 
Scofield he could have the stock, but could 



THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 



205 



riot f^ivc him a certificate for it until he 
could ^et :i Lirj^i^r ccrliCifato diviilcml. 
Mr. Scofiold received tlie bond dividend ol' 
80 per cent., which was payalilt; .January .'5, 
ISCtS, takinjz; a l)ond tor $l,()iiO and payinir 
Mr. Ames tlie diU'erenci". Mr. Amis re- 
ceived the ()0 per cent, casli dividend on 
the stock in .luiie, IStJS, and paid over to 
Mr. Scolield i^iiOK, the amount of it. 

Before the clo^e of tiiat session of Con- 
pre-is. wliicii was toward the end of July, 
]\Ir. Scofield l)ecame, for some reason, dis- 
incHned to take the stock, iintl a settlement 
was made between them, by which Mr. 
Ames was to retain the Credit .'\Ii)l)ilier 
stock and Mr. Scolield took a thousand 
dollars Union I'acific bond and ten shares 
of Union Pacific stock. 

The precise basis of the settlement does 
not appear, neither Mr. Ames nor ]\Ir. 
8cofieId havinj; any full date in reference 
to it; Mr. Scofiold thinks that he only re- 
ceive<l back his money and interest upon 
it, while i\Ir. Ames states that he thinks 
I\Ir.' Scofield had ten shares of Union 
Pacific stock in addition. The committee 
do not deem it specially important to settle 
this diflerence of recollection. Since that 
.^settlement Mr. Scofield has had no interest 
in the Credit Mobilier stock and derived 
no benefit therefrom. 

Mil. JOHN A. BINGHAM, OF OHIO. 

In December, 18G7, Mr. Ames advised 
Mr. Binp^ham to invest in the stock of the 
Credit Mobilier, assuring him that it would 
return him his money with profitable divi- 
dends. Mr. Bingham agreed to take 
twenty shares, and about the 1st of Febru- 
ary, 1868, paid to Mr. Ames the par value 
of the stock, for which Mr. Ames executed 
to him some receipt or agreement. Mr. 
Ames received all the dividends on the 
stock, whether in Union Pacific bonds, or 
stock, or money ; some were delivered to 
Mr. Bingham and some retained by Mr. 
Ames. The matter was not finally ad- 
justed between them until February, 1872, 
when it was settled, Mr. Ames retaining 
the twenty shares of Credit Mobilier stock, 
and accounting to Mr. Bingham for such 
dividends upon it as Mr. Bingham had not 
alrea<ly received. Mr. Bingham was 
treated as the real owner of the stock from 
the time of the agreement to take it, in 
December, 18(57, to" the settlement in Feb- 
ruary, 1872, and had the benefit of all the 
dividends upon it. Neither Mr. Ames nor 
Mr. Bingham had such records of their 
dealing as to be able to give the precise 
amount of those dividends, 

MR. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF TENXSYL- 
VANIA. 

The committee find from the evidence 
that in the early part of the second session 
of the Fortieth Congress, and probably in 



December, 1807, Mr. Amea .igroed with 
Mr. Kfilcy t) .sell him ten sliarcs of ( Credit 
Mobilii-r stock at par and int<;rcst from 
.July 1, 18()7. Mr. Kcslley w i.s not then 
pre])arcd to pay for the stock, and Mr. 
.Vmcs agrccil to carry tlic stock for him 
until he could pay tor it. On the third 
day of .January, ISilS, there wa-< a dividend 
of 80 per cent, on (/redit IMobilicr stock in 
Union I'acific bonds. Mr. Ames received 
the bonds, as the stock stood in his name, 
and sold them for 97 per cent, of their face. 
In .Tunc, 18(J8, there was a c:L>ii dividend 
of 60 per cent., which Mr. Ames also re- 
ceived. The proceeds of the bonds sold, 
and the cash dividends recfjivcd by Mr. 
Ames, amounted to $1,876. The par value 
of the stock and interest thereon from the 
previous .July amounted to'^i,0l7 ; so that, 
after paying for the stock, there was a 
balance of dividends due Mr. Kelley of 
S;529. On the 23d day of June, 18(58, Mr. 
Ames gave Mr. Kelley a cheek for that 
sum on the Sergcant-at-Arms of the House 
of Representatives, and Mr. Kelley re- 
ceived the money thereon. 

The committee find that ]\Ir. Kelley then 
understood that the money he thus re- 
ceived was a balance of dividends due him 
after paying for the stock. 

All the subsequent dividends upon the 
stock were either in Union l^ieific stock 
or bonds, and tliey were all received by 
Mr. Ames. In September, 1868, Mr. 
Kelley received from Mr. Ames $750 in 
money, which w:ia understood between 
them to be an advance to be paid out of 
dividends. There ha-s never bceu any ad- 
justment of the matter between them, and 
there is now an entire variance in the tes- 
timony of the two men as to Avhat the 
transaction between them was. but the 
committee are unanimous in finding the 
facts above stated. The evidouco reported 
to the House gives some subrfcauent con- 
versations and negotiations between Mr. 
Kelley and Mr. Ames on this subject. , The 
committee do n ,it deem it material to refer 
to it in their report. 

MR. JAME3 A. GARFIELi>, OF OHIO. 

The facts in regard to ]\Ir. Garfield, as 
found by the committee, are identical with 
the case of Mr. Kelley to the point of re- 
ception of the check for $320. He agreed 
with Mr. Ames to take ten share; of Credit 
Mobilier stock, but did n'>t pay for the 
same. Mr. Ames received t!;e 80 per cent, 
dividend in bonds and soUl them for 97 
per cent., and also received the (;o per cent, 
cash dividend, which togct'ncr paid the 
price of the stock and interest, and left a 
balance of !?.'>29. This sum wa.s paid over 
to Mr. (tarfinld by a che^k on the Scrgeant- 
at-Arms, and Mr. Garfield then understood 
this sum W!i-s the balance of dividends after 
paying for the stock. Mr. Ames received 



206 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



all the subsequent dividends, and the com- 
mittee do not find that, sinee the payment 
of the $329, there has been any communi- 
cation between Mr. Ames and Mr. Garfield 
on the subject until this investigation be- 
gan. Some correspondence between Mr. 
Garfield and Mr. Ames, and some conver- 
sations between them during this investi- 
gation, will be found in the reported testi- 
mony. 

The committee do not find that Mr. 
Ames, in his negotiations with the persons 
above named, entered into any detail of 
the relations between the Credit Mobilier 
Company and the Union Pacific Company, 
or gave them any specific information as 
to the amount of dividends they would be 
likely to receive further than has been al- 
ready stated. They all knew from him, or 
otherwise, that the Credit ^lobilier was a 
contracting company to build the Union 
Pacific road, but it does not appear that 
any of them knew that the profits and 
dividends were to be in stock and bonds of 
that company. 

The Credit Mobilier Company was a 
State corporation, not subject to ■congres- 
sional legislation, and the fact that its pro- 
fits were expected to be derived from 
building the Union Pacific road did not, 
apparently, create such an interest in that 
com]jany as to disqualify the holder of 
Credit Mobilier stock from participating 
in any legislation affecting the railroad 
company. In his negotiations with these 
members of Congress, Mr. Ames made no 
suggestion that he desired to secure their 
favorable influence in Congress in favor of 
the railroad company, and whenever the 
question was raised as to whether the 
ownership of this stock would in any way 
interfere with or embarrass them in their 
action as members of Congress, he assured 
them it woidd not. 

The committee, therefore, do not find, 
as to the members of the present House 
above named, that they were aware of the 
object of Mr. Ames, or that they had any 
other purpose in taking this stock than to 
make a profitable investment. It is appa- 
rent that those who advanced their money 
to pay for their stock present more the ap- 
pearance of ordinary investors than those 
who did not, but the committee do not feel 
at liberty to find any corrupt purpose or 
knowledge founded upon the fact of non- 
payment alone. 

it ought also to be observed that thoee 
gentlemen who sarrend-ered their stock to 
Mr. Ames before there was any public ex- 
citement upon the subject, do not profess 
to have done so upon any idea of impro- 
priety in holding it, but for reasons afiect- 
ing the value and security of the invest- 
ment. But tlie committee believe that 
they must have felt that there was some- 
thing BO out of the ordinary course of 



business in the extraordinary dividends 
they were receiving as to render the in- 
vestment itself suspicious, and that this 
was one of the motives of their action. 

The committee have not been able to 
find that any of these members of Congress 
have been affected in their official action 
in consequence of their interest in Credit 
Mobilier stock. 

It has been suggested that the fact that 
none of this stock was transferred to those 
with whom Mr. Ames contracted was a 
circumstance from which a sense of impro- 
priety, if not corruption, was to be infer- 
red. The committee believe this is capable 
of explanation without such inference. 
The profits of building the road, under the 
Ames contract, were only to be divided 
among such holders of Credit Mobilier 
stock as should come in and become par- 
tics to certain conditions set out in the 
contract of transfer to the trustees, so that 
a transfer from Mr. Ames to new holders 
would cut oft' the right to dividends from 
the trustees, unless they also became par- 
ties to the agreement; and this the com- 
mittee believe to be the true reasi n why 
no transfers were made. 

The committee are also of opinion that 
there was a satisfactory reason for delay 
on Mr. Ames's part to close settlements 
with some of these gentlemen for stock 
and bonds he had received as dividends 
upon the stock contracted (o them. In the 
fall of 1868 Mr. McComb commenced a 
suit against the Credit Mobilier Company, 
and Mr. Ames and others, claiming to be 
entitled to two hundred and fifty shares 
of the Credit Mobilier stock upon a sub- 
scription for stock to that amount. That 
suit is still pending. If McComb pre- 
vailed in that suit, Mr. Ames might be 
compelled to surrender so much of the 
stack assigned to him as trustee, and he 
was not therefore anxious to have the 
stock go out of his hands until that suit 
was terminated. It ought also to be stated 
tliat no one of the present members of the 
House above named appears to have liad 
any knowledge of the dealings of Mr. 
Ames with other members. 

The committee do not find that either 
of the above-named gentlemen, in contract- 
ing with Mn Ames, had any corrupt mo- 
tive or purpose himself, or was aware that 
I\[r. Ames had any, nor did either of them 
suppose he was guilty of any impropriety 
or^even indelicacy in becoming a purchaser 
of this stock. Had it appeared that these 
gentlemem were aware of the enormous di- 
vidends upon this stock, and how they 
were to be earned, we could not thus ac- 
quit them. And here as well as anywhere, 
the committee may allude to that subject. 
Congress had chartered the Union Pacific 
road, given to it a liberal grant of lands, 
-and promised a liberal loanof Oovernmeni 



THE CREDIT MOlilLIKll. 



207 



bonds, to be dcUvcrod fus fast as Hoctions of 
the road were cninplott'd. Ah tliL'se uloiu- 
miirlit not he sullicioiit to comi)Iete the 
roild, Coiiirross iiuthoriz('(l the comi)any to 
issue thfir own bonds for the deticit, and 
serurcd tlieiii by a niortiraixe upon the road, 
which .should he a lien prior to that of the 
Government. Congress never intended 
that tlie owners of tlie road should execute 
a inortg.ipe on the road prior to that of the 
(jovcriiMicnt, to raise money to put into tlu-ir 
own pockets, but only to build the road. 

The men who controlled the Unio'i 
Pacific seem to have adopted as the basis 
of their action the right to incumber the 
road by a Tuortgage prior to that of tlie 
Government to the full extent, whether 
the money was needed for the construction 
of the roatl or not. 

It was clear enough they could not do 
this directly and in terms, and therefore 
they resorted to the device of contracting 
with themselves to build the road, and fix 
a price high enough to reeiuire the issue of 
bonds to the full extent, and then divide 
the bonds or the proceeds of them under 
the name of profits on the contract. All 
those acting in the matter seem to have 
been fully aware of this, and that this was 
to be the elfect of the transaction. The 
sudden rise of value of Credit Moliilier 
stock was the result of the adoption of this 
scheme. Any undue and unreasonable 
profits thus made by themselves were as 
much a fraud upon the (rovernment as if 
they had sold their bonds and divided the 
money without going through the form of 
donomiaating them profits on building the 
road. 

Now hid these facts been known to 
these gentlemen, and had they understood 
they were to share in the proceeds of the 
scheme, they would have deserved the 
severest censure. 

Had they known only that the profits 
were to l)e paid in stock and bonds of the 
Union Pacific Company, and so make them 
interested in it, we cannot agree to the 
doctrine, which has been urged before us 
and elsewhere, that it was perfectly legiti- 
mate for members of Congress to invest in 
a corporation deriving all its rights from 
and subject at all times to the action of 
Congress. 

In such case the rule^ of the TTouse, as 
well as the rules of decency, would require 
such member to abstain from voting on 
any question affecting his interest. But, 
after accepting the position of a member oi' 
Congress, we do not think he has the 
right to disqualify himself from acting 
upon subjects likelv to come before Con- 
gress without some higher and more urgent 
motive than merely to make a profitable 
investment. But it is not so much to be 
feared that in such case an interested mem- 
ber would vote as that Jio would exerci.se 



his influence by pcrHonal appeal to his fel- 
low-mciiihers, and by other modes, which 
often is I'ar more iiotiiit than a single silent 
voti'. 

\Ve do not think any member ought to 
feel so confident of his own strengtii as to 
allow hini-^elf to be brought into this temp- 
tation. We think Mr. Ames judge<l 
shrewdly in saying that a man is much 
more likely to be watchful of liis own in- 
terests than tliose of other people. P.ut 
there is a broader view still wliich we think 
ought to be taken. This country is fiust 
becoming filled with gigantic cori)oration8, 
wielding and controlling immense aggrega- 
tions of money, and thereby coinmantling 
great influence ami jiower. It is notorious 
in many State legislatures that these in- 
fluences are often controlling, so that in 
elfect they become the ruling [xiwer of the 
State. Within a few years Congress has, 
to some extent, been brought within similar 
influences, and the knowledge of the pub- 
lic on that subject has brought great dis- 
credit upon the body, far more, we believe, 
than there were facts to justify. 

But such is the tendency of the time, and 
the belief is far too general that all men 
can be ruled with money, and that the use 
of such means to carry jmblic measures is 
legitimate and proper. No member of Con- 
gress ought to place himself in circum- 
stances of suspicion, so that any discredit 
of the body shall arise on his account. It 
is of the highest im})ortance that the na- 
tional legislature should be free of all taint 
of corruption, and it is of almost equal 
necessity that the people should feel confi- 
dent that it is so. 

In a free government like ours, we can- 
not expect the people will long respect the 
laws, if they lose respect for the law- 
makers. 

For these reasons we think it beliooves 
every man in Congress or in any public 
position to hold himself aloof, as far as 
possible, from all such influences, that he 
may not only be enabled to look at every 
public question with an eye only to the 
jiublic good, but that his conduct and mo- 
tives be not suspected or questioned. The 
only criticism the committee feel compelled 
to make on the action of these members in 
taking this stock is that they were not suf- 
ficiently careful in ascertaining what they 
were getting, and that in their judgment 
the assurance of a good investment was all 
the assurance they needed. We commend 
to them, and to all men, the letter of the 
venerable Senator Bavard, in response to 
an offer of some of this stock, found on 
page 74 of the tastimony. 

The committee find nothing in the con- 
duct or motives of either of these members 
in taking this stock, that calls for any 
recommendation by the committee of the 
House. 



208 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



MR. JAMES BROOKS, Of ^^:"W YORK. 

The case of jMr. Brooks stands upon a 
difTerent state ol' lacls from any of those al- 
ready given. The committee find from the 
evidence as follows : ]\Ir. Brooks had been 
a warm advocate of a Pacific Railroad, botli 
in Congress and in the j)ublic press. After 
persons interested in the Union Pacific 
road had obtained control of the Credit 
Mobil ier charter and organized under it 
for the purpose of making it a construction 
company to build the road, Dr. Durant, 
who was then the leading man in the en- 
terprise, made great efforts to get the stock 
of the Credit Mobilier taken. Mr. Brooks 
was a friend of Dr. Durant, and he made 
some eftbrts to aid Dr. Durant in getting 
subscriptions for the stock, introduced the 
matter to some capitalists of New York, 
but his efforts were not crowned with suc- 
cess. 

During this period Mr. Brooks had 
talked with Dr. Durant about taking some 
of the stock for himself, and had spoken of 
taking fifteen or twenty thousand dollars 
of it, but no definite contract was made 
between them, and Mr. Brooks was under 
no legal obligation to take the stock, or 
Durant to give it to him. In October, 
1867, Mr. Brooks was appointed by the 
President one of the Government directors 
of the Union Pacific road. In December, 
1867, after the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
was understood, by those familiar with the 
affairs between the Union Pacific and the 
Credit IMibilier, to be worth very much 
more than par, Mr. Brooks applied to Dr. 
Durant, and claimed that he should have 
two hundred shares of Credit Mobilier 
stock. It does not appear that Mr. Brooks 
claimed he had any legal contract for 
stock that he could enforce, or that Durant 
considered himself in any way legally 
bound to let him have any, but still, on 
account of what had been said, and the 
efforts of Mr. Brooks to aid him, he con- 
sidered himself under obligations to satisfy 
Mr. Brooks in the matter. 

The stock had been so far taken up, and 
was then in such demand, that Durant 
could not well comply with Brooks's de- 
mand for two hundred shares. After con- 
siderable negotiation, it was finally ad- 
justed l)etwcen them by Durant's agreeing 
to let Brooks have one hundred shares of 
Credit Mobilier stock, and giving him with 
it $5,000 of Union Pacific bonds, and $20,- 
000 of Union Pacific stock. Dr. Durant 
testifies that he then considered Credit 
Mobilier stock worth double the par 
value, and that the bonds and stock he 
was to give Mr. Brooks worth about $9,000, 
so that he saved about $1,000 by not giving 
Brooks the additional hundred shares he 
claimed. After the negotiation had been 
concluded between Mr. Brooks and Dr. 
Dnrant, Mr. Brooks said that as he was a 



Government director of the Union Pacific 
road, and as the law provided such direc- 
tors should not be stockholders in that 
company, he would not hold this stock, 
and directed Dr. Durant to transfer it to 
Charles H. Neilson, his son-in-law. The 
whole negotiation with Durant was con- 
ducted by Mr. Brooks himself, and Neilson 
had nothing to do with the transaction, 
except to receive the transfer. The $10,- 
000 to pay for the one hundred shares was 
paid by Mr. Brooks, and he received the 
¥5,000 of Pacific bonds which came with 
the stock. 

The certificate of transfer of the hun- 
dred shares from Durant to Neilson is 
dated December 26, 1867. On the 3d of 
January, 1868, there was a dividend of 80 
per cent, in Union Pacific bonds paid on 
the Credit Mobilier stock. The bonds 
Avere received by Neilson, but passed over 
at once to Mr. Brooks. It is claimed, both 
by Mr. Brooks and Neilson, that the $10,- 
000 paid by Mr. Brooks for the stock was a 
loan of that sum by him to Neilson, and, 
that the bonds he received irrm Durant, 
and those received for the dividend, were 
delivered and held by him as collateral 
security for the loan. 

No note or obligation was given for the 
money by Neilson, nor, so far as we can 
learn from either Brooks or Neilson, wsis 
any account or memorandum of the trans- 
action kept by either of them. At the 
time of the arranp;ement or settlement 
above spoken of between Brooks and Du- 
rant, there was nothing said about Mr. 
Brooks being entitled to have 50 per cent, 
more stock by virtue of his ownership of 
the hundred shares. Neither Brooks nor 
Durant thought of any such thing. 

Some time after the transfer of the 
shares to Neilson, Mr. Brooks called on 
Sidney Dillon, then the president of the 
Credit Mobilier, and claimed he or Neilson 
was entitled to fifty additional shares of 
the stock, by virtue of the purchase of the 
one hundred shares of Durant. 

This was claimed by Mr. Brooks as his 
right by virtue of the 50 per cent, increase 
of the stock hereinbefore described. Mr. 
Dillon said he did not know how that was, 
but he would consult the leading stock- 
holders, and be governed by them. Mr. 
Dillon, in order to justify himself in the 
transaction, got up a paper authorizing the 
issue of fifty shares of the stock to Mr. 
Brooks, and procured it to be signed by 
most of the principal shareholders. After 
this had been done, an entry of fifty shares 
was made on the stock-ledger to some per- 
son other than Neilson. The name in two 
places on the book has been erased, and 
the name of Neilson inserted. The com- 
mittee are satisfied that the stock was first 
entered on the books in Mr. Brooks's name. 

Mr. Neilson soon after called for the cer* 



THE CREDIT MOBILIKR. 



209 



tifk-ato for tlie til'ty sliarcs, and on the 20th 
of Fehruary, ISlJS, the certificate was issued 
to him, and the entry on the stock-hook 
WiLs chanfjjcd to Ncilson. 

Neilson procured .Mr. Dillon to advance 
the money to i)ay lor the stock, and at the 
same time delivered to Dillon $4,000 Union 
Pacific honds, and fifty shares of Union 
Pacific stock as collateral security. These 
bonds and stock were a portion of divi- 
dends received at the time, as he was al- 
lowed to receive t!ie same per centage of 
dividends on these fifty shares that had 
previously been paid ou the hundred. 
This m itter has never been adjusted be- 
tween Xeil-iou and Dillon. Brooks and 
Ncilson ooth te-^tify they never paid Dillon. 
Dillon t'.inks he has received his pay, a.s 
he has not now the collaterals in his pos- 
session. If he has been paid it is probable 
that it was from the collaterals in some 
form. The subject has never been named 
between Dillon and Neilson since Dillon 
advanced the money, and no one connected 
with the transaction seems able to give any 
furtiicr light upon it. The whole business 
by wiiich these fifty shares were procured 
was done by Mr. Brooks. Neilson knew 
nothing of any right to have them, and 
only went for the certificate when told to 
do so by 'Mr. Brooks. 

The committee find that no such right to 
fifty shares additional stock passed by the 
transfer of the hundred. And from Mr. 
Brooks's familiarity with the affairs of the 
company, the committee believe he must 
have known his claim to them wa.s un- 
founded. The question naturally arises. 
How was he able to i)rocure them? The 
stock at this time by the stockholders was 
considered worth three or four times its 
par value. Neilson sustained no relations 
to any of these people that commanded 
any favor, and if he could have used any 
influence he did not attempt it; if he had 
this right he was unaware of it till told by I 
Mr. Brooks, and left the whole matter in 1 
his hands. It is clear that the shares were 
procured by the sole efforts of Mr. Brooks, 
and, as the stockholders who consented to 
it supposed, for the benefit of j\Ir. Brooks. | 
Wiuit power had ]\Ir. Brooks to enforce an 
unlbunded claim, to have for .'?5,000, stock I 
worth S15,000 or 820,000? Mr. .AlcComb ' 
swears that he heard conversation between 
Mr. Brooks and Mr. John B. Allev, a large 
stockholder, and one of the executive com- 
mittee, in which Mr. Brooks urged that he 
should have the additional fifty shares, be- 
cause he was or would jirocure himself to 
be made a Government director, and also 
that, bi-ing a member of Congress, he 
" would t;ike care of the democratic side of 
the House." ; 

?*Ir. Brooks and ^Mr. Alley both deny i 
having had any such conversation, or that 
Mr. Brooks ever made such a statement to '■ 
14 



I Mr. Alley. If, therefore, this matter rested 
; wholly upon the testimony of Mr. Mc- 
Comb, the committee would not l\n-\ justi- 
I fied in finding that .Mr. I'.rooks jirocured 
' the stock by such use of his ollicial i»osi- 
tion ; but all the circumstaiu-es scim to 
point exactly in that direction, and we can 
find no other satisfactory solution of the 
question above propounded. Whatever 
claim Mr. Brooks had to stock, either 
legal or moral, had been adjusted and 
satisfied by Dr. Durant. Whether he was 
getting this stock for himself or to give 
to his son-in-law, we believe, from the cir- 
cumstances attending the whole transac- 
tion, that he ol)tained it knowing that it 
was yielded to its otticial position and in- 
fiuence, and with the intent to secure his 
favor and influence in such positions. Mr. 
Brooks claims that he has had no interest 
in this stock whatever ; that the benefit 
and advantage of his right to have it he 
gave to Mr. Neilson, his son-in-law, and 
that he has had all the rlividends upon it. 
The committee are unable to find this to 
be the case, for in their judgment all the 
facts and circumstances show Mr. r>rooks 
to be the real and substantial owner, and 
that Neilson's ownership is merely nominal 
and colorable. 

In June, 1868, there was a cash dividend 
of $9,000 upon this one hundred and fifty 
shares of stock. Neilson received it, of 
course, as the stock was in his name ; but 
on the same day it was paid over to Mr. 
Brooks, as Neilson savs, to pay so much of 
the $10,000 advanced by Mr. Brooks to 
pay for the stock. This,'tlien, repaid all 
but $1,000 of the loan; but Mr. Brooks 
continued to hold $16,000 of Union Pacific 
bonds, which Neilson says he gave him as 
collateral security, and to draw the interest 
upon all but $5,000. The interest upon the 
others, Neilson says, he was permitted to 
draw and retain, but at one time in his 
testimony he sj)oke of the amount he was 
allowed as being Christmas and New 
Year's presents. Neilson says that during 
the last summer he borrowed $14,000 of 
iMr. Brooks, and he now owes jNIr. Brooks 
nearly as much as the collaterals ; but, ac- 
cording to his testimony, Mr. Brooks for 
four years held $16,000 in bonds a- 
security for $1,000, and received the inter- 
est on $11,000 of the collaterals. No ac- 
counts appear to have been ke])t between 
Mr. Brooks and Neilson, and doubtless 
what sums he has received from Mr. 
Brooks, out of the dividends, were intended 
as presents rather than as deliveries of 
money belonging to him. 

Mr. Brooks's efforts procured the stock; 
his money paid for it; all the cash divi- 
dends he has received ; and he holds all 
the bonds, exce[)t those Dillon received, 
which seem to have been applied toward 
paying for the fifty shares. Without 



210 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



further comment on the evidence, the 
committee find that the one hundred and 
fifty shares of stock apjiearing on the 
books of the Credit Mobilier in the name 
of Neilson were really the stock of Mr. 
Brooks, and subject to his control, and 
that it was so understood by both the par- 
ties. Mr. Brooks had taken such an inter- 
est in the Credit Mobilier Company, and 
was so connected with Dr. Durant, that he 
must be regarded as having full knowledge 
of the relations between that company and 
the railroad company, and of the contracts 
between them. He must have known the 
cause of the sudden increase in value of 
the Credit Mobilier stock, and how the 
large expected profits were to be made. 
We have already expressed our views of 
the propriety of a member of Congress be- 
coming the owner of stock, possessing this 
knowledge. 

But Mr. Brooks was not only a member 
of Congress, but he was a Government 
director of the Union Pacific Company. 
As such it was his duty to guard and 
watch over the interests of the Govern- 
ment in the road and to see that they were 
protected and preserved. To insure such 
faithfulness on the part of Government 
directors. Congress wisely provided that 
they should not be stockholders in the 
road. Mr. Brooks readily saw that, though 
becoming a stockholder in the Credit 
Mobilier was not forbidden by the letter of 
the law, yet it was a violation of its spirit and 
essence, and therefore had the stock placed 
in the name of his son-in-law. The trans- 
fer of the Oakes Ames contract to the 
trustees and the building of the road un- 
der that contract, from which the enormous 
dividends were derived, were all during 
Mr. Brooks's official life as a Government 
director, must have been within his know- 
ledge, and yet passed without the slightest 
opposition from him. The committee be- 
lieved this could not have been done 
without an entire disregard of his official 
obligation and duty, and that while ap- 
pointed to guard the public interests in 
the road he joined himself with the pro- 
)iioters of a scheme whereby the Govern- 
ment was to be defrauded, and shared in 
the spoil. 

In the conclusions of fact upon the 
evidence, the committee are entirely 
agreed. 

In considering what action we ought to 
recommend to the House upon these facts, 
the committee encounter a question which 
has been much debated : Has this House 
power and jurisdiction to inquire concern- 
ing offenses committed by its members prior 
to their election, and to punish them by cen- 
sure or ex|)ulsion? The committee are 
unanimous upon the right of jurisdiction 
of this House over tlie cases of Mr. Ames 
and Mr. Brooks, upon the facts found in 



regard to them. Upon the question of 
jurisdiction the committee present the fol- 
lowing views : 

The Constitution, in the fifth section of 
the first article, defines the power of either 
House as follows : 

" Each House may determine the rules 
of its proceedings, punish its members for 
disorderly behavior, and with the concur- 
rence of two-thirds expel a member.' 

It will be observed that there is no qual- 
ification of the power, but there is an im- 
portant qualification of the manner of its 
exercise — it must be done " with the con- 
currence of two-thirds." 

The close analogy between this power 
and the power of impeachment is deserv- 
ing of consideration. 

The great purpose of the power of im- 
peachment is to remove an unlit and un- 
worthy incumbent from office, and though a 
judgment of impeachment may to some 
extent operate as punishment, that is not 
its principal object. Members of Congress 
are not subject to be impeached, but may 
be expelled, and the principal purpose of 
expulsion is not as punishment, but to re- 
move a member whose character and con- 
duct show that he is an unfit man to par- 
ticipate in the deliberations and decisions 
of the body, and whose presence in it tends 
to bring the body into contempt and dis- 
grace. 

In both cases it is a power of purgation 
and purification to be exercised for the 
public safety, and, in the case of expulsion, 
for the protection and character of the 
House. The Constitution defines the 
causes of impeachment, to wit, " treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and mis- 
demeanors." The office of the power of 
expulsion is so much the same as that of 
the power to impeach that we think it 
may be safely assumed that whatever 
would be a good cause of impeachment 
would also be a good cause of expulsion. 

It has never been contended that the 
power to impeach for any of the causes 
enumerated was intended to be restricted 
to those which might occur after appoint- 
ment to a civil office, so that a civil officer 
who had secretly committed such offense 
before his appointment should not be sub- 
ject upon detection and exposure to be 
convicted and removed from office. Every 
consideration of justice and sound policy 
would seem to require that the public in- 
terests be secured, and those chosen to be 
their guardians be free from the pollution 
of high crimes, no matter at what time 
that pollution had attached. 

If this be so in regard to other civil of- 
ficers, under institutions which rest upon 
the intelligence and virtue of the people, 
can it well be claimed that the law-making 
Re]iresentative n»ay be vile and criminal 
i with impunity, provided the evidences of 



THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 



211 



his corruption are found to antedate his 
election ? 

In the report made to the Senate by John 
Quincy Adams in Decemhor, 1807, upon 
the case of John Smith, of Ohio, the fol- 
lowing language is used: "The power of 
expelling a member for misconduct results, 
on the principles of common sense, from 
the interests of the nation that the high 
trust of legislation shall be invested in 
pure hands. AVhen the trust is elective, 
it is not to be presumed that the constitu- 
ent body will commit the deposit to the 
keeping of worthless characters. But when 
a man whom his fellow-citizens have hon- 
ored with their confidence on a pledge of 
a spotless repution, has degraded himself 
by the commission of infamous crimes, 
which become suddenly and uaexpectedly 
revealed to the world, defective indeed 
would be that institution which should be 
impotent to discard fi-om its bosom the con- 
tagion of such a member; which should 
have no remedy of amputation to apply 
until the poison had reached the hoart." 

The case of Smith was that of a Senator, 
who, after his election, but not during a 
8e.ssion of the Senate, had been involved 
in the treasonable conspiracy of Aaron 
Burr. Yet the reasoning is general, and 
was to antagonize some positions which 
had been taken in the case of Marshall, 
a Senitor from Kentucky ; the Senate in 
that case having, among other reasons, de- 
clined to take jurisdiction of the charge for 
the reason that the alleged offence had been 
committed prior to the Senator's election, 
and was matter cognizable by the criminal 
courts of Kentucky. None of the com- 
mentators upon the Constitution or upon 
parliamentary law assign any such limita- 
tion as to the time of the commission of 
the offense, or the nature of it, which shall 
control and limit the power of expulsion. 
On the contrary they all assert that the 
power in its very nature is a discretionary 
one, to be exercised of course with grave 
circumspection at all times, and only for 
good cause. Story, Kent, and Sergeant, 
all seem to accept and rely upon the ex- 
position of Mr. Adams in the Smith case 
as sound. May, in his Parliamentary 
Practice, page 59, enumerates the causes 
for expulsion from Parliament, but he no- 
where intimates that the offense must have 
been committed subsequent to the election. 

When it is remembered that the framers 
of our Constitution were familiar with the 
parliamentary law of England, and must 
nave had in mind the then recent contest 
over Wilkes's case, it is impossible to con- 
clude that they meant to limit the discre- 
tion of the Houses as to the causes of ex- 
pulsion. It is a received principle of con- 
struction that the Constitution is to be in- 
terpreted according to the known rules of 
law at the time of its adoption, and there- 



fore, when we find them dealing with a 

recognized subject of legislative authority, 
and while studiously qualifying and re- 
stricting the manner of its exercise, assign- 
ing no limitations to the subject-matter 
itself, they must be assumed to have in- 
tended to leave that to be determined ac- 
cording to established principles, as a high 
prerogative power to be exercised accord- 
ing to the sound discretion of the body. 
It was not to be apprehended that two- 
thirds of the Representatives of the people 
would ever exercise this power in any 
capricious or arbitrary manner, or trifle 
with or trample upon constitutional rights. 
At the same time it could not be foreseen 
what necessities for self-preservation or 
self-purification might arise in the legisla- 
tive body. Therefore it was that they did 
not, and would not, undertake to limit or 
define the boundaries of those necessities. 

The doctrine that the jurisdiction of the 
House over its members is exclusively con- 
fined to matters arising subsequent to their 
election, and that the body is bound to re- 
tain the vilest criminal as a member if his 
criminal secret was kept until his election 
was secured, has been supposed by many 
to have been established and declared in 
the famous case of John Wilkes before al- 
luded to. A short statement of that case 
will show how fallacious is that supposi- 
tion. Wilkes had been elected a member 
of Parliament for Middlesex, and in 1764 
was expelled for having published a libel 
on the ministry. He was again elected 
and again expelled for a similar offense on 
the 3d of Februarv, 1769. Being again 
elected on the 17th of February, 1769, the 
commons passed the following resolution: 
" That John Wilkes, Esq., having been in 
this session of Parliament expelled this 
house was and is incapable of being elected 
a member to serve in this present Parlia- 
ment." Wilkes was again elected, but the 
House of Commons declared the seat va- 
cant and ordered a new election. At this 
election Wilkes was again elected by 1,143 
votes, against 296 for his competitor, Lut- 
trell. 

On the 15th of April, 1769, the house 
decided that by the previous action Wilkes 
had become ineligible, and that the votes 
given for him were void and could not be 
counted, and gave the seat to Luttrell. 
Subsequently, in 1783, the House of Com- 
mons declared the resolution of February 
17, 1769, which had asserted the incapacity 
of an expelled member to be re-elected 
to the same Parliament, to be subversive of 
the rights of the electors, and expunged it 
from the journal. It will be seen from 
this concise statement of Wilkes's case 
that the question was not raised as to the 
power of the house to expel a member 
for offenses committed prior to his election ; 
the point decided, and afterward most 



212 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



properly expunged, was that expulsion per 
»e rendered the expelled member legally 
ineligible, and that votes cast for him could 
not l)e counted. Wilkes's offense was of 
purely a political character, not involving 
moral turpitude; he had attacked the 
ministry in the press, and the proceedings 
against' him in Parliament were then 
claimed to be a partisan political persecu- 
tion, subversive of the rights of the people 
and of the liberty of the press. These 
proceedings in Wilkes's case took place 
during the appearance of the famous Juni- 
us letters, and several of them are devoted 
to the discussion of them. The doctrine 
that expulsion creates ineligibility was at- 
tacked and exposed by him with great 
force. But he concedes that if the cause 
of expulsion be one that renders a man 
unfit and unworthy to be a member, he 
may be expelled for that cause as often as 
he shall be elected. 

The case of Matteson, in the House of 
Representatives, has also often been quoted 
as a precedent for this limitation of juris- 
diction. In the proceedings and debates 
of the House upon that case it will be seen 
that this was one among many grounds 
taken in the debate ; but as the whole sub- 
ject was ended by being laid on the table, 
it is quite impossible to say what was de- 
cided by the House. It appeared, how- 
ever, in "that case that the charge against 
Matteson had become public, and his letter 
upon which the whole charge rested had 
been published and circulated through his 
district during the canvass preceding his 
election. This fact, we judge, had a most 
im])ortant influence in determining the 
action of the House in his case. 

The committee have no occasion in this 
report to discuss the question as to the 
power or duty of the House in a case where 
a constituency, with a full knowledge of 
the objectionable character of a man, have 
selected him to be their Representative. 
It is hardly a case to be supposed that any 
constituency, with a full knowledge that a 
man had been guilty of an offense involv- 
ing moral turpitude, would elect him. The 
majority of the committee are not pre- 
l)ared to concede such a man could be 
forced upon tlie House, and woiild not con- 
sider the expulsion of such a man any vio- 
lation of the rights of the electors, for 
while the electors have rights that should 
be respected, the House as a body has rights 
also that should be protected and preserved. 
But that in such case the judgment of the 
constituency would be entitled to the great- 
est cojisideration, and that this should form 
an ini]!Ort;uit element in its determination, 
is r-'adily a<lmitted. 

It is universally conceded, as we believe, 
that the House has ample jurisdiction to 
punish or expel a member for an offense 
c') na!tted during his term as a member. 



though committed during a vacation of 
Congress and in no way connected with 
his duties as a member. Upon what prin- 
ciple is it that such a jurisdiction can be 
maintained ? It must be upon one or both 
of the following : that the offense shows 
him to be an unworthy and improper man 
to be a member, or that his conduct brings 
odium and reproach upon the body. But 
sujjpose the offense has been committed 
prior to his election, but comes to light 
afterward, is the effect upon his own 
character, or the reproach and disgrace 
upon the body, if they allow him to remain 
a member, any the less ? We can see no 
difference in prineii)le in the two cases, and 
to attempt any would be to create a purely 
technical and arbitrary distinction, having 
no just foundation. In our judgment, the 
time is not at all material, except it be 
coupled with the further fact that he was 
re-elected with a knowledge on the part of 
his constituents of what he had been guilty, 
and in such event we have given our views 
of the effect. 

It seems to us absurd to say that an elec- 
tion has given a man political absolution 
for an ofiense which was unknown to his 
constituents. If it be urged again, as it 
has sometimes been, that this view of the 
power of the House, and the true ground 
of its proper exercise, may be laid hold of 
and used improperly, it may be answered 
that no rule, however narrow and limited, 
that may be adopted can prevent it. If 
two-thirds of the House shall see fit to ex- 
pel a man because they do not like his 
political or religious principles, or without 
any reason at all, they have the power, and 
there is no remedy except by. appeal to the 
people. Such exercise of the power would 
be Avrongful, and violative of the princi- 
jdes of the Constitution, but we see no 
encouragement of such wrong in the views 
we hold. 

It is the duty of each House to exercise 
its rightful functions upon appropriate oc- 
casions, and to trust that those who come 
after them will be no less faithful to duty, 
and no less jealous for the rights of free 
popular representation than themselves. 
It will be quite time enough to square 
other cases with right reason and princijile 
when they arise. Perhaps the best way t-o 
prevent them will be to maintain strictly 
public integrity and public honor in all 
cases as they present themselves. Nor do 
we imagine that the j-eople of the United 
States will charge their servants with in- 
vading their privileges when they confine 
themselves to the preservation of a stand- 
ard of official integrity which the common 
instincts of humanity recognize as essen- 
tial to all social order and good govern- 
ment. 

The foregoing are the views which Ave 
deem proper to submit upon the general 



THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 



213 



qiK'stlon 1)1' (!ic jurisdiction of the House 
over its nieinbers. lUit apart from tlicHe 
•general views, the conuiiiltee are of opin- 
ion that the facts found in tiie present c:use 
amply Justify the tukiuji; jurisdiction over 
them, for the following reasons: 

The suhject-niatter upon which the ac- 
tion of members was intemled to be influ- 
enced was of a continuoMs character, and 
W!is as likely to he a sul»ject of conirres- 
sional action in future C'oiit^resses as in the 
Fortieth. Tlie iiifhiences brouirht to bear 
on members were ;us likely to be operative 
upon tiiem in the future as in the present, 
and were so intended. Mr. Ames and Mr. 
Brooks have both continued members of 
the House to the present time, and so have 
most of the nn'mbers upon whom these in- 
fluences were sought to be exerted. The 
committee are, therefore, of opinion that 
the acta of these men may jiroperly be 
treated as oti'enses against the present 
House, and so within its jurisdiction upon 
the most limited rule. 

Two members of the committee, Messrs. 
Nihlack and McCrary, prefer to express 
no opinion on the general jurisdictional 
questions discussed in the report, and rest 
meir judgment wholly on the ground last 
stateci. 

In relation to Mr. Ames, he sold to sev- 
eral members of Congress stock of the 
Credit Mobilier Company, at par, when it 
was worth double that amount or more, 
with the purpose and intent thereby to in- 
fluence their votes and decisions upon 
matters to come before Congress. 

The facts found in the report ;is to Mr. 
Brooks, show that he used the influence of 
his oiiicial positions as member of Congress 
and Government director in the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company, to get fifty 
shares of the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
Company, at par, when it was worth three 
or four times that sum, knowing that it 
Wiis given to him with intent to influence 
his votes and decisions in Congress, and 
his action :us a Government director. 

The sixth section of the act of Februarv 
26, isr)3, 10 Stat. United States, 171, is in 
the following words: 

" If any person or persons shall, directly 
or indirectly, promise, offer, or give, or 
cause or procure to be promised, oftered, or 

fiven, any money, goods, right in action, 
ribe, pres(Mit, or reward, or any promise, 
contract, undertaking, obligation, or se- 
curity for the payment or delivery of any 
money, go )ds, right in action, bribe, pres- 
ent, or reward, or any other valuable thing 
whatever, to any member of the Senate or 
House of Representatives of the United 
States, after his election as stich member. 
and either before or after he shall have 
qualified and taken his seat, or to any offi- 
cer of the United States, or person holding 
any place of trust or profit, or discharging 



any official function under or in connec- 
ti<in with any l)e[iartment of the (iovern- 
ment of the United States, or under the 
Senate or Mouse of Ilcpri-sentatives of the 
United States, alter the passage of this act, 
with intent to influence his vote or de- 
cision on any (lucstion, matter, cause, or 
[)roceeding which nuiy then be pending, or 
may by law, or under the Constitution of 
ihe United States, be brought before him 
in his official capacity, or in his jilace of 
trust or profit, and shall tlienof be con- 
victed, such person or i)ersons so offering, 
promising, or giving, or causing or pro- 
curing to be promised, offered, or given, 
any such money, goods, right in action, 
bribe, jtre.sent, or reward, or any promise, 
contract, undertaking, obligation, or se- 
curity for the payment or delivery of any 
money, goods, right in action, bribe, jires- 
ent, or reward, or other valuable thing 
whatever, and the member, officer, or i)er- 
son who shall in anywise accept or receive 
the same, or any j)art thereof, shall be 
liable to indictment as for a high crime 
and misdemeanor in any of the courts of 
the United States having jurisdiction for 
the trial of crimes and misdemeanors; and 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not 
exceeding three times the amount so 
offered, promised, or given, and imprisoned 
in the penitentiary not exceeding three 
years ; and the person so convicted of so 
accepting or receiving the same, or any 
part thereof, if an officer or person holding 
any such place of trust or profit as afore- 
said, shall forfeit his office or place; and 
any person so convicted under this section 
shall forever be disqualified to hold any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the 
United States." 

In the judgment of the committee, the 
facts reported in regard to Mr. Ames and 
Mr. Brooks would have justified their con- 
viction under the above-recited statute and 
subjected them to the penalties therein 
provided. 

The committee need not enlarge upon 
the dangerous character of these offenses. 
The sense of Congress is shown by the 
severe penalty denounced by the statute 
itself. The offenses were not violations of 
private rights, but were against the very 
life of a constitutional (Government by 
poisoning the fountain of legislation. 

The duty devolved upon the committee 
has been of a most painful and delicate 
character. They have performed it to the 
best of their ability. They have ])roceeded 
with the greatest care and deliberation, 
for while they desired to do their full duty 
to the House and the country, they were 
most anxious not to do injustice to any 
man. In forming their conclusions they 
have intended to be entirely cool and dis- 
])assionate, not to allow themselves to be 
swerved by any popular fervor on the one 



214 



y^MERICAN POLITICS. 



hand, or any feeling of personal favor and 
sympathy on the other. 

The committee submit to the House and 
recommend the adoption of the following 
resolutions. 

" 1. Whereas Mr. Oakes Ames, a Repre- 
sentative in this House from the State of 
Massachusetts, has been guilty of selling 
to membors <i!' Congress shares of stock in 
the Credit Mobilier of America, for prices 
much below the true value of such stock, 
with intent thereby to influence the votes 
and decisi(jns of such members in matters 
to be brought before Congress for action : 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That Mr. Oakes Ames be, and 
he is hereby, expelled from his seat as a 
member of this House. 

2. Whereas Mr. James Brooks, a Repre- 
sentative iu this House from the State of 
New York, did procure the Credit Mo- 
bilier Company to issue and deliver to 
Charles H. Neilson, for the use and bene- 
fit of said Brooks, fifty shares of the stock 
of said company, at a price much below its 
real value, well knowing that the same 
was so issued and delivered with intent to 
influence the votes and decisions of said 
Brooks, as a member of the House, in mat- 
ters to be brought before Congress for ac- 
tion, and also to influence the action of 
said Brooks as a Government director in 
the Union Pacific Railroad Company: 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That Mr. James Brooks be, 
and he is hereby, expelled from his seat as 
a member of this House." 

The House, after much discussion, modi- 
fied the propositions of the committee of 
investigation, and subjected Oakes Ames 
and James Brooks to the " absolute con- 
demnation of the House.'' Both members 
died within three months thereafter. 

The session was full of investigations, 
but all the others failed to develop any 
tangible scandals. The Democrats de- 
manded and secured the investigation of 
the New York custom-house ; the United 
States Treasury ; the use of Seneca sand- 
stone; the Chorpenning claim, and the 
Navy Dei)artment, etc. They were, as 
stated, fruitless. 



The "Salary Gral>." 

At the same session — 1871-73, acts were 
pa-ssed to abolish the franking privilege, to 
increase the President's salary from $25- 
000 to $50,000, and tlint of Senators and 
Representatives from 85,000 to ;?7,500. The 
last proved quite unpopular, nud was gene- 
rally denounced as " The Salary Grab," 
l)e("uise of the feature which made it ap- 
ply to the Congressmen who passed the 
bill, and of course to go backward to the 
beginning of the term. This was not 
new, as earlier precedents were found to 



excuse it, but the people were neverthe- 
less dissatisfied, and it was made an issue 
by both parties iu the nomination and 
election of Representatives. Many were 
defeated, but probably more survived the 
issue, and are still enjoying public life. 
Yet the agitation was kept up until the 
obnoxious feature of the bill and the Con- 
gressional increase of salary were repealed, 
leaving it as now at the rate of $5,*^00 a 
year and mileage. 

A House committee, headed by B. F. 
Butler, on Feb. 7th, 1873, made a report 
which gave a fair idea of the expenses un- 
der given circumstances — the increase to 
be preserved, but the franking privilege 
and mileage to be repealed. We quote 
the figures : 

Increase of President's salary $25,000 00 
Increase of Cabinet ministers' 

salary 14,000 00 

Increase of salary of judges 

United States Supreme j 

Court 18,500 00 | 

Increase of salary of Senators, 

Members, and Delegates... 972,000 00 

Total increase $1,029,500 00 

Saving to the Government, ac- 
cording to the ofiicial state- 
ment of the Postmaster- 
General, per annum, by the 
abolition of the franking 
privilege $2,543,327 72 

Saving to the Government by 
abolition of mileage, sta- 
tionery, postage, and news- 
paper accounts (estimated) 200 000 00 

$2,753,327 72 I 
1,029,500 00 ■' 



Total net saving $1,713,827 72 

The House passed a bill for the aboli- 
tion of mileage, but in the Senate it was 
referred to the Committee on Civil Service 
and Retrenchment, and not again heard 
from. So that the increased pay no longer 
obtains, the franking ]^rivilege only to the 
extent of mailing actual Congressional 
documents, and mileage remains. 

The following curious facts relating to 
these questions we take from Hon. Edward 
McPherson's admirable compilation in his 
" Hand-Book of Politics " for 1874. 



statement of Compeusatlon and 3Iileage. 

Dnui-n hy U. S. Senators ttnder the various Compensation 
Acts. 

Mr. Gorham, Secretary of the Senate, 
prepared, under date of January 3, 1874, a 
statement, in answer to a resolution of the 
Senate, covering these points : 



COMPENSATION AND MILKAGK, 



215 



I. — The several rates of rompensation fixed 
by oarinus laws, and the eauet in whieh 
the same were retroactive, and for what 
length of time. 

1. By the act of September 22. 17S!), tlie 
compensation of Senators and Kepresenta- 
tives in CJonucress was fixed at six dollars a 
day, ami tliirty eents a mile for travelinj!; 
to and from tiie seat of Government. Tiiis 
rate was to continue until March 4, 17'.!.'). 
The same act lixed the compensation 
from March 4, 17i)'), to Alarcli 4, 179(i, (at 
wiiich last-named date, by it^ terms, it ex- 
pired,) at seven dollars a day. and thirty- 
five cents a mile for travel. This act was 
retroactive, extending back six months 
and eigliteen days, namely, to March 4, 

I7s;). 

2. The act of March 10, 1796, fixed the 
compensation at six dollars a day, and 
thirty cents a mile for travel. (This act 
extended back over six days only.) 

3. The act of March 19,' 1816, fixed the 
compensation at$l,")00 a year, "instead of 
the daily com{)ensation," and left the mile- 
age uin'hanged. This act was retroactive, 
extending back one year and fifteen days, 
namely to March 4, 1815. (This act was 
repealed by the act of February 6, 1817, 
but it was expressly declared that no 
former act was therebv revived. ) 

4. The •let of January 22, 1818, fixed the 
compensatiou at eight dollars a day, and 
forty cents a' mile for travel. This act was 
retroactive, extending l)ack fifty-three days, 
namely, to the assembling of Congress, 
December 1, 1817. 

5. The act of August 16, 1856, fixed the 
compensation at $8,000 a year, and left the 
mileage unchanged. This act was retroac- 
tive, extending ])ack one year, five months, 
and twelve days, namely, to March 4, 18")5. 

6. The act'of July '28, 1866, fixed the 
compensatit)n at §5,000 a year, and twenty 
cents a mile for travel, (not to aifect mile- 
age accounts already accrued.) This act 
was retroactive, extending liack one year, 
four months, an<l twenty-four days, namely, 
to March 4, 1865. 

7. The act of March 3, 1873, fixed the 
compensation at §7,500 a year, and actual 
traveling expenses; the mileage already 
paid for the Forty-Second Congress to be 
deilucted from the pay of those who had 
received it. This act was retroactive, ex- 
tending back two years, namely, to March 
4, 1871. 

Note. — ^Stationery was allowed to Sena- 
tors and Rei)resentatives without any 
special limit until March 3, 1868, Avlieii 
the amount for stationery and newspapers 
for each Senator and Member was limited 
to $125 a session. This was changed by a 
subsequent act, taking effect July 1, I860, 
to $125 a year. The act of 1873 abolished 
all allowance for stationery and new- 
papers. 



Senator was made up, and that each re- 
ceived the amount allowed by law. 



II. — Xamts of Senators who drew pay un- 
der the retroactive iinn'isions of the 
several laies, amounts drawn, and dates oj 
same. 

Act of 1789. — The records of my office 
<lo not furnish the exact information de- 
sired under this liead concerning the 
First Congress, the compensation of whicii 
was fixed by act of Septemlter 22, 17K9. It 
ajjpear.s, however, that the account of each 
3 up, 

t allowed by law. The 
following is a cojjy from the reconl : 

January 19, 1790.— That there is due to 
the Senators of the United States for 
attendance in Congress tiie present se-ssion, 
to tiie 31st of March inclusive, and ex- 
penses of travel to Congress , as allowed 
by law, as follows, to wit : 

Messrs. Richard Basset, $496.50 ; Pierce 
Butler, $796; Charles Carroll, $186; 
Tristram Dalton, $612; Oliver Ellsworth, 
$546.50; Jonathan Elmer, $414 ; William 
Few, $833.50; John Henry, $;")96.50 ; Ben- 
jamin Hawkins, $615 ; William S. John- 
son, $544 ; Samuel Johnson, $534 ; Rufus 
King, $522 ; John Langdon, $618 ; William 
Maclay, $585; Robert Morris, $430.50; 
William Paterson, $514.50; George Read, 
sl95 ; Caleb Strong, $575.50 ; Philip 
Schuyler, $571.50 ; PaineWingate, $616.50. 
Act of 1816. — The record contains uo 
showing as to the amount paid to Senators 
under the rt-troactive provision of the act 
of March 19,1816. The following, taken 
from the books, shows the amount of com- 
pensation paid to each Senator for the en- 
tire Congress, exclusive of mileage : 

Messrs. Eli P. Ashinun, $920 ; James 
Barbour, $2,850 ; William T. Barry, $2,080; 
William W. Bibb, $2,070 ; James Brown, 
>;2,980 ; George W. Campbell, $2,950 ; Dud- 
ley Chace, $3,000 ; John Condit, $2,980 ; 
David Daggett, $3,000 ; Samuel W. Dana, 
$2,640 ; Elegius Fromentin, $3,00'» ; John 
Gaillard, President, $6,000; Robert H. 
Goldslwrough, $2,840 ; Christopher Gore, 
$1,940; Alexander Contee Hanson, $530; 
3Iartin D. Hardin, $900 ; Robert G. Har- 
per, si, 450; Outerbridge Horsev, $3,000; 
Jeremiah B. Howell, $3,000; William 
Plunter, $2,930; Rufus King, $2,660; 
Abner Lacock, $3,000 ; Nathaniel Macon, 
$2,946 ; Jeremiah Mason of New Hamp- 
shire, $2,6S0 ; Armistead T. Mason of Vir- 
irinia, $2,360 ; Jeremiah Morrow, $3,000 ; 
James Noble, $920; Jonatbiui Roberts, 
$3,000 ; Benjamin Ruggles. $3,000 ; Nathaa 
Sanford, $2,720; William Smith, $540; 
Montfort Stokes, $810; Charles Tait, 
^;3.000; Isham Talbot. $2,730; John Tay- 
lor of S(mth Carolina, $1,990 ; Waller Tay- 
lor of Indiana, $920; Thomas W. Thomp- 
son, !=;2,850 ; Isaac Tichenor. $"..000 ; Georgo 
M. Trouj), $830 ; James Turner, $2,060 ; 
Joseph B. Varnum, .':S,00i» ; AVilliam H. 



216 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Wello, $2,610; John Williams, $3,000; 
James J. Wilson, $3,000. 

Act of 1818. — Under the retroactive 
provision of the act ol' January 22, 1818, 
the following named Senators drew the 
amounts for compensation and mileage op- 
posite their respective names : 

Messrs. Eli T. Aslunun, $668 ; James 
Barbour, $520 ; James Burril, $762 ; George 
W. Campbell, $1,008 ; John J. Crittenden, 
$1,007.20 ; David Daggett, $690.40 ; Samuel 
W. Dana, $283.20; Mahlon Dickerson, 
$628.80; John W. Eppes, $584; James 
Fisk, $848 ; Elegius Fromentin, $1,393.60 ; 
John Gaillard, $880 ; Robert H. Golds- 
borough, $483.20; Outerbridge Horsey, 
$485.60 ; William Hunter, $543.20 ; Henry 
Johnson, $1,273.60 ; Rufus King, $627.20 ; 
Abner Lacock, $649.60; Walter Leake, 
$1,384 ; Nathaniel Macon, $600 ; David L. 
Morril, $876 ; Jeremiah Morrow, $776 ; 
James Noble, $918.40 ; Harrison Gray Otis, 
$792.80 ; Jonathan Roberts, $564.80 ; Ben- 
jamin Ruggles, $688; Nathan Sanford, 
$616 ; William Smith, $774.40 ; Montfort 
Stokes, $745.60 ; Clement Storer, $875.20 ; 
Charles Tait, $952; Isham Talbot, $872; 
Waller Taylor, $1,080; Isaac Tichenor, 

$784; George M. Troup, $952; Van 

Dyke, $380.80; Thomas H. Williams of 
Mississippi, $1,433.60; John Williams of 
Tennessee, $861.60 ; James J. Wilson, 
$568. 

Act of 1856. — Under the retroactive 
provision of the act of August 16, 1856, 
the following named Senators drew the 
amounts opposite their respective names : 

Messrs. Stephen Adams, $2,243.77 ; 
Philip Allen, $2,202.79 ; James A. Bayard, 
$2,088.03; James Bell, $1,083.93; John 
Bell, $2,268.36; J. P. Benjamin, $2,210.99 ; 
Aki Biggs, $2,161.81 ; William Bigler, $1,- 
594.24; Jesse D. Bright, president pro 
tempore, $6,772.40; R. Brodhead, $2,251.- 
97 ; A. G. Brown, $2,251.97 ; A. P. Butler. 
$2,202.70 ; Lewis Cass, $2,251.97 ; C. C. 
Clay, jr., $2,251.97 ; J. M. Clayton, $2,292.- 
95 ; J. Collamer, $2,219.18 ; J. J. Critten- 
den, $2,243.79 ; H. Dodge, $2,292.95 ; S. A. 
Douglas, $2,268.36 ; C. Durkee, $2,235.56 ; 
J. J. Evans, $2,121.70 ; W. S. Fessenden, 
$2,276.56 ; H. Fish, $2,237.28 ; B. Fitzpat- 
rick, $2,194.59; S. Foot, $2,292.94; L. F. 
S. Foster, $2,112.62 ; H. S. Gever, $2,276.- 
56 ; J. P. Hale, $887.10; H. Hamlin, $1,- 
989.68; J. Harlan, $2,268.36; S. Houston, 
$2,292.95; R. M. T. Hunter, 2,210.99; A. 
Iverson, $2,210.99; C. T.James, $2,210.99; 
R. W. Johnson, $632.21 ; G. W. Jones, 
$2,235.58; J. C. Jones, $2,047.05; S. R. 
Mallory, $2,276.56; J. M. Mason, $2,170; 
J. A. Pearce, $2,1*1.59 ; T. G. Pratt, $2,- 
129.02 ; G. E. Pugh, $2,096.21 ; D. S. Reid, 
$2,235.58 ; T. J. Rusk, $2,292.95 ; W. K. 
Sebastian, $2,137.22 ; W. H. Seward, $2,- 
292.95: John Slidell, $2,276.56; C. E. 
Stuart, $2,292.95; C. Sumner, $2,292.95; 



J. B. Taoaipson, $2,235.57; John R. 
Thomson, ip2,022.46 ; Robert Toombs, $2,- 
006.07 ; Isaac Toucey, $2,292.65 ; L. Trum- 
bull, $2,251.97 ; B. F. Wade, $2,202.79 ; J. 
B. Weller, $2,251 97 ; H. Wilson, $2,178.- 
20 ; W. Wright, $2,120.82 ; D. L. Yulee, 
$2,194.59. 

Act of 1866. — Under the retroactive 
provision of the act of July 28, 1866, the 
following named Senators received the 
amounts ojjposite their respective names : 

Messrs. H. B. Anthony, $2,805 56 ; B. 
Gratz Brown, $2,805 56 ; C. R. Buckalew, 
$2,805 56 ; Z. Chandler, $2,805 56 ; D. 
Clark, $2,805 56 ; J. Collamer, $1,366 15 ; 
J. Conness, $2,805 56 ; E. Cowan, $2,- 
805 56 ; A. H. Cragin, $2,805 56 ; J. A. J. 
Creswell. $2,805, 56 ; G. Davis, $2,805 56 ; 
J. Dixon, $2,805 56; J. R. Doolittle, $2,- 
805 56; W. P. Fessenden, $2,805 56; S. 
Foot, $2,136 76 ; L. F. S. Foster, President 
pro tempore, $261 93 ; J. W. Grimes, $2,- 
805 56 ; J. Guthrie, $2,805 56 ; I. Harris, 
$2,805 56 ; J. B. Henderson, $2,805 56 ; T. 
A. Hendricks, $2,805.56 ; J. M. Howard, 
$2,805 56 ; T. O. Howe, $2,805 56 ; R. John- 
son, $2,805 56; H. S. Lane, $2,805 56; 
J, H. Lane, $2,710 49 ; James A. Mc- 
Dougall, $2,805 56; E. D. Morgan, $2,- 
805 56 ; L. M. Morrill, $2,805 56 ; J. W. 
Nesmith, $2,805 56 ; D. S. Norton, $2,- 
805 56 ; J. W. Nye, $2,805 56 ; S. C. Pome- 
roy, $2, 805 56 ; A. Ramsev, $2,805 56 ; G. 
R. Riddle, $2,805 56 ; W. Saulsburv, $2,- 
805 56 ; J. Sherman, $2,805 56 ; W. M. 
Stewart, $2,805 56 ; C. Sumner, $2,805 56 ; 
L. Trumbull, $2,805 56 ; P. G. Van Winkle, 
$2,805 56; B. Wade, $2,805 56; W. T. 
Willey, $2,805 56 ; G. H. Williams, $2,- 
805 56 ; H. Wilson, $2,805 56 ; W. Wright, 
$2,805 56 ; R. Yates, $2,805 56 ; J. Harlan, 
$350 ; L. P. Poland, $1,361 ; John P. Stock- 
ton, $2,131 20; S. J. Kirkwood, $2,361 10; 
G. F. Edmunds, ^^^ciii 66 ; E. G. Ross, 
$180 40. 

Act of 1873. — Lender the retroactive 
provision of the act of March 3, 1873, the 
following named Senators received the 
sums set opposite their respective names : 

Messrs. A. Ames, $2,840 ; J. L. Alcorn, 
$2,312 39 ; J. T. Bayard, $4,865 60 ; F. P. 
Blair, $3,76160; A. L Boreman, $4,514; 
W. G. Brownlow, $4,588 ; A. Caldwell, $2,-' 
647 60 ; S. Cameron, $4,856 ; M. H. Cai* 
penter, $3,887 60 ; E. Casserly, $970 40 ; 7^ 
Chandler, $3,906 80; P. Clavton, $2,600; 
C. Cole, $970 40; H. Cooper, $3,760 ; H. 
G. Davis, $4,635 20 ; O. S. Ferry, $4,652 ; 
T. W. Ferry, $3,920; J. W. Flanagan, $2,- 
000; A. Gilbert, $3,680; George Goldth- 
waite, $3,924 80 ; M. C. Hamilton, $2,480 ; 
Joshua Hill, $4,083 20 ; P. W. Hitchcock, 
$2,852 80 ; T. O. Howe, $3,689 60 , J. W. 
.Johnston, $4,705 60 ; John T. Lewis, $4,- 
S04 40; John A. Logan, $3,800; W. B. 
Machen, $552 98; L. M. Morrill, $4,190; 
J. S. Morrill, (draft in favor of the treas- 



RETURNING BOARDS. 



217 



urer of the State of Vermont,) $4,386 80 ; 
T. M. Norwood, $4,l(il> ()(» ; J. W. Nve, *2,- 
07t) HO; T. W. Osborii, $:?,440 ; J. W. ]»ut- 
terson, $4,280; 8. C. Poinerov, $.S,;i20 ; 
John Pool, $4,(J20 80 ; M. W. Riinsom, $4,- 
817 (50; B. F. Rice, $.'{,200; T. J. Robert- 
sou, $4,874 80; F. A. Sawyer. $4,21>4 4<» ; 
George E. Spencer, .'?4,10(); W. Sprague, 
$4,508; W. .M. Stewart, $1,48(3 40; J. 1*. 
Stockton, $4,7;K> ; T. W. Tipton, *:j,8r)8 ; 
Lvnian Triunbull, $8,080; G. Vickers, $4,- 
880 ; J. K. West, $2,4<)8 80. 
III. — Xtimes of Senators who covered into 
the Treasury amounts due them under re- 
troactive provisions of law, ivith date of 
such action. 

There is no record in my office showing 
that any Senator coveretl into the Trea- 
sury any money to which he was entitled 
by the retroactive provisions of either of 
the acts of September 22, 1789, March 10, 
181(J, January 22, 1818, August 16, 1856, or 
July 28, 18()6. 

The following Senators covered into the 
Treasury the amounts due them under the 
retroactive provision of the act of March 8, 
1873, namelv : 

1873.— May 26, H. B. Anthony, $4,497 
20 ; June 28, W. A. Buckin-ham, $4,553 60 ; 
Mav 21, R. E. Ponton, $4,184; June 2, F. 
T. Frelinghuysen, $4,644 80 ; May 19, H. 
Hamlin, $4,186; August 14, O. P. Morton, 
$3,922 40 ; April 9. D. D. Pratt, $4,121 60 ; 
August 25, A. Ramsey, $3,041 40 ; March 
28, C. Schurz, $3,761 60 ; May 9, John 
Scott, $4,733 06 ; July 11, John Sherman, 
$4,336 40 ; May 2, U. Sumner, $4,445 60 ; 
May 22, A. G.Thurman, $4,359 20 ; March 
28, Henrv Wilson, $4,448 ; September 6, 
George G. Wright, $8,140 80. 

NoTK. — Several of these Senators, as 
well as others who have not either drawn 
or covered into the Treasury the amounts 
due them under the retroactive provision 
ofthe actof 1878, expressed tome their 
intention to allow the money to lapse into 
the Trea.sury by the ordinary operation of 
law, which they supposed would occur 
July 3, 1873. After learning that it could 
not be covered in, except by their order, 
before July 8, 1875, some gave me written 
instructions to anticipate the latter date. 
I am unable to furnish from any informa- 
tion in my office the names of Senators 
who themselves paid into the Treasury 
Siilary drawn under the act of 1878 or pre- 
vious acts. I have not furnished the 
names of Senators who have left increased 
salary undrawn, as this information was 
not called for in the resolution. 

IV. — A Comparative Statement. 
Total compensation and allowance of 
Senators, under act of Julv 28, 1866, from 
March 4, 1871, to March" 3, 1872: Com- 
pensation, $370,000 ; mileage, $87,041 20 ; 
•iationery and aewspapei-s, $9,250; total. 



$416,29120; average per Senator, $5,- 

625 55 1 ^. 

Under same act, from March 4, 1872, to 
March 3, 1878, during which year memb'ere 
of the Senate received mileage for attend- 
ing the special session of the Senate, held 
in May, 1872, the following aiiujunts were 
paid: Compensation, $870,000; mileage, 
$59,002 80 ; newspapers and stationery, $9,- 
250 ; total, $488,252 80 ; average per Sen- 
ator, $5,922 28J?. 

Total compensation and allowance of 
Senators under act of March 8, \ST.i: 
Compensation, $555,000; traveling ex- 
penses, based upon the certificates of forty- 
six Senators, (twenty-eight having pre- 
sented none,) amounting to $4,607 95, giv- 
ing an average of $100 17x74==$7,412 58; 
total, $562,412 58; average per Senator. 
$7,600 17. 

In connection with this were statements, 
prepared by the Secretary of the Senate, 
and laid before that body bv Senator 
Cameron, January 9, 1874, of the amounts 
of mileage paid in dollars (cents omitted) 
at particular dates under the acts of 1856 
and 1866, are given. The act of 1856 fixed 
mileage at forty cents per mile each way, 
and the act of 1866 fixed it at twenty cents 
per mile each way. 



Returning Boards. 

At the second session of the 42d Con- 
gress that body, and the President as well, 
were compelled to consider a new question 
in connection with politics — an actual con- 
flict of State Governments. There had al- 
ways been, in well regulated State govern- 
ments, returning boards, but with a view 
the better to guard the newly enfranchised 
citizens of the South from" intimidation, 
the Louisiana Republicans, under very 
bold and radical leaders, had greatly 
strengthened the powers of her returning 
boards. It could canvass the votes, reject 
the returns in part or as a whole of 
parishes where force or fraud had been 
used, and could declare results after such 
revision. The Governor of Louisiana had 
made several removals and appointments 
of State officers for the purpose mainly of 
making a friendly majority in the return- 
ing board, and this led to the ai)i)ointment 
of two bodies, both claiming to be the le- 
gitimate returning board. There soon 
followed two State governments and legis- 
latures, the Democratic headed by Gover- 
nor John McEnery, the Republican by 
Governor Wm. Pitt Kellogg, later in the 
U. S. Senate. Kellogg brought suit 
against the Democratic officers before 
Judge Durell, of the Federal District 
Court, and obtained an (jrder that the 
U. S. Marshal (S. B. Packard, afterwards 
Governor), should seize the State House 
and prevent the meetings of the ^IcEnery 



218 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



legislature. Then botli governments were 
hastily inaugurated, and claimed tlie re- 
cognition of Congress. The Senate Com- 
mittee reported tliat Judge Durell's deci- 
sion was not warranted, but the report 
refused a decisive recognition of either 
government. A bill was introduced de- 
claring the election of Nov. 4, 1872, on 
which this condition of affairs was based, 
null and void, and providing for a new 
election, but this bill was defeated by a 
clo.-e vote. Later on, Louisiana claimed 
a large share in National politics. Some- 
what similar troubles occurred in Alabama, 
Arkansas, and Texas, but they were settled 
with far greater ease than those of Louisi- 
ana. The correspondence in all of these 
cases was too voluminous to reproduce 
here, and we shall dismiss the subject 
until the period of actual hostilities were 
reached in Louisiana. 



The Orangers. 

So early as 1867 a secret society had 
been formed first in Washington, known 
as the Patrons of Husbandry, and it soon I 
succeeded in forming subordinate lodges 
or granges in Illinois, Wisconsin, and other 
States. It was declared not to be politi- 
cal ; that its object was co-operation among 
farmers in purchasing supplies from first 
hands, so as to do away with middle-men, 
but, like many other secret organizations, 
it was soon perverted to political purposes, 
and lor a time greatly disturbed the politi- 
cal parties of the Western States. This 
was especially true of the years 1873-74, 
when the Grangers announced a contem- 
plated war on railroad corporations, and 
succeeded in carrying the legislatures of 
Illinois and Wisconsin, and inducing them 
subsequently to pass acts, the validity of 
which the Supreme Courts of the State, 
under a temporary popular pressure which 
was apparently irresistible, could not sus- 
tain. The effect of these laws was to al- 
most bankrupt the Illinois Central, there- 
tofore wealthy, t<j cripple all railroads, 
to interfere largely with foreign exports, 
and to react against the interests of the 
people of the States passing them, that the 
demand for repeal was soon very much 
greater than the original demand for pas- 
sage. As these laws, though repealed, are 
still often referred to in the discu.ssion of 
political and corporate questions, we give 
the text of one of them : 

Illinois Railroad Act of 1873. 

An A(.'t to prevent extortion and unjust 
discrimination in the rates charged for 
the transportation of passengers and 
freiglits on railroads in this State, and to 
punish the same, and prescribe a mode 
of procedure and rules of evidence in 



relation thereto, and to repeal an aot en- 
titled " An act to prevent unjust discrim- 
ination and extortions in the rates to be 
charged by the different railroads in 
this State forthe transportation of freights 
on said roads," approved April 7, A. D. 
1871. 

Section 1. Be it enacted hy the People 
of the State of Illinois, represented in the 
General Assenihly, If any railroad corpo- 
ration, organized or doing business in this 
State under any act of incorporation, or 
general law of this State now in force, or 
which may hereafter be enacted, or any 
railroad corporation organized or which 
may hereafter be organized under the laws 
of any other State, and doing business in 
this State, shall charge, collect, demand, 
or receive more than a fair and reasonable 
rate of toll or compensation for the trans- 
portation of passengers or freight 'of any 
description, or for the use and transporta- 
tion of any railroad car upon its track, or 
any of the branches thereof, or upon any 
railroad within this State which it has the 
right, license, or permission to use, oper- 
ate, or control, the same shall be deemed 
guilty of extortion, and upon conviction 
thereof shall be dealt with as hereinafter 
provided. 

Sec. 2. If any such railroad corporation 
aforesaid shall make any unjust discrimi- 
nation in its rates or charges of toll, or 
! compensation, for the transportation of 
' passengers or freight of any description, 
; or for the use and transiiortatiou of any 
i railroad car upon its said road, or upon 
any of the branches thereof, or upon rail- 
roads connected therewith, which it has 
i the right, license, or permission to operate, 
I control, or use, within this State, the same 
shall be deemed guilty of having violated 
the provisions of this act, and upon con- 
viction thereof shall be dealt with as here- 
inafter provided. 

Sec. 3. If any such railroad corporation 
shall charge, collect, or receive for the 
transportation of any passenger, or freight 
of any description, upon its railroad, lor 
any distance within this State, the same 
or a greater amount of toll or compensa- 
tion than is at the same time charged, col- 
lected, or received for the transportation, 
in the same direction, of any passenger, or 
like quantity of freight of the same class, 
over a greater distance of the same rail- 
road ; or if it shall charge, collect, or re- 
ceive at any point upon this railroad a 
higher rate of toll or compensation for re- 
ceiving, handling, or delivering freight of 
the same class and quantity than it shall 
at the same time charge, collect, or receive 
at any other point upon the same railroad; 
or if it shall charge, collect or receive for 
the transportation of any passenger, or 
freight of any description, over its railroad 
a greater amount as toll or compensation 



ILLINOIS RAILROAD ACT OF 1873. 



219 



th:in shall at the same time lif fliarjred, I 
Cdllectcd, ur received by it lor the trails- ■ 
portationof any passenger or like (juantity 
ot" freight of the same class, beiiij^ trans- ' 
ported ill the same direction over any por- i 
tionof the same railroad of eipial distance ; 
or if it sliall charge, collect, or receive from 
any pei"son or persons a higher or greater 
amonnt of toll or comi)ensation than it 
shall at the same time charge, collect, or 
receive from any other person or persons 
for receiving, handling, or delivering freight 
of the same class and like (piantity at the 
same point upon its niilroad ; or if it shall 
charge, collect, or receive from any person 
or persons for the transportation of any 
frciglit upon its railroad a higher or great- 
er rate of toll or comi)ensation than it shall 
at the same time charge, collect, or receive 
from any other person or persons for the 
transportation of the like quantity of freight 
of the same class being transported from 
the same direction over equal distances of 
the same railroad ; or if it shall charge, 
collect, or receive from any person or per- 
sons for the use and transportation of any 
railroad car or cars upon its railroad for any 
distance the same or a greater amount of 
toll or compensation than is at the same 
time charged, collected, or received from 
any person or persons for the use and trans- 
portation of any railroad car of the same 
class or number, for a like purpose, being 
transported in the same direction over a 
greater distance of the same railroad ; or 
if it shall charge, collect, or receive from 
any person or persons for the use and trans- 
portation of any railroad car or cars upon 
its railroad a higher or greater rate of toll 
or compensation than it shall at the same 
time charge, collect, or receive from any 
other person or persons for the use and 
transportation of any railroad car or cars 
of the same class or number, lor a like 
purjiose, being transported from the same 
]>oint in the same direction over an equal 
distance of the same railroad ; all such dis- 
criminating rates, charges, collections, or 
receipts, whether made directly or by means 
of any rebate, drawback, or other shift or 
evasion, shall be deemed and taken against 
such railroad corporation as prima facie 
evidence of the unjust discriminations 
prohibited by the provisions of this act, 
and it shall not be deemed a sufficient ex- 
cuse or justification of such discriminations 
on the })art of such railroad corporation, 
that the railway station or point at which 
it shall charge, collect, or receive the same 
or le.'^s rates of toll or compensation for the 
transportation of such passenger or freight, 
or for the use and transportation of such 
railroad car the greater distance than for 
the shorter distance, is a railway station or 
point at which there exists competition 
with any other railroad or means of trans- 
portation. This section shall not be con- 



strued so as to exclude other evidence tend- 
ing to show any unjust discrimination in 
freight and passenger rates. The i)ro- 
visions of this section shall extend antlap- 
ply to any railroad, the branches thereof, 
and any road or roads which any railroad 
corporation has the right, license, or per- 
mission to use, operate, or control, wholly 
or in part, within the State: /'roriited. 
/toirrijcr, That nothing herein c iiitained 
shall be so construeil as to prevent railroad 
corporations from issuing commutation, 
excursion, or thousand mile tickets, as the 
same are now issued by such corporations. 

Si'X". 4. Any such railroad cor])(»ration 
guilty of extortion, or (jf making any un- 
just discrimination as to passenger or 
freight rates, or the rates for the use and 
transportation of railroad cars, or in re- 
ceiving, handling, or delivering freights 
shall, ui>on conviction thereof, be fined in 
any sum not less than one thousand dol- 
lars ($1,1)00) nor more than five thousand 
dollars ($5,000 j for the first olfense; and 
for the second offense not less than five 
thousand dollars ($5,000) nor more than 
ten thousand dollars ($10,000;) and for 
the third offense not less than ten 
thousand dollars ($10,000) nor more than 
twenty thousand dollars ($20,000;) and 
for every subsc({uent offense and convic- 
tion thereof shall be liable to a fine of 
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000:) 
Provided, That in all cases under this act 
either party shall have the right of trial 
by jury. 

Sec. 5. The fines hereinbefore provided 
for may be recovered in an action of debt 
in the name of the people of the State of 
Illinois, and there may be several counts 
joined in the same declaration as to extor- 
tion and unjust discrimination, and a.s to 
passenger and freight rates, and rates for 
Ihe use and transportation of railroad cars, 
and for receiving, handling, or delivering 
freights. If, upon the trial of any case 
instituted under this act, the jury shall 
find for the people, they shall assess and 
return with their verdict the amount of 
the fine to be imposed upon the defendant, 
at any sum not less than one thousand 
dollars (81,000) nor more than five thou- 
sand dollars ($5,000,) and the court shall 
render judgment accordingly; and if the 
jury shall find for the people, and th:it the 
delendant has been once before convicted 
of a violation of the provisions of this act, 
they shall return such finding with their 
verdict, and shall assess and return with 
their verdict the amount of the fine to be 
imposed upon the defendant, at any sum 
not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) 
nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,- 
000,) and the court shall render judgment 
accordingly; and if tiie jury shall find for 
the people, and that the defendant has 
been twice before convicted of a violation 



220 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of the provisions of this act, with respect i 
to extortion or unjust discrimination, they 
shall return sucli finding with their ver- 
dict, and shall assess and return with their 
verdict the amount of the fine to be im- 
posed upon the defendant, at any sum not 
less than ten thousand dollars' ($10,000) 
nor more than twenty thousand dollars 
($20,000;) and in like manner for every 
subsequent oti'ense and conviction such de- } 
fendant shall be liable to a fine of twenty- 
five thousand dollars ($25,000.) Provided, ' 
That in all cases under the provisions of i 
this act a preponderance of evidence in ; 
favor of the people shall be sufficient to 1 
authorize a verdict and judgment for the j 
people. 

Sec. 6. If any such railroad corporation 
shall, in violation of any of the provisions 
of this act, ask, demand, charge, or receive 
of any person or corporation, any extor- 
tionate charge or charges for the transpor- 
tation of any passengers, goods, mer- 
chandise, or property, or for receiving, 
handling, or delivering freights, or shall 
make any unjust discrimination against 
any person or corporation in its charges 
therefor, the person or corporation so of- 
fended against may for each offense re- 
cover of such railroad corporation, in any 
form of action, three times the amount of 
the damages sustained by the party ag- 
grieved, together with cost of suit and a 
reasonable attorney's fee, to be fixed by 
the court where the same is heard, on ap- 
peal or otherwise, and taxed as a part of 
the costs of the case. 

Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the rail- 
road and warehouse commissioners to per- 
sonally investigate and ascertain whether 
the provisions of this act are violated by 
any railroad corporation in this State, and 
to visit the various stations upon the line 
of each railroad for that purpose, as often 
as practicable ; and whenever the facts in 
any manner ascertained by said commis- 
sioners shall in their judgment warrant 
such prosecution, it shall be the duty of 
said commissioners to immediately cause 
suits to be commenced and prosecuted 
against aiiy railroad corporation which 
may violate the provisions of this_ act. 
Such suits and j)rosecutions may be insti- 
tuted in any county in the State, through 
or into which the line of the railroad cor- 
poration sued for violating this act may 
extend. And such railroad and ware- 
house commissioners are hereby author- 
ized, when the facts of the case presented 
to them shall, in their judgment, warrant 
the commencement of such action, to em- 
ploy counsel to assist the Attorney General 
in conducting such suit on behalf of the 
State. No such suits commenced by said 
commissioners shiill be dismissed, except 
said railroad and warehouse commissioners 



and the Attorney General shall consent 
thereto. 

Sec. 8. The railroad and warehouse 
commissioners are hereby directed to nuike 
for each of the railroad corporations doing 
business in this State, as soon as practi- 
cable, a schedule of reasonable maximum 
rates of charges for the transportation of 
passengers and freight and cars on each ot 
said railroads ; and said schedule shall, in 
all suits brought against any such railroad 
corporations, wherein is in any way in- 
volved the charges of any such railroad 
corjioration for the transportation of any 
passenger or freight or cars, or unjust dis- 
crimination in relation thereto, be deemed 
and taken, in all courts of this State, as 
prima facie evidence that the rates therein 
fixed are reasonable maximum rates of 
charges for the transportation of passen- 
gers and freights and cars upon the rail- 
roads for which said schedules may have 
been respectively prepared. Said commis- 
sioners shall, from time to time, and as 
often as circumstances may require, change 
and revise said schedules. When such 
schedules shall have been made or revised 
as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of said 
commissioners to cause publication thereof 
to be made for three successive weeks, in 
some public newspaper published in the 
city of Springfield in this state : " Provided, 
That the schedules thus prepared shall 
not be taken as prima facie evidence as 
herein provided until schedules shall have 
been prepared and published as aforesaid 
for all the railroad companies now organ- 
ized under the laws of this State, and until 
the fifteenth day of January, A. D. 1874, 
or until ten days after the meeting of the 
next session of this General Assembly, 
provided a session of the General Assembly 
shall be held previous to the fifteenth day 
of January aforesaid." All such schedules, 
purporting to be printed and published as 
aforesaid, shall be received and held, in 
all such suits, as prima facie the schedules 
of said commissioners, without further 
proof than the production of the paper in 
which they were published, together with 
the certificate of the publisher of said 
paper that the schedule therein contained 
is a true copy of the schedule furnished 
for publication by said commissioners, and 
that it has been published the above speci- 
fied time ; and any such paper purporting 
to have been published at said city, and to 
be a public newspaper, shall be j^resumed 
to have been so published at the date 
thereof, and to be a public newsjiaper. 

Sec. 10. In all cases under the provi- 
sions of this act, the rules of evidence shall 
be the same as in other civil actions, ex- 
cept as hereinbefore otherwise provided. 
All fines recovered under the ])r()visions of 
this act shall be paid into the county 
treasury of the county in which the suit is 



SUPPLEMENTARY CIVIL RIGHTS HILL, 



221 



tried, by the penson rollcrtiiij; tlio same, 
in the manner now provifk'd l>y law, to be 
used for county purposes. The remedies 
hereby ^iven shall be regarded as cunuila- 
tive to the remedies now given by law 
against railroad corporations, and this act 
shall not be construed as repealing any 
statute giving such remedies. Suits com- 
menced under the provisions of this act 
shall have |)rccedcnce over all other busi- 
ness, except criminal business. 

Sr.c. 11. The term "railroad corpora- 
tion," contained in this act, shall be 
deemed and taken to mean all corpora- 
tions, companies, or individuals now own- 
ing or operating, or which may hereafter 
own or operate any railroad, in whole or 
in part, in this State; and the provisions 
of this act shall apply to all persons, firms, 
and companies, and to all associations of 
per-^ons, whether incorporated or other- 
wise, that shall do business as common 
carriers upon any of the lines of railways 
in this State (street railways excepted) the 
same as to railroad corporations therein- 
before mentioned. 

Skc. 12. An act entitled " An act to pre- 
vent unjust discriminations and extortions 
in the rates to be charged by the different 
railroads in this State for the transporta- 
tion of freight on said roads," approved 
April 7, A. D. 1871, is hereby repealed, 
but such repeal shall not affect nor repeal 
any penalty incurred or right accrued 
under said act prior to thq time this act 
takes effect, nor any proceedings or prose- 
cutions to enforce such rights or penalties. 

Approved May 2, 1S73. 

S. "M. Cullom, 
Speaker House of Bepresentaiives. 
John Early, 

President of the Senate. 
John L. Beveridge, 

Governor. 

The same spirit, if not the same organi- 
zation, led to many petitions to Congress 
for the regulation of inter-state commerce 
and freight rates, and to some able reports 
on the subject. Those which have com- 
manded most attention were by Senator 
Windom of Minnesota and Representative 
Reagan of Texas, the latter being the au- 
thor of a bill which commanded much 
rnnsideration from Congress in the sessions 
of 1878-'80, but which has not yet secured 
favorable action. In lieu of such bill 
Senator Cameron, of Pennsylvania, intro- 
duced a joint resolution for the appoint- 
ment of a Commission to investigate and 
report upon the entire question. Final 
action has not yet been taken, and at this 
writinij: interest in the subject seems to 
have flagged. 

The disastrous political action attem])ted 
by the Grangers in Illinois and Wisconsin, 
led to such general condemnation that sub- 



He(|uent att(;mpts were abandoned save in 
isolated cases, and as a rule the society haw 
passed away. The i)rinciple upon which 
it was l)a.sed was wholly unsound, and if 
strictly carried out, would destroy all home 
improvements and enterprise. Parties and 
societies based uj)on a class, and directed 
or perverted toward i>olitical objects, are 
very hapj)ily short-lived in this Republic 
of ours. If they could thrive, the Kei>ub- 
lic could not long emlure. 



Supplementary Clvi] Rljt;htH Bill. 

Senator Sumner's Supplementary Civil 
Rights Bill was passed by the second ses- 
sion of the 43d Congress, though its great 
author had died the year before — March 
11th, 1874. The text of the Act is given 
in Book V. of this volume, on Existing 
Political Laws. Its validity was sustained 
by the U. S. District Courts in their in- 
structions to grand juries. The first con- 
viction under the Act was in Philadelphia, 
in February, 1876. Rev. Fields Cook, 
pastor of the Third Baptist colored church 
of Ah'xandria, Virginia, was refused sleep- 
ingand eating accommodations at the Bing- 
ham House, by Upton S. Newcomer, one 
of its clerks ; and upon the trial of the 
case, in the U. S. District Court, JoHX 
Cadwalader, Judge, instructed the jury 
as follows: 

The fourteenth amendment of the Con- 
stitution of the United States makes all 
persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof, citizens of the United States, and 
provides that no State shall make or en- 
force any law which shall abridge the 
privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States ; nor shall any State '^ * * 
deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws. This 
amendment expressly gives to Congress 
the power to enforce it by appropriate 
legislation. An act of Congress of March 
1, 1875, enacts that all persons within the 
jurisdiction of the United St.ates shall be 
entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of 
the accommodations, advantages, facilities 
and privileges of inns, public conveyances 
on land or water, theatres and other places 
of public amusement, subject only to the 
conditions and limitations established by 
law, and applicable alike to citizens of 
every race and color, and makes it a crimi- 
nal offense to violate these enactments by 
denying to any citizen, except for reasons 
by law applicable to citizens of every race 
and color, * * * the full enjoyment of any 
of the accommodations, advantages, facili- 
ties or privileges enumerated. As the law 
of Pennsylvania had stood until the 22d of 
March, 1807, it was not wrongful for inn- 
keepers or carriers by land or water to dia- 



222 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



criminate against travelers of the colored 
race to such an extent as to exclude them 
from any part of the inns or public con- 
veyances which was set apart for the ex- 
clusive accommodation of white travelers. 
The Legislature of Pennsylvania, by an 
act of 22d of March, 1867, altered the law 
in this respect as to passengers on railroads. 
But the law of tlie State was not changed 
as to inns by any act of the State Legisla- 
ture. Therefore, independently of the 
amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States and of the act of Congress 
now in question, the conduct of the de- 
fendant on the occasion in question might, 
perhaps, have been lawful. It is not ne- 
cessary to express an opinion upon this 
point, because the decision of the case de- 
pends upon the effect of this act of Con- 
gress. I am under opinion that under the 
Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitu- 
tion the enactment of this law was within 
the legislative power of Congress, and that 
we are bound to give effect to the act of 
Congress according to its fair meaning. 
According to this meaning of the act I am 
of opinion that if this defendant, being in 
charge of the business of receiving travelers 
in this inn, and of providing necessary and 
proper accommodations for them in it, re- 
fused such accommodations to the witness 
Cook, then a traveler, by reason of his 
color, the defendant is guilty in manner 
and form as he stands indicted. If the 
case depended upon the unsupported tes- 
timony of this witness alone, there might 
be some reason to doubt whether this de- 
fendant was the person in charge of this 
part of the business. But under this head 
the additional testimony of Mr. Annan 
seems to be sufficient to remove all reason- 
able doubt. If the jury are convinced of 
the defendant's identity, they will con- 
sider whether any reasonable doubt of his 
conduct or motives in refusing the accom- 
modations to Fields Cook can exist. The 
case appears to the court to be proved ; but 
this question is for the jury, not for the 
court. If the jury have any reasonable 
doubt, they should find the defendant not 
guilty ; otherwise they will find him guilty. 
The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, 
March 1, 1876, and the Court imposed a 
fine of $500. 



Tlie Morton Amendment. 

In the session of '73, Senator Morton, of 
Indiana, introduced an amendment to the 
Constitution providing for the general 
choice of Presidential Electors by Con- 
gressional districts, and delivered several 
speeches on the subject which attracted 
much attention at the time. Since then 
many amendments have been introduced 
on the subject, and it is a matter for an- 
nual discussion. We quote the Morton 



Amendment as the one most likely to com- 
mand favorable action : 

" Resolved by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of each 
House concurring therein:) That the fol- 
lowing article is hereby proposed as an 
amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, and, when ratified by the 
Legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
States, shall be valid, to all intents and 
purposes, as a part of the Constitution, to 
wit: 

" Article — . 

" I. The President and Vice-President 
shall be elected by the direct vote of the 
j^eople in the manner following: Each 
State shall be divided into districts, equal 
in number to the number of Representa- 
tives to which the State may be entitled 
in the Congress, to be composed of con- 
tiguous territory, and to be as nearly equal 
in population as may be ; and the person 
having the highest number of votes in each 
district for President shall receive the vote 
of that district, which shall count one pres- 
idential vote. 

" II. The person having the highest 
number of votes for President in a State 
shall receive two presidential votes from 
the State at large. 

" III. The person having the highest 
number of presidential votes in the United 
States shall be President. 

" IV. If two persons have the same 
number of votes in any State, it being the 
highest number, they shall receive each 
one presidential vote from the State at 
large ; and if more than two persons shall 
have each the same number of votes in any 
State, it being the highest number, no 
presidential vote shall be counted from the 
State at large. If more persons than one 
shall have the same number of votes, it 
being the highest number in any district, 
no presidential vote shall be counted from 
that district. 

" V. The foregoing provisions shall ap- 
ply to the election of Vice-President. 

" VI. The Congress shall have power to 
provide for holdnig and conducting the 
elections of President and Vice-Pi-esident, 
and to establish tribunals for the decision 
of such elections as may be contested." 

VII. The States shall be divided into 
districts by the legislatures thereof, but the 
Congress may at any time by law make or 
alter the same. 

The present mode of election is given in 
Book V. of this volume. 



The WlilBkjr Rln|^. 

During 1875 an extensive Whiskj^ Ring, 
organized to control revenue legislation 
and avoidance of revenue taxes, was dis- 



THE WHITE LEAGUE. 



223 



covered in the West. It was an a.ssocia- 
tion of distillers in collusion with l'\'<leral 
oflieers, and for a time it succei-ded in de- 
fraiidinj; the governnicMt of the tax on dis- 
tilletl s[)irits. Tliis form of corruption, 
after the declaration by Tresident CJrant — 
•'let no ijuilty man escape" — was trace<l 
by detectives to the p(utals of the White 
Jiouse, but even partisan rancor could not 
connect the President therewith. O. E. 
Babeock, however, was his private Secre- 
tary, and upon him was charged complicity 
with the fraud. He was tried and acquit- 
ted, but had to resign. Several Federal 
officers were convicted at St. Louis. 



Impraclinieiit of Hrlknap. 

Another form of corruption was dis- 
covered in 1S7G, when the House im- 
peached Wm. ^V. Belknap, the Secretary 
of War, on the cliarge of selling an Indian 
tmding establishment. The first and main 
specification was, that — 

On or about the second day of Novem- 
ber, eighteen hundred and seventy, said 
William W. Belknap, while Secretary of 
War as aforesaid, did receive from Caleb 
P. Marsh fifteen hundred dollars, in con- 
sideration of his having appointed said 
John S. Evans to maintain a trading- 
establishment at Fort Sill aforesaid, and 
for continuing him therein. 

The tbllowing summary of the record 
shows the result, and that Belknap escaped 
jiunishment by a refusal of two-thirds to 
vote " guilty :" 

The examination of witnesses was be- 
gun, and continued on various days, till 
July 26, when the case was closed. 

August 1. — The Senate voted. On the 
first article, thirty-five voted guilty, and 
twenty-five not guilty. On the second, 
third and fourth, Mr.' Maxey made the 
thirty-sixth who voted guilty. On the fifth, 
Mr. MoKTOX made the thirty-seventh who 
voted guilty. The vote on first was : 

Voting Guilty — Messrs. Bayard, 
Booth, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Cockrell, 
Cooper, Davis, Dawes, Dennis, Edmunds, 
Gordon, Hamilton, Harvey, Hitchcock, 
Kelly, Kernan, Key, MrCreery, McDonald, 
Merrimnn, Mitchell, Morrill of Vermont, 
Norwood, Oglesby, Randolph, Ransom, 
Robertson, Sargent, Saulsbury, Sherman, 
Stevenson, Thunnan, Wadleigh, Wallace, 
Whyte, Withers— Zb. 

Voting Not Guilty — Messrs. Allison, 
Anthony, Boutwell, Bruce, Cameron of 
Wisconsin, Christiancy, Conkling, Cono- 
ver, Cragin, Dorsey, Eaton, Yerry of Michi- 
gan, Frelinghuysen, Hamlin, Howe, In- 
falls, Jones of Nevada, Logan, McMillan, 
'addock, Patterson, Spencer, West, Win- 
dom, Wright— 25. 

Mr. Jones of Florida declined to vote. 



Those " voting not guilty" generally de- 
nied jurisdiction, and so voted accordingly. 
BcikiKiji hud resigned and the claim was 
set up tiiat he was a private citizen. 



The Wlilte I'caf^nc. 

By 1874 the Democrats of the South, 
who then generally cla.ssed themselves tus 
Conservatives, had gained contnd of all 
the State governments except those of 
Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina. 
In nearly all, the Bepublican governim'nta 
had called upon President Grant for ndli- 
tary aid in maintaining their jjositions, but 
this was declined except in the presence of 
such outbreak as the i)roper State authori- 
ties could not suppress. In Arkansas, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, Grant 
declined to interfere save to cause the 
Attorney General to give legal advice. 
The condition of all these governments 
demanded constant attention from the Ex- 
ecutive, and his tiusk was most difficult and 
dangerous. The cry came from the Demo- 
cratic partisans in the South for home-rule ; 
another came from the negroes that they 
were constantly disfranchised, intimidated 
and assaulted by the White League, a body 
of men organized in the Gulf States for 
the purpose of breaking up the "carpet- 
bag governments." So conflicting were 
the stories, and so great the fear of a final 
and destructive war of races, that the Con- 
gressional elections in the North were for 
the first time since the war greatly in- 
fluenced. The Forty-fourth Congress, which 
met in December, 1875, had been changed 
by what was called "the tidal wave," from 
Republican to Democratic, and M. C. Kerr, 
of Indiana, was elected Speaker. The 
Senate remained Pepublican with a re- 
duced margin. 

The troubles in the South, and especially 
in Louisiana, had been in the year previous 
and were still of the gravest character. 
Gen'l Sheridan had been sent to New Or- 
leans and on the 10th of January, 1875, 
made a report which startled the country 
as to the doings of the White League. As 
it still remains a subject for fre<|uent quo- 
tation we give its text : 

Sheridan's report. 
New Orleans, January 10, 1875. 
Hon. W. W. Belknap, Secretary of War: 
Since the year 1866, nearly thirty-five 
hundred persons, a great majority of whom 
were colored men, have been killed and 
wounded in this State. In 1868 the ofiicial 
record shows that eighteen hundred and 
eighty-four Avere killed and wounded. 
From 1868 to the present time, no official 
investigation has been made, and the civil 
authorities in all but a few cases have beea 



224 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



unable to arrest, convict and punish per- 
petrators. Consequently, there are no cor- 
rect records to be consulted for informa- 
tion. There is ample evidence, however, 
to show that more than twelve hundred 
persons have been killed and wounded du- 
ring this time, on account of their political 
sentiments. Frightful massacres have oc- 
curred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo, 
Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Saint Landry, 
Grant and Orleans. The general charac- 
ter of the massacres in the above named 
parishes is so well known that it is unneces- 
sary to describe them. The isolated cases 
can best be illustrated by the following in- 
stances which I have taken from a mass 
of evidence now lying before me of men 
killed on account of their political princi- 
ples. In Natchitoches Parish, the num- 
ber of isolated cases reported is thirty- 
three. In the parish of Bienville, the 
number of men killed is thirty. In Red 
River Parish the number of isolated cases 
of men killed is thirty-four. In Winn Par- 
ish the number of isolated cases where men 
were killed is fifteen. In Jackson Parish 
the number killed is twenty ; and in Cata- 
houla Parish the number of isolated eases 
reported where men were killed is fifty ; 
and most of the country parishes through- 
out the State will show a corresponding 
state of affairs. The following statement 
will illustrate the character and kind of 
these outrages. On the 29tli of August, 
1874, in Red River Parish, six State and 
parish officers, named Twitchell, Divers, 
Holland, Howell, Edgerton and Willis, 
we''e taken, together with four negroes, 
under guard, to be carried out of the State, 
and were deliberately murdered on the 30th 
of August, 1874. The White League tried, 
sentenced, and hung two negroes on the 
28th of August, 1874. Three negroes were 
shot and killed at Brownsville, just before 
the arrival of the United States troops in 
the parish. Two White Leaguers rode up 
to a negro cabin and called for a drink of 
water. When the old colored man turned 
to draw it, they shot him in the back and 
killed him. The courts were all broken 
up in this district, and the district judge 
driven out. In the parish of Caddo, prior 
to the arrival of the United States troops, 
all of the officers at Shreveport were com- 
pelled to abdicate by the White League, 
which took possession of the place. Among 
those obliged to abdicate were Walsh, the 
mayor, Rapers, the sheriff, Wheaton, clerk 
of the court, Durant, the recorder, and 
Ferguson and Eenfro, administrators. Two 
colored men, who had given evidence in 
regard to fi'uuds committetl in the jiarish, 
were compelled to flee for tlieir lives and 
reached this city last night, having been 
smuggled through in a cargo of cotton. In 
the parish of Bossier the White League 
hare attemjjted to force the abdication of 



Judge Baker, the United States Commis- 
sioner and parish judge, together with 
O'Neal, the sheriff, and Walker, the clerk 
of the court ; and they have compelled the 
parish and district courts to suspend opera- 
tions. Judge Baker states that the White 
Leaguers notified him several times that if 
he became a candidate on the republican 
ticket, or if he attempted to organize the 
republican party, he should not live until 
election. 

They also tried to intimidate him through 
his family by making the same threats to 
his wife, and when told by him that he was 
a United States commissioner, they notilicd 
him not to attempt to exercise the functions 
of his office. In but few of the country 
parishes can it be truly said that the law is 
properly enforced, and in some of the par- 
ishes the judges have not been able to hold 
court for the past two years. Human life 
in this State is held so cheaply, that when 
men are killed on account of political 
opinions, the murderers are regarded rather 
as heroes than as criminals, in the locali- 
ties where they reside, and by the White 
League and their supporters An illustra- 
tion of the ostracism that in-evni's in the 
State may be found in a resolution of a 
White League club in the parish of De 
Soto, which states, " That they pledge 
themselves under (no?) circumstances after 
the coming election to emploj', rent land 
to, or in any other manner give aid, com- 
fort, or credit, to any man, white or black, 
who votes against the nominees of the 
white man's party." Safety for individuals 
who express their opinion in the isolated 
portion of this State has existed only when 
that opinion was in favor of the principles 
and party sup})orted by the Ku-Klux and 
White League organizations. Only yes- 
terday Judge Myers, the parish judge of 
the parish of Natchitoches, called on me 
ujion his arrival in this city, and stated 
that in order to reach here alive, he was 
obliged to leave his home by stealth, and 
after nightfall, and make his way to Little 
Rock, Arkansas, and come to this city by 
way of Memphis. He furtlier states that 
while his father was lying at the point of 
death in the same village, he was unable 
to visit him for fear of assassination ; and 
yet he is a native of the ]>arish, and pro- 
scribed for his political sentiments only. 
It is more than probable that if bad gov- 
ernment has existed in this State it is the 
result of the armed organizations, which 
have now crystallized into what is called the 
White League ; instead of bad government 
developing them, they have by their ter- 
rorism prevented to a (onsiderable extent 
the collection of taxes, the holding "f 
courts, the punishment of criminals, and 
vitiated public sentiment by familiarizing 
it with the scenes above described. 1 am 
now engaged in compiling evidence for a 



THE WHITE LEAGUE. 



225 



detailed report upon the above subject, but 
it will be KOine time before I can obtain 
all the requisite data to cover the ciwea 
that have occurred throu;,diout the State. 
I will also report in due time ujion tlie same 
subject in the States of Arkansaa and Mis- 
sissippi. 

P. H. SlIEUIDAX, 

LitutenaiU- Uaieral. 

' • President Grant said in a special mes- 
jBuge to C;on;j;ress, January 13, 1875: — 

" It h:n been bitterly and persistently 
alleged that Kellogg was not elected. 
Whether he was or not is not altogether 
certain, nor is it any more certain that his 
competitor, McEnery, w;U:? chosen. The 

' election was a gigantic fraud, and tliere are 
no reliable returns of its result. Kellogg 
obtained possession of the oflice, and in 
my opinion had more right to it than his 
competitor. 

"On the 20th of Februar\', 1873, the 
Committee on Privileges and Elections of 
the Senate made a report, in which they 
say they were satisfied by testimony that 
the manipulation of the election machinery 
by Warmoth and others was equivalent to 
twenty thousand votes ; and they adil, to 
recognize the McEnery government 
'would be recognizing a government based 
upon fraud, in defiance of the wishes and 
intention of the voters of the State.' As- 
suming the correctness of the statements 
in this report, (and they seem to have been 
generally accepted by the country,) the 
great crime in Louisiana, about which so 
much has been said, is, that one is holding 
the office of governor who was cheated out 
of twenty thousand votes, against another 
whose title to the office is undoubtedly 
based on fraud, and in defiance of the 
wishes and intentions of the voters of the 
State. 

"Misinformed and misjudging as to the 
nature and extent of this report, the sup- 

Eortera of McEnery proceeded to displace 
y force in some counties of the State the 
appointees of Governor Kellogg; and on 
the 13th of April, in an effort of that kind, 
a butchery of citizens was committed at 
Colfax, which in blood-thirstiness and bar- 
barity is hardly surpassed by any acts of 
savage warfare. 

" To put this matter beyond controversy, 
I quote from the charge of Judge Woods, 
of the United States circuit court, to the 
jury in the case of the United States rs. 
Cruikshank and others, in New Orleans, 
in March, 1874. He said : 

" ' In the case on trial there are many 
ficts not in controversy. I proceed to 
Ktate some of them in the presence and 
hearing of counsel on both sides; and if I 
state as a conceded fact any matter that is 
disputed, they can correct me.' 
- ' After stating the origin of the diffi- 
15 



culty, which grew out of an attempt of 
white person.s lo drive the parish ju<lge 
and sheritf, aj)pointee8 of Kellogg, from 
office, and their attemjjted protection by 
colored j)er.5(jns, whicli led to some light- 
ing in which (piite a number of negroes 
were killed, the judge states: 

'• ' Mo^t of tliose who were not killed 
were taken prisoners. Fifteen or sixteen 
of the blacKS had lifted the boards and 
taken retugc under the lloor of the court- 
house. They were all captured. About 
thirty-seven men were taken prisoners ; 
the number is not definitely fixed. They 
were kept under guard until dark. They 
were led out, two by two, and shot. Most 
of the men were shot to death. A few 
were wounded, not mortally, and by pre- 
tending to be dead were afterward, during 
the night, able to make their escape. 
Among them was the Levi Nelson named 
in the indictment. 

" ' The dead bodies of the negroes killed 
in this affair were left unburicd until Tues- 
day, April 15, when they were buried by a 
deputy marshal and an officer of the 
militia from New Orleans. These persons 
found fifty-nine dead bodies. They show- 
ed pistol-shot wounds, the great majority 
in the head, and most of them in the back 
of the head. In addition to the fifty-nine 
dead bodies found, some charred remains 
of dead bodies were discovered near the 
court-house. Six dead bodies were found 
under a warehouse, all shot in the head 
but one or two, which were shot in the 
breiust. 

"' The only white men injured from the 
beginning of these troubles to their close 
were Hadnot and Harris. The court- 
house and its contents were entirely con- 
sumed. 

" ' There is no evidence that any one in 
the crowd of whites bore any lawful war- 
rant for the arrest of any of the blacks. 
There is no evidence that either Nash or 
Cazabat, after the affair, ever demanded 
their offices, to which they had set up 
claim, but Register continued to act as 
parish judge, and Shaw as Sheriff. 

" ' These are facts in this case, as I under- 
stand them to be admitted.' 

" To hold the people of Louisiana gen- 
erally responsible for these atrocities would 
not be just ; but it is a lamentable fact that 
insuperable obstructions were thrown in 
the way of punishing these murderers, and 
the so-called conservative papers of the 
State not only justified the massacre, but 
denounced as Federal tyranny and despot- 
ism the attempt of the "United States offi- 
cers to bring them to justice. Fierce de- 
nunciations ring through the country 
about office-holding and election matters 
in Louisiana, while even,- one of the Colfax 
miscreants goes unwhipped of justice, and 
no way can be found in this boasted land 



226 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of civilization and Christianity to punish 
the perpetrators of this bloody and mon- 
strous crime. 

" Not unlike this was the massacre in 
August bust. Several northern young men 
of capital and enterprise had started the 
little and flourishing town of Coushatta. 
Some of them weie rej)ublicans and office- 
holders under Kellogg. They were there- 
fore doomed to death. Six of them were 
seized and carried away from their homes 
and murdered in cold blood. No one has 
been punished; and the conservative press 
of the State denounced all efforts to that 
end, and boldly justified the crime." 

The House on the 1st of March, 1875, 
by a strict j)arty vote, 155 Republicans to 
86 Democrats, recognized the Kellogg gov- 
ernment. The Senate did the same on 
March 5th, by 33 to 23, also a party vote. 

Under the influence of the resolution 
unanimously adojjted by the House of 
Representatives of the United States, 
recommending that the Hou.se of Repre- 
sentatives of that State seat the persons 
rightfully entitled thereto from certain 
districts, the whole subject was, by consent 
of parties, referred to the Special Commit- 
tee of the House who examined into 
Louisiana affairs, viz. : Messrs. George F. 
Hoar. William A. Wheeler, William P. 
Frye, Charles Foster, William Walter 
Phelps, Clarkson N. Potter and Samuel S. 
Marshall, who, after careful examination, 
made an award, which was adopted by the 
Legislature in April, 1875. It is popularly 
known as the " W^heeler Compromise." 



Text ot tlie W'Ueeler Coinproiulse. 

Xew Orleans, March, 1875. 

WJiprea.'<, It is desirable to adjust the 
difficulties growing out of the general elec- 
tion in this State, in 1872, the action of 
the Returning Board in declaring and pro- 
mulgatimr the results of the general elec- 
tion, in the month of November last, and 
the organization of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, on the 4th day of January last, 
such adjustment being deemed necessary 
to the re-establishment of peace and order 
in this State. 

Now, therefore, the undersigned mem- 
bers of the Cftnservative party, claiming to 
have been elected members of the House 
of Representatives, and that their certifi- 
cates of elc'tion have been illegally with- 
held by the Returning Board, hereby 
severally agree to submit their claims to 
.seats in the House of Representatives to 
the award and arbitrament of George F. 
Hoar, William A. Wheeler, William P. 
P>ye, Charles Foster, William Walter 
Phelps, Clarkson N. Potter, and Samuel S. 
Marshall, who are hereby authorized to 
examine and determine the same upon the 
equities of the several cases ; and when 



such awards shall be made, we hereby 
severally agree to abide by the same: 

And such of us as may become members 
of the House of Representatives, under 
this arrangement, hereby severally agree 
to sustain by our influence and votes the 
joint resolution herein sot forth. 

I Here follow the signatures of the Demo- 
crats who claimed that their certificates of 
ele.'tion as members of the House of Re- 
presentatives had been illegally withheld 
by the Returning Board.] 

And the undersigned claiming to havef 
been elected Senators from the Eighth and 
Twenty-Second Senatorial Districts, hereby 
agree to submit their claims to the lore- 
going award and arbitrament, and in all 
respects to abide the results of the same. 

[Here follow the signatures of the Demo- 
crats, who made a like claim as to seats in 
the Senate.] 

And the undersigned, holding certifi- 
cates of election from the Returning Board, 
hereby severally agree that upon the com- 
ing in of the award of the foregoing arbi- 
trators they will, when the same shall have 
been ratified by the report of the Commit- 
tee on Elections and Qualifications of the 
body in session at the State House claim- 
ing to be the House of Representatives, 
attend the sitting of the said House for the 
purpose of adopting said report, and if 
said report shall be adopted, and the mem- 
bers embraced in the foregoing report 
shall be seated, then the undersigned seve- 
rally agree that immediately upon the 
adoption of said report they will vote for 
the following joint resolution : 

[Here follow the signatures of the Demo- 
cratic members of the House of Represen- 
tatives in relation to whose seats there was 
no controversy.] 

JOINT RESOLUTION. 
Resolved, by the General Assettihh/ of the 
Stute of Lovisimia, That said Assembly, 
without approving the same, will not dis- 
turb the present State Government claim- 
ing to have been elected in 1872, known as 
the Kellogg Government, or seek to im- 
peach the Governor for any past official 
acts, and that henceforth it will accord to 
said Governor all necessary and legitimate 
support in maintaining the laws and ad- 
vancing the peace and prosperity of the 
peo]de of this State : and that the House 
of Representatives, as to its members, as 
constituted under the award of George F. 
Hoar, W. A. Wheeler, W. P. Frye, Charles 
Foster, Samuel S. Marshall, Clarkson 
N. Potter, and William Walter Phelps, 
shall remain without change except by 
resignation or death of mendiers until a 
new general election, and that the Senate, 
as now organized, shall also remain un- 
changed except so far a.s thak body shall 
make changes on contests. 



TEXT OF TUE WHEELER COMPROMISE, 



227 



TEXT OF THE AWARD. 

New Yuuk, March 13, 1875. 
The undersigned huvinj^ been reiiuested 
to examine the claims of tlie persons here- 
inafter nanud to seats in the Senate and ! 
House of Representatives of the SUite ■ 
of Louisiana, and havinj^ examined the re- 
turns and tile evidence relating to such | 
claims, are of opinion, and do hereby liiid, i 
award and determine, that F. S. (Joode is 
entitled to a seat in the !r^cnate from the 
Twenty-secoml Senatorial District ; and i 
that J. B. Klara is not entitled to a seat in ' 
the Senate from the Eighth Senatorial 
District; and that the following named 
persons are entitled to seats in the House 
of Representatives from the following 
named jnirishes respectively : From the 
Parish of Assumption, R. R. Beaseley, E. 
F. X. Dugas; from the Parish of 15ien- 
ville, James Bricc ; frona the Parish of De 
Soto, J. S. Scales, Charles Schuler; from 
the I'arish of Jackson, I-]. Kidd ; from the 
Parish of Rapides, James Jeflries, R. C. 
Luckett, G. W. Stafford ; from the Parish 
of Terrebone, Edward McCollum, W. H. 
Keves ; from the Parish of Winn, George 
A. 'Kelley. And that the following named 
persons are not entitled to seats which 
they claim from the following named 
parishes respectively, but that the persons 
now holding seats from said parishes are 
entitled to retain the seats now held by 
them ; from the Parish of Avoyelles, J. O. 
C^uinn ; from the Parish of Iberie, W. F. 
Schwing ; from the Parish of Caddo, A. 
D. Land, T. R. Vaughan, J. J. Iloran. 
We are of opinion that no person is en- 
titled to a seat from the Parish of Grant. 

In regard to most of the cases, the 
undersigned are unanimous ; as to the 
otliera the decision is that of a majority. 
George F. Hoar, 
W. A. Wheeler, 
W. P. Frye, 
Charles Foster, 
Clarkson N. Potter, 
William Walter Phelps, 
Samuel S. Marshall. 

This adjustment and award were accept- 
ed and observed, until the election in No- 
vem ~er, 1876, when a ccmtroversy arose as 
to the result, the Republicans claiming tlie 
ekcLion of Stephen B. Packard as Govern- 
or by about ;^,')()0 majority, and a Republi- 
can Legislature ; and the Democrats claim- 
ing the election of Francis T. Nicholls as 
Governor, by about 8,000 majority, and a 
Democratic Legislature. Committees of 
gentlemen visited New Orleans, by request 
of President Grant and of various politi- 
cal organizations, to witness the count of 
the votes by the Returning Board. And 
in December, 1876, on the meeting of Con- 
gress, committees of investigation were ap- 
pointed by the Senate and by the House of 



Representatives. Exciting events wero 
now daily transpiring. On the 1st of Jan- 
uary, l'^77, the l„egislature organized in the 
State House without exhibitions of vio- 
lence. The Democrats did n<tt unite in the 
proceedings, l)Ut met in a separate huihl- 
ing, and organized a separate Legislature. 
Teh'graphie communication w;us had be- 
tween tlie State House and the ("ustom 
House, where was the otiiee of Marrli;:! 
Pitkin, who with the aiil of the United 
States troops, was ready for any emergency. 
About noon the Democratic members, ac- 
companied hy about AOO i)ersons, called at 
the State House and demanded admission. 
The officer on duty replied that the mem- 
bers could enter, but the crowd could not. 
A formal demand was then made u[)on 
General Badger and other officials, by the 
spokesman, for the removal of the ohstrm-- 
tions, barricades, police, etc., which j'ro- 
vcntcd the ingress of members, which bein:^ 
denied. Col. Bush, in behalf of the crowd, 
read a formal protest, and the Democrats 
retired. Gov. Kellogg was presented by a 
committee with a copy of the protest, and 
he replied, that as chief magistrate and 
conservator of the peace of the State, be- 
lieving that there was danger of the or- 
ganization of the General Assembly being 
violently interfered with, he had caused a 
police force to be stationed in the lower 
portion of the building; that he had no 
motive but to preserve the ])eace ; that no 
member or attache of either house will be 
interfered with in any way, and that no 
L^nited States troops are stationed in the 
capitol building. Clerk Trezevant declined 
to call the House to order unless the police- 
men were removed. Upon the refusal to do 
so, he withdrew, when Louis Sauer, a mem- 
ber, called the roll, and 68 members — a full 
House being 120 — answered Ui their names. 
Ex-Gov. Hahn was elected Speaker, re- 
ceiving AS votes as against 15 for Ex-Gov. 
Warmoth. 

The Senate was organized by Lieutenant- 
Governor Antoine with 19 present — a full 
Senate being 30 — eight of whom held over, 
and 11 were returned by the Board. Gov. 
Kellogg's message was presented to each 
House. 

The Democrats organized their Legisla- 
ture in St. Patrick's hall. The Senators 
were called to order by Senator Ogden. 
Nineteen Senators, including nine holding 
over, and four, who were counted out by 
the board, were present. 

The Democratic members of the House 
were called to order by Clerk Trezevant, 
and 61 answered to their names. Louts 
Bush was elected Speaker. 

Januarj' 3d — Republican Legislature 
passed a resolution a.sking for military pro- 
tection against apprehended Democratic 
riolence, and it was telegraphed to the 
I'resident. 



228 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



On Sunday, January Sth, Gov. Kellogg 
telegraphed to President Grant to the same 
effect. 

January Sth — Stephen B. Packard took 
the oath oi' office as Governor, and C. C. 
Antoine as Lieutenant-Governor, at the 
State House at 1 : 30, in the presence of the 
Legislature. 

January 8 — Francis T. Nicholls and L. 
A. Wiltz to-day took the oath of office of 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, re- 
spectively, on the balcony of St. Patrick's 
hall. 

By the lltli of January both parties were 
waiting for the action of the authorities at 
Washington. Gov. Packard to-day com- 
missioned A. S. Badger Major-General of 
the State National Guard, and directed him 
to organize the first division at once. Two 
members of the Packard Legislature, Mr. 
Barrett, of Rapides, and Mr. Kennedy, of 
fct. Charles, had withdrawn from that 
body and gone over to the Nicholls Legis- 
lature. 

Messrs. Breux, Barrett, Kennedy, Es- 
topival, Wheeler, and Hamlet, elected as 
Republican?, under the advice of Pinch- 
back — a defeated Republican candidate for 
U. S. Senator, left the Packard or Repub- 
lican, and joined the Nicholls Legislature. 
On the 15th, Governor Packard, after 
receiving a copy of the telegram of the 
President to General Augur, issued a 
proclamation aimed at the " organized and 
armed combination and conspiracy of men 
now offering unlawful and violent rasist- 
ance to the lawful authority of the State 
government." 

The Nicholls court issued an order to 
Sheriff Handy to provide the means for 
l)rotecting the court from any violence or 
intrusion on the part of the adherents of 
"S. B. Packard, a wicked and shameless 
impostor." 

• Governor Packard on the IGth, in a let- 
ter to Gen. Augur, acknowledges the re- 
ceipt of a communication from his aide- 
de-camp asking for assurances from him 
that the President's wishes concerning the 
preservation of the present status be re- 
spected, and says that the request would 
have been more appropriate if made im- 
mediately after his installation as Gov- 
ernor and belbre many of the main 
branches of the Government had been 
foriibly taken possession of by the oppo- 
eition. He says : " I had scarcely taken 
the oath of office when tlie White League 
were called to arms; the Court room and 
the records of the Supreme Court of the 
State were forcibly taken possession of, 
and various precinet police-stations were 
captured in like manner by overwhelm- 
ing forces. Orders had been issued by the 
Secretary of War early on that day that 
all unauthorized armed bodies should de- 
eiat, A dispatch from youraelf of the aame 



date to the. Secretary of War, conveyed 
the assurances that Nicholls had promised 
the disbandment of his armed forces. * 

* * * It was my understanding, that 
neither side should be jiermitted to inter- 
fere with the status of the other side. Yet 
the day after this order was received and 
the pledge given by Nicholls, a force of 
several hundred armed White Leaguers 
re2)aired to the State Arsenal and took there- 
from into their own keeping five pieces of 
artillery, and a garrison of armed men was 
placed in and around the Supreme Court 
building. That on the following day, Jan- 
uary 11, an armed company of the White 
League broke into and took possession of 
the office of the Recorder of Mortgages. 

* * * * In view of all these facts it 
seemed to me that to give the pledge ver- 
bally asked of me this morning would 
be to sanction revolution, and by acquies- 
cence give it the force of accomplished 
fact, and I therefore declined." 

Many telegrams followed between the 
Secretary of War, J. Don. Cameron, Gen'l 
Augur and Mr. Packard, the latter daily 
complaining of new "outrages by the 
White League," while the Nicholls gov- 
ernment professed to accord rights to all 
classes, and to obey the instructions from 
Washington, to faithfully maintain the 
status of affairs until decisive action should 
be taken by the National government. 
None was taken. President Grant being 
unwilling to outline a Southern policy for 
his successor in office. 



Election of Haj'es and 'Wlieeler. 

The troubles in the South, and the al- 
most general overthrow of the " carpet bag 
government," impressed all with the fact 
that the Presidential election of 1876 would 
be exceedingly close and exciting, and the 
result confirmed this belief. The Green- 
backers were the first to meet in National 
Convention, at Indianapolis, May 17th. 
Peter Cooper of New York was nominated 
for President, and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, 
for Vice President. 

The Republican National Convention 
met at Cincinnati, June 14th, with James 
G. Blaine recognized as the leading candi- 
date. Grant had been named for a third 
term, and there was a belief that his name 
would be presented. Such was the feeling 
on this question that the House of Con- 
gress and a Republican State Convention 
in Pennsylvania, had passed resolutions 
declaring that a third term for President 
would be a violation of the " unwritten 
law " handed down through the examples 
of Washington, and Jackson. His name, 
however, was not then presented. The "unit 
rule" at this Convention was for the first 
time resisted, and by the friends of Blaine, 



THE ELECTORAL COUNT, 



229 



with a view to release from instructions of 
8tate Conventions some of his friendH. 
New York IkuI instructed for Conlclinj?, 
and Pennsylvania for llartrunft. In i)oth 
of these states some delegates had been 
chosen by their n^speetive Congressional 
districts, in advance of any State action, 
and these elections were as a rult; confirmed 
hv the Stat<; bodies. Where they were not, 
there were contests, and the riglit (tf <lis- 
trict representation was jeopardized if not 
destroyed by the reinforcement of the 
unit rule. It was therefore thought to be 
a (juestion of much importance by the war- 
ring interests. Hon. Edw. Mcl'herson wa-s 
the temporary Chairman of the Conven- 
tion, and he took the earliest opportunity 
presented to decide against the binding 
force of the unit rule, and to assert the lib- 
erty of each delegate to vote as he plciised. 
The Convention sustained the decision on 
an appeal. 

B.dlots of the Cincinnati Republican 
Convention, 1876 : 

Ballots, 12 3 4 5 6 7 

Blaine, 285 296 292 293 287 308 351 

Conkling, 113 114 121 126 114 111 21 

Bristow, 99 93 90 84 82 81 

Morton, 121 120 113 108 95 85 

Haye-s, 61 64 67 68 102 113 384 

Hartranft, 58 63 G8 71 69 50 

Jewell, 11 

Washb'ne, 113 3 4 

Wheeler, 3 3 2 2 2 2 

Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, was 
nominated for Pre-iident, and Hon. Wm. A. 
Wheeler, of New York, for Vice President. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at St. Louis, June 28th. Great interest 
was excited by the attitude of John Kel- 
ly, the Tammany leader of New York, 
who was present and opposed wi»h great 
bitterness the nomination of Tilden. He 
afterwards bowed to the will of the major- 
ity and supported him. Both the unit and 
the two-thirds rule were observed in this 
body, as they have long been by the Dem- 
ocratic partv. On the second ballot, Hon. 
Samuel J. tilden, of New York, had 535 
votes to 203 for all others. His leading 
competitor was Hon. Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks, of Indiana, who was nominated for 
Vice President. 



Tbe Klectoral Connt. 

The election followed Nov. 7th, 1876, 
Hayes and Wheeler carrying all of the 
Northern States except Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey and Indiana; Tilden 
and Hendricks carried all of the Southern 
States except South Carolina, Florida and 
Louisiana. The three last named States 
were claimed by the Democrats, but their 
members of the Congressional luveetiga- 



ting Committee quieted rival cluiniH into 
South Carolina by agreeing that it had 
fairly chosen the Kepubli( an clcct/irs. Ho 
close w:is the rt-sult that success or failure 
hinged upon the returns of Flori(hi and 
Louisiana, and for days and weeks conllictr 
iiig stories and claims came from these 
States. The Democrats claimed that tlicy 
had won on the face of tiie returns from 
l.,()ui^iana, and that there was no authority 
to g(» lichind tliese. The liepul)licans pub- 
licly alleged frauds in nearly all of tlie 
Southern States ; that tiie colored voU' had ' 
been violently suppressed in the (iulf 
States, but they did not formally di.sj)utc 
the face of the returns in any S'.ate save 
where the returning boards gave them the 
victory. This doulitful state of affairs in- 
duced a number of prominent politicians 
of both the great parties to visit the State 
capitals of South Carolina, Florida and 
Louisiana to witness the count. Some of 
these were appointed by President Grant; 
others by the Democratic National Com- 
mittee, and both sets were at the time 
called the " visiting statesmen," a phrase 
on which the political changes were rung 
for months and years thereafter. 

The electoral votes of Florida were de- 
cided by the returning board to be Repub- 
lican by a majority of 926, — this after 
throwing out the votes of several districts 
where fraudulent returns were alleged to bo 
apparent or shown by testimony. The 
Board w;i-s cited before the State Supreme 
Court, which ordered a count of the face 
of the returns; a second meeting only led 
to a second Republican return, and the 
Republican electors were then declared to 
have been chosen by a majority of 206, 
though before this wa-s done, the Electoral 
College of the SUite had met and cast their 
four votes for Hayes and Wheeler. Both 
parties agreed very closely in their counts, 
except as to Baker county, from which the 
Republicans claimed 41 majority, the Dem- 
ocrats 95 majority — the returning board ac- 
cepting the Republican claim. 

In Louisiana the Packard returning 
board was headed by J. ]\[adison Wells, 
and this body refused to permit the Demo- 
crats to be represented therein. It was in 
session three weeks, the excitement all the 
time being at fever heat, and finally made 
the following average returns : Republican 
electors, 74,436; Democratic, 70,505; Re- 
publican majority, 3,931. McEnery, who 
claimed to be Governor, gave the Demo- 
cratic electors a certificate based on an 
average vote of 83,635 againat 75,759, a 
Democratic majority of 7,876. 

In Oregon, the three Republican electors 
had an admitted majority of the popular 
vote, but on a claim that one of the number 
was a Federal office-holder «nd therefore 
ineligible, the Democratic Governor gave 
a certificate to two of the Republican elee- 



230 



AMERICAN' POLITICS. 



tors, and a Mr. Cionin, Democrat. The 
three Kepublicaii elcctor.s were eerlitied by 
tlie Secretary of State, who was the can- 
va.ssiiiu; oliicer by hiw. This Oregon busi- 
ness led to grave suspicions against Mr. 
Tilden, who was thercalter freely charged 
by the Republicans with the use of his 
iuunense private fortune to control the re- 
sult, and thereafter, the New York Iribitne, 
with unexampled enterjjrise, exposed and 
reprinted the "cipher dispatches" from 
Oramcrcy, which Mr. Pelton, the nephew 
and private secretary of Mr. Tilden, had 
sent to Democratic " visiting statesmen " in 
tlie four disputed sections. In 1878, the 
Potter Investigating Committee subse- 
quently confirmed the " cipher dispatches" 
but Mr. Tilden denied any knowledge of 
them. 

The second session of the 44th Congress 
met on Dec. 5th, 1876, and while by that 
time all knew the dangers of the ap])roach- 
ing electoral count, yet neither House 
would consent to the revision of the joint 
rule regulating the count. The Republi- 
cans claimed that the President of the Sen- 
ate had the sole authority to open and an- 
nounce the returns in the presence of the 
two Houses ; the Democrats plainly disputed 
this right, and claimed that the joint body 
could control the count under the law. 
Some D>-niocrats went so far as to say that 
the House (which was Democratic, with 
Samuel J. Randall in the S])eaker's chair) 
could lor itself decide when the emergency 
had arrived in which it was to elect a 
President. 

There was grave danger, and it was as- 
serted that the Democrats, fearing the 
I'resident of the Senate would exercise 
the power of declaring the result, were 
preparing first to forcibly and at least with 
secrecy swear in and inaugurate Tilden. 
Mr. Watterson, member of the House from 
'Kentucky, boasted that he had completed 
arrangements to have 100,000 men at 
Washington on inauguration day, to see 
tliat Tihlen was installed. President Grant 
and Secretary of War Cameron, thought 
the condition of aftaii-s critical, and both 
made active though secret preparations to 
secure the safe if not the peaceful inaugu- 
ration of Hayes. Grant, in one of his sen- 
tentious utterances, said he " would have 
j)eace if he had to fight for it." To this 
end he sent for Gov. Ilartranft of Penn- 
sylvania, to know if he could stop any at- 
tempted movement of New York troops to 
Washington, as he had information that 
the j>urpos(! was to forcibly install Tilden. 
Gov. Hartranft replied that he could do it 
with the National Guard and the Grand 
Army of the Republic. He was told to 
return to Harrisburg and prepare for such 
an emergency. This he did, and as the 
Ijegislature was then in session, a Repub- 
lican caucus was called, and it resolved, 



without knowing exactly why, to sustain 
any action of the Governor with the re- 
sources of the State. Secretary Cameron 
also sent for Gen'l Sherman, and for a 
time went on with comprehensive prepa- 
rations, which if there had been need for 
comijletion, would certainly have put a 
speedy check upon the madness of any 
mob. There is a most interesting unwrit- 
ten history of events then transpiring 
which no one now living can fully relate 
without unjustifiable violations of political 
and personal confidences. But the danger 
was avoided by the patriotism of prominent 
members of Congress representing both of 
the great political parties. These gentle- 
men held several important and private 
conferences, and substantially agreed upon 
a result several days before the exciting 
struggle which followed the introduction 
of the Electoral Commission Act. The 
leaders on the part of the Republicans in 
these conferences were Conkling, Edmunds, 
Frelinghuysen ; on the part of the Demo- 
crats Bayard, Gordon, Randall and Hewitt, 
the latter a member of the House and 
Chairman of the National Democratic 
Committee. 

The Electoral Commission Act, the basis 
of agreement, was supported by Conkling 
in a speech of great power, and of all men 
engaged in this great work he was at the 
time most suspected by the Rcjniblicans, 
who feared that his admitted dislike to 
Hayes would cause him to favor a bill 
which would secure the return of Tilden, 
and as both of the gentlemen were New 
Yorkers, there was ihv several days grave 
fears of a combination between the two. 
The result showed the injustice done, and 
convinced theretofore doubting Republi- 
cans that Conkling, even as a partisan, was 
faithful and far-seeing. The Electoral 
Commission measure was a Democratic 
one, if we are to judge from the character 
of the votes cast for and against it. In the 
Senate the vote stood 47 for to 17 against. 
There were 21 Republicans for it and 16 
against, while there were also 26 Demo- 
crats for it to only 1 (Eaton) against. In 
the House much the same proportion was 
maintained, the bill passing that body by 
191 to 86. The following is the text of the 

ELECTORAL COMMISSION ACT. 

An act to provide for and regulate the 
counting of votes for President and Vice- 
President, and the decision of questions 
arising thereon, for the term commencing 
March fourth, Anno Domini eighteen 
hundred and seventy-seven. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Rfyrcsentatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assenihled, That the 
Senate and House of Representatives shall 
meet in the hall of the House of Represen- 
tatives, at the hour of one o'clock post 



THE ELECTORAL COUNT. 



231 



moridian, on the first Thursday in Ft-bru- 
ary, Aaiu) Domini eif^Iitern huiuiroil luul 
si'vcnty-sovon ; llie IVcsidcnt ol" the Senate 
shall he thi'ir [)rt"si(lin;^(inici'r. Two tellers 
shall he previously uppointed on the part 
of the Senate, and two on the part of the 
II ni<Q of Representatives, to whom shall 
be handed, as they are opeued by the Pre- 
sident of the Senate, all the certilieates, 
and papers purporting to be certitieates, oi' 
the oleetnral vote-*, whieh certificates and 
papers shall be opened, presented and 
acted ujion in the alphabetical order of the 
States, be;;inninp: with the letter A; and 
said tellers havin;^ then read the same in 
pre-*ence and hearinc^ of the two Houses, 
shall make a list of the votes as they shall 
appear from the said certificates ; and the 
votes having been ascertained and counted 
as in this act provided, the result of the 
same shall be delivered to the President of 
the Senate, who shall thereupon announce 
the state of the vote, and the names of the 
persons, if any elected, which announce- 
ment shall be deemed a sufficient declara- 
tion of the persons elected President and 
Vice-President of the United States, and, 
togetlier with a list of the votes, be entered 
on the journals of the Houses. Upon such 
reading of any such certificate or paper 
when there shall only be one return from 
a State, the President of the Senate shall 
call for objections, if any. Every objection 
shall be made in writing, and shall state 
clearly and concisely, and without argu- 
ment, the ground thereof, and shall be 
signed by at least one Senator and one 
3Iember of the House of Representatives 
before the same shall be received. When 
all objections so made to any vote 
or paper from a State shall have been re- 
ceived and read, the Senate shall there- 
upon withdraw, and such objections shall 
be submitted to the Senate for its decision ; 
and the Speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives shall, in like manner, submit such 
objections to the House of Representatives 
for iU decision ; and no electoral vote or 
votes from any State from which but one 
return has been received shall be rejected, 
except by the affirmative vote of the two 
Houses. Wh(m the two Houses have 
votes, they shall immediately again meet, 
and the presiding officer shall then an- 
nounce the decision of the question sub- 
mitted. 

Snc. 2. That if more than one return, or 
paper purporting to be a return from a State, 
shall have been received by the President 
of the Senate, purporting to be the cer- 
tificate of electoral votes given at the last 
preceding election for President and Vice- 
President in such State (unless they shall 
be duplicates of the same return), all such 
returns and papers shall be opened by him 
in the prei<ence of the two Houses when met 
H3 aforesaid, and read by the tellers, and 



all such returns and papers shall thereupon 
be submitted to the juugmeiit and ilecisioii 
as to which is the true and lawful elecUjral 
vote of such State, of a commissicni consti- 
tuted as follows, namely : During the ses- 
sion of each House, on the Tuesday next 
preceding the first Thursday in February, 
eighteen hundred and seventy -seven, eath 
House shall, by viva voce vote, ajipoint 
five of its members, with the five jwsociate 
justices of the Supreme (Jourt of the L'nited 
States to be iu^ciTtained as hereinafter pro- 
vided, shall constitutea commission for the 
decision of all questions upon or in respect 
of such double returns named in this sec- 
tion. On the Tuesday next preceding the 
first Thursday in February, Anno Domini, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, or an 
soon thereafter as may be, the associate 
justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
States now assigned to the first, third, 
eighth, and ninth circuits shall select, in 
such manner as a majority of them 
shall deem fit, another of the a.ssoci- 
ate justices of said court, which five ])er- 
sons shall be members of said commission ; 
and the person longest in commission of 
said five justices shall be the president (»f 
said commission. The members of said 
commission shall respectively take and 

subscribe the following oath : " I 

do solemnly swear (or afiirm, as the case 
maybe,) that I will imjjartially examine 
and consider all questions submitted to the 
commission of wnich I am a member, and 
a true judgment give thereon, agreeably 
to the Constitution and the laws: so help 
me God ; " which oath shall be filed Avita 
the Secretary of the Senate. When the 
commission shall have been thus organized, 
it shall not be in the power of either 
House to dissolve the same, or to with- 
draw any of its members ; but if any such 
Senator or member shall die or become 
physically unable to perform the duties 
required by this act, the fact of such death 
or physical inability shall be by said 
commission, before it shall proceed fur- 
ther, communicated to the Senate or 
House of Representatives, as the case may 
be, which body shall immediately and 
without debate proceed by viva voce vote 
to fill the place so vacated, and the person 
so appointed shall take and subscrioe the 
oath hereinbefore prescribed, and become 
a member of said commission ; and in like 
manner, if any of said justices of the Su- 
preme Court shall die or become physieally 
incapable of performing the duties re- 
quired by this act, the other of said jus- 
tices, members of the said commission, 
shall immediately appoint another justice 
of said court a member of said commission, 
and in like manner, if anv of said justices 
of the Supreme Court shall die or become 
physically incapable of perl"orming the 
duties required by this act, the other of said-. 



232 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



justices, members of the said commission, 
shall immediately appoint another justice 
of said court a member of said commission, 
and, ill such appointment, regard shall be 
had to the impartiality and freedom from 
bias sought by the original appointments 
to said commission, who shall thereupon 
immediately take and subscribe the oath 
hereinbefore prescribed, and become a 
member of said commission to fill the 
vacancy so occasioned. All the certificates 
and papers purporting to be certificates of 
the electoral votes of each State shall be 
opened, in the alphabetical order of the 
States, a-s provided in section one of this 
act; and when there shall be more than 
one such certificate or paper, as the certifi- 
cates and papeis from such State shall so be 
opened (excepting duplicates of the same 
return), they shall be read by the tellers, 
and thereupon the President of the Senate 
shall call for objections, if any. Every 
objection shall be made in writing, and 
ehall state clearly and concisely, and with- 
out argument, the ground thereof, and 
shall be signed by at least one Senator and 
one member of the House of Representa- 
tives before the same shall be received. 
When all such objections so made to any 
certificate, vote, or paper from a State shall 
have been received and read, all such cer- 
tificates, votes and papers so objected to, 
and all papers accompanying the same, 
together with such objections, shall be 
forthwith submitted to said commission, 
whicri shall proceed to consider the same, 
with the same powers, if any, now possessed 
for that purpose by the two Houses acting 
separately or together, and, by a majority 
of votes, decide whether any and what 
votes from such State are the votes provid- 
ed for by the Constitution of the United 
States, and how many and what persons 
were duly appointed electors in such State, 
and may" therein take into view such peti- 
tions, depositions, and other papers, if any, 
as shall, by the Constitution and now exist- 
ing law, be competent and pertinent in such 
consideration ; which decision shall be 
made in writing, stating briefly the ground 
thereof, and signed by the members of said 
commission agreeing therein ; whereupon 
the two Houses sliall again meet, and 
such decision shall be read and entered in 
the journal of each house, and the count- 
ing of the vote shall proceed in conformity 
therewith, unless, upon objection made 
thereto in writing by at least five Senators 
and five members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, the two Houses shall separately 
concur in ordering otherwise, in which case 
puch concurrent order shall govern. No 
YOtes or papers from any other State shall 
be act^'d upon until the objections previ- 
ously made to the votes or papers from 
any "State shall have been finally disposed 
ot 



Sec. 3. That, while the two Houses shall 
be in meeting, as provided in this act, no 
debate shall be allowed and no question 
shall be put by the presiding oflicer, except 
to either iIou^e on a motion to withdraw ; 
and he shall have power to preserve order. 
Sec. 4. That when the two Houses sepa- 
rate to decide upon an objection that may 
have been made to the counting of any 
electoral vote or votes from any State, or 
upon objection to a report of said commis- 
sion, or other question arising under this 
act, each Senator and Representative may 
speak to such objection or question ten min- 
utes, and not ottener than once; but alter 
such debate shall have lasted two hours, it 
shall be the duty of each House to put the 
main question without furtlier debate. 

Sec. 5. That at such joint meeting of the 
two Houses, seats shall be provided as fol- 
lows : For the President of the Senate, the 
Speaker's chair ; for the Speaker, immedi- 
ately upon his left ; the Senators in the 
body of the hall upon the right of the pre- 
siding oflicer ; for the Representatives, in 
the body of the hall not provided for the 
Senators ; for the tellers. Secretary of the 
Senate, and Clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, at the Clerk's desk ; for the other 
oflicers of the two Houses, in front of the 
Clerk's desk and upon each side of the 
Speaker's platform. Such joint meeting 
shall not be dissolved until the count of 
electoral votes shall be com])Ieted and the 
result declared ; and no recess shall be 
taken unless a question shall have arisen in 
regard to counting any such votes, or other- 
wise under this act, in which case it shall 
be comjjetent for either House, acting sepa- 
rately, in the manner hereinbefore provid- 
ed, to direct a recess of such House not be- 
yond the next day, Sunday excepted, at the 
hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon. And 
while any question is being considered by 
said commission, either House may pro- 
ceed with its legislative or other business. 
Sec. 0. That nothing in this act shall be 
held to in)pair or aflect any right now ex- 
isting under the Constitution and laws to 
question, by proceeding in the judicial 
courts of the United States, the right or 
title of the person who shall be declared 
elected, or who shall claim to be President 
or Vice-President of the United States, if 
any such light exists. 

Sec. 7. That said commission shall make 
its own rules, keep a record of its proceed- 
ings, and shall have power to employ such 
persons as may be necessarv for the trans- 
action of its business and the execution of 
its powers. 

Apj)roved, January 29, 1877. 



Mem1>er8 of tlie Commtssloiu 

Hon. Nathan Ci-ifford, Associate Jut- 
tice Sujjreine Court, First Circuit. 



THE TITLE OF PRESIDENT HAYES. 



233 



Hon. William SrKoy!0, Associate Justice 
Supreme Court, Third Circuit. 

Hon. Sa.aiukl F. Miller, Associate 
Justice Supreme Court, Eightk Circuit. 

Hon. .Sti:1'I!KN J. ViEi.o, Associate Jus- 
tice Sajirciiie Court, Ninth Circuit. 

Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, Associate 
Justice Sii])rctiie Court, Fijlli Circuit. 

Hon. (iEOKUE F. EI)MUNDS, United 
Stiites Sritator. 

Hon. Oliver P, Mortok, United States 
Senator. 

Hon. FREPKRirK T. Frelingiiuysex, 
United States Senator, 

Hon. Alle.v G. Thurmax, United 
States Senator. 

H)n. Thomas F. Bayard, UnitcdStates 
Senator. 

Hon. ITen'ry B. Payne, United States 
Represcntatice. 

lion. Epi'A Huntox, United States Rep- 
rescntatice. 

H )ii. JosiAH G. Abbott, United States 
Reprrscnlative. 

Hon. James A. Garfield, United States 
Rcpresentatice. 

Hon. George F. Hoar, United States 
Representative. 

Tho Electoral Commission met Febru- 
arv Isi, and by uniform votes of 8 to 7, cle- 
cided all objections to the Electoral votes 
of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and 
Oregon, in favor of the Republicans, and 
while the two Hou-^es disagreed on nearly 
all of thsse points by strict party votes, the 
clecUjral votes were, under the provisions 
of the law, given to Hayes and Wheeler, 
and the fi;ial result de'dared to be 183 
electors for Hayes and Wheeler, to 181 for 
Tilden an I Hendricks. Questions of eligi- 
bility hid been raised against individual 
elect irs from Michigan, Nevada, Ponn'^yl- 
vania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wis- 
consin, but the Commission did not sustain 
any of them, and as a rule they were un- 
supported by evidence. Thus closed the 
gravest crisis which ever attended an elec- 
toral count in this country, so far as the 
Nation was concerned ; and while for some 
weeks the better desire to peacefully settle 
all dilFerences prevailed, in a few weeks 
partisan bitterness was manifested on the 
part of a great majoritv of Northern Demo- 
crats, who believed their party liad been 
deprived by a partisan spirit of its right- 
ful President. 



Tbe Title of President Ilay-es. 

The uniform vote of 8 to 7 on all im- 
portant propositions considered by the 
Electoral Commission, to tlieir minds 
shnved a partisan spirit, the existence of 
which it was difficult to deny. The action 
of the Republican " visiting statesmen " in 
Louisiana, in practically overthrowing the 



Packard or Republican govornmont there, 
caused di■^trust and diss;itisfa<ti(jn in llie 
minds of the Hi ore radical Rcpul)licanH, 
who contended with every show of rcLson 
that if Hayes carried Louisiana, Packard 
must also have done so. The only Hensible 
e.xcu.se for seating Hayes on tiie one side 
and tlirowing out (Governor Packard on 
the other, was a patriotic desire for peace 
in the settlement of both Presidential and 
Southern t^tate issues. This desire w;!s 
[>lainiy manil'ested by Pre.si(k-nt Hayes on 
the day of his inauguration ami lor two 
vc.irs thereafter. He took early occasion 
to visit Atlanta, Ga.,and while at that point 
and en route there made the most concilia- 
tory sjieeches, in which he called those 
who had engaged in the Rebellion, " broth- 
ers," " gallant soldiers," etc. These .'speech- 
es excited much attention. They had lit- 
tle if any effect uimn the South, while the 
more radical Republicans accused the 
President of "slopping over." They did 
not allay the hostility of the Democratic 
party, an<l did not restore the I'eeling in 
the South to a condition better than that 
which it had sliown during the exciting 
days of the Electoral count. The South 
then, under the lead of men like Stephens, 
Hill and Ciordon, in the main showed every 
desire for a peaceful settlement. Asa rule 
only the Border States and Northern Demo- 
crats manifested extreme distrust and bit- 
terness, and these were plainly told by 
some of the leaders from the Gulf States, 
that so far as they were concerned, they 
had had enough of civil war. 

As late as April 22, 1877, the Maryland 
Legislature jiassed the following: 

Resolved hij the General Asscmhhj of 
Manjland, That the Attorney General of 
the State be, and he is hereby, instructed, 
in case Congress shall provide for expe- 
ditifig the action, to exhibit a bill in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, on 
behalf of the State of Maryland, with 
proper parties thereto, setting forth the 
fact that due effect has not been given to 
the electoral vote cast by this State on the 
(ith day of December, 187G, by reason of 
fraudulent returns made from other States 
and allowed to be counted provisionally by 
the Electoral Commission, and subje.-t to 
judicial revision, and praying said court to 
make tlie revision contemplated by the act 
e.stablishing .said commission ; and upon 
such revision to declare the returns from 
the States of I>ouisiana and Florida, which 
were counted for Rutherford B. Hayes and 
William A. Wheeler, fraudulent and void, 
and that the legal electoral votes of said 
States were cast for Samuel J. Tilden as 
Pre-sident, and Thomas A. Hendricks as 
Vice President, and that by virtue there- 
of and of LS4 votes cast by other States, 
of which 8 were ca-st by the State of Mary- 
land, the said Tilden and Hendricks were 



234 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



duly elected, and praying said Court to 
decree accordingly. 

y It was this resolution which induced the 
Clarkson N. Potter resolution of investi- 
gation, a resolution the passage of which 
was resisted by the Republic;ins through 
filibustering for many days, but was finally 
passed by 14(5 Democratic votes to 2 Demo- 
cratic votes (^Nlilis and Morse) against, the 
llepublicans not voting. 



The Cipher Despatches. 

An amendment offered to the Potter 
resolution but not accepted, and deieated 
by the Democratic nuijority, cited some 
fair specimens of the cipher dispatches 
exposed by the New York Tiibmie. These 
are matters of historical interest, and con- 
vey inibrmation as to the methods which 
politicians will resort to in desperate emer- 
gencies. We therefore cpiote the more per- 
tinent portions. 

RisiAred, That the select committee to 
whom this House has committed the in- 
vestigation of certain matters jiflV'ctin?;, as 
is alleged, the legal title of the President 
of the United States to the high office 
which he now holds, be and is hereby in- 
structed in the course of its investigations 
to fully inquire into all the facts connected 
with tiie election in the State of Florida in 
November, 1876, and especially into the 
circumstances attending the transmission 
and receiving of certain telegraphic dis- 
patches sent in said year between Tallahas- 
see in said State and New York City, viz. : 

"Tallahassee, November 9, 1876. 
" A. S. Hewitt, New York : 

"Complv if possible with my teletrram. 
" Geo. P." Rakey." 

Also the following : 

" Tallahassee, Decemhcr 1, 1S76. 
" W. T. Pelton, New York : 

"Answer Mac's dispatch immediately, 
or we will be embarrassscd at a critical 
time. Wilkinson Call." 

Also the following: 

" Tallahassee, December 4, 1876. 
"W. T. Peltox: 

"Things culminating hero. Answer 
Mac's desjiatch to-day, W. Call." 

And also the facts connected with all 
telegraphic dispatches between one John 
F. Coylo and said Pelton, under the lat- 
ter's real or fictitious name, and with any 
and all demands for money on or about 
December 1, 1876, from said Tallahassee, 
on said Pelton, or said Hewitt, or with any 
attempt to corrupt or bribe any official of 
the said State of Florida by any person 



acting for said Pelton, or in the interest of 
Samuel J. Tilden as a presidential candi- 
date. 

Also to investigate the charges of in- 
timidation at Lake City, in Columbia 
county, where Joel Niblack and other 
white men put ropes around the necks of 
colored men and proposed to hang them, 
but released them on their promise to join 
a Democratic club and vote for Samuel J. 
Tilden. 

Also the facts of the election in Jackson 
county, wiiere the ballot-boxes were kept 
out of the sight of vott-rs, who voted through 
openings or holes six feet above the ground, 
and where many more Republican votes 
were thus given into the hands of the De- 
mocratic inspectors than were counted or 
returned by them. 

Also the facts of the election in Waldo 
precinct, in Alachua coitnty, wdiere the 
passengers on an emigrant-train, passing 
through on the day of election, were al- 
lowed to vote. 

Also the facts of the election inlNIanatee 
county, i-eturning 235 majority for the 
Tilden electors, where there were no county 
officers, no registration, no notice of the 
election, and where the Republican party, 
therefore, did not vote. 

Also the facts of the election in the third 
precinct of Key West, giving 342 Demo- 
cratic majority where the Democratic in- 
spector carried the ballot-box home, and 
pretended to count the ballots on tlie next 
day, outside of the precinct and contrary 
to law. 

Also the fiicts of the election in Hamil- 
ton, where the election-oificers exercised 
no control over the ballot-box, but left it 
in unauthorized hands, that it might be 
tampered with. 

Also the reasons why the Attorney- 
General of the State, Wm. Archer Cocke, 
as a member of the Canvassing Board, offi- 
cially advised the board, and himself voted, 
to exclude the Hamilton county and Key 
West precinct returns, thereby giving, in 
any event, over 500 majority to the Re- 
publican electoral ticket, and afterwards 
protested against the result which he had 
voted for, and whether or not said Cocke 
was afterward rewarded for such protest 
by being made a State Judge. 

OREGON. 

And that said committee is further in- 
structed and directed to investigate into 
all the facts connected with an alleged at- 
tempt to secure one electoral vote in the 
State of Oregon for Samuel J. Tilden for 
President of the United States, and Thom- 
as A. Hendricks for Vice-President, by un- 
lawfully setting up the election of E. A. 
Cronin as one of such presidential electors 
elected from the State of Oregon on tlie 
7th of November, the candidates for the 



THE CIPHER DESPATCHES. 



235 



presidential electors on the two tickets be- 
injl UH I'oUowh: 

On tlie l{»-i)ul)lican ticket: W. C. Oilell, 
J. ('. Cart \\T. gilt, and John W. Watts. 

On the OciiiocTatic titkut : IC. A.Cronin, 
W. .\. Laswell, and Henry Klippel. 

The votes rt-i'iivcd hy cacli candidate, as 
shown hy the ollirial vote as canvassed, 
declared, and certified to hy the Secretary 
of State under the seal of tlie vState, — the 
Secretary l)eing umler tlie laws of Oregon 
sole canvassing-olHcer, as will he shown 
liereafter, — heing as follows: 

W. K. Odell received 15,20G vote- 

John 0. Cartwright received....]"), 214 " 

John W. Watts received 15,2(>(; " 

E. A. Cronin received 14,1">7 " 

W. A. Laswell receiyed 14,149 " 

Henry Klippel received 14,13(> " 

And hy the unlawful attempt to bribe one 
of said legally elected electors to recognize 
Baid Cronin as an elector for l*resident and 
Vice-President, in order that one of the 
elect<"»ral votes of said State might be cast 
for .said Samuel J.Tilden a.s President and 
for Thomas A. Hendricks as Vice-Presi- 
dent ; and especially to examine and inquire 
into all the facts relating to the sending of 
money from New York to some ]>lace in 
.said Oregon for the purposes of such 
briber}', the parties .sending and receiving 
the same, and their relations to and 
agency for said Tilden, and more ])articu- 
larly to investigate into all the circum- 
stances attending the transmission of the 
following telegraphic despatches : 

" PoRTL-4 N'D, Oregon, Xov. 14, lS7o. 
*' Gov. L. F. Grover : 

" Come down to-morrow if possible. 
" W. H. ErFiXGER, 

"A. MOI.TNER, 

"C. P. Bellinger." 
" Portland, November 16, 1876. 
"To Gov. Grover, Salem : 

" We want to see you particularly on 
account of despatches from the East. 
" WiLLi.\M Strong, S. H. Reed, 
'"C. P. Bellinger, W. W. Thayer, 
" C. E. Bronaugh." 

Also the following cipher despatch sent 
from Portland, Oregon, on the 2Sth day of 
November, 1876, to New York City : 

"Portland, November 28, 1876. 
"To W. T. Pelton, No. 15 Gramercy Park, 

New York : 

" By vizier association innocuous negli- 
gence cunning minutely previously read- 
mit doltish to jnirchase afar act with 
cunning afar sacristy unwciglied afar 
pointer tigress cattle superannuated sylla- 
bus dilatorinesi misapprehension contra- 
band Kountz bisulcuous top usher spin ifer- 
oua answer. J. H. N. Patrick. 



" I fully endorse this. 

" Jame.s K. Kelly." 

Of which, when the key was discovered, 
the following was found to he the true in- 
tent and meaning: 

"Portland, Novemhcr 28, 1870. 
" To W. T. Pelton, No. If) (Jramcrcy Park, 

New York : 

''Certificate will be issuc<l to one Demo- 
crat, ^lust jnircha-e a Kei)ublican elector 
to recogni/e and act with Democrats and 
secure the vote and prevent trouble. De- 
|n)sit $10,000 to my credit with Kountz 
Brothers, Wall Street. Answer. 

J. II. N. Patrick. 

" I fully cndorre this. 

" JA.Mn.s K. Kelly." 

Also the following: 

" New York, November 25, 187G. 
■' A. Busil, Salem : 

" Use all means to prevent certificate. 
Very important. C. E. Tilton." 

Also the following : 

''December 1, 1876. 
"To Hon. Sam. J. Tilden, No. 15 Gra- 

mercy Park, New York : 

" I shall decide every point in the ease 
of post-office elector in favor of the highest 
Democratic elector, and grant certificate 
accordingly on morning of (jth instant. 
Confidential. Governor." 

Also the following : 

" San FrANCL?co, December 5. 
" Ladd & Bush, Salem : 

" Funds from New York will be de- 
posited to your credit here to-morrow when 
bank opens. I know it. Act acconiingly. 
Answer. W. C. Griswold." 

Also the following, six days before the 

foregoing: 

"New York, November 20, 1876. 
" To J. H. N. Patrick, Portland, Oregon : 
" Moral hasty sideral viziergabble cramp 
by hemistic welcome licentiate nniskeete 
com])assion neglectful recoverable hithouse 
live innovator brackish association dime 
afar idolator session hemistic mitre." 

[No signature.] 

Of which the interpretation is as follows: 
"New York, Nove7nber 20, 1876. 
"To J. H. N. Patrick, P,jriland,Orerinn: 
"No. How soon will Governor decide 
certificate? If you make obligation con- 
tingent on the result in March, it can be 
done, and slightly if necessary." 

[No signature.] 

Also the following, one day later ; 



236 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



" PoPwTLAND, November 30, 1876. 
" To W. T. Pelton, No. 15 Gramerq/ Park, 

Neic York : 

" Governor all right without reward. 
Will issue certificate'Tuesday. This is a 
secret. Republicans threaten if certificate 
issued to ignore Democratic claims and fill 
vacancy, and thus defeat action of Gover- 
nor. One elector must be paid to recog- 
nize Democrat to secure majority. Have 
employed three lawyers, editor of only Re- 
publican paper as one lawyer, fee $3,000. 
Will take $5,000 for Republican elector ; 
must raise money ; can't make fee contin- 
gent. 8ail Saturday. Kelly and Bellin- 
ger will act. Communicate with them. 
:Must act promptly." [No signature]. 

Also the following : 
"San Francisco, December 5, 1876. 
" To KouNTZE Bros., No. 12 Wall St., New 
York : 

" Has my account credit by any funds 
lately ? How much ? 

" J. H. N. Patrick." 

Also the following : 

" New York, December 6. 
" J. H. N. Patrick, San Francisco : 

" Davis deposited eight thousand dollars 
December first. Kountze Bros." 

Also the following : 

"San Francisco, December 6. 
" To James K. Kelly : 

" The eight deposited as directed this 
morning. Let no technicality prevent 
winning. Use your discretion." 

[No signature.] 

And rhe following : 

"New York, December 6. 
"Hon. Jas. K. Kelly: 

" Is your matter certain ? There must 

be no mistake. All depends on you. Place 

no reliance on any favorable report from 

three southward. Sonetter. Answer quick." 

[No signature.] 

Also the following: 

" December 6, 187G. 
"To Col. W. T. Pelton, 15 Gramercy 
Parle, N. Y.: 

" Glory to God ! Hold on to the one 
Vote in Oregon I I have one hundred 
thousand men to back it up ! 

" Corse." 

And said committee is further directed 
to inquire into and bring to light, so far as it 
may be possible, the entire correspondence 
and conspiracy referred to in the above 
telegraphic despatches, and to ascertain 
what were the relations existing between 
any of the parties sending or receiving said 



despatches and W. T. Pelton, of New York, 
and also what relations existed between 
said W. T. Pelton and Samuel J. Tilden, of 
New York. 

April 15, 1878, Mr. Kimmel introduced 
a bill, which was never finally acted upon, 
to provide a mode for trying and deter- 
mining by the Supreme Court of the United 
States the title of the President and Vice- 
President of the United States to take their 
respective offices when their election to 
such oftices is denied by one or more of the 
States of the Union. 

The question of the title of President 
was finally settled June 14, 1878, by the 
following report of the House Judiciary 
Commitee : 



Report of the Judiciary Committee. 

June 14 — Mr. Hartridge, from the 
Committee on the Judiciary, made the fol- 
lowing report: 

The Committee on the Judiciary, to 
whom were referred the bill (H. R. No. 
4315) and the resolutions of the Legisla- 
ture of the State of Maryland directing 
judicial proceedings to give eflect to the 
electoral vote of that State in the last elec- 
tion of President and Vice-President of 
the United States, report back said bill 
and resolutions with a recommendation 
that the bill do not pass. 

Your committee are of the opinion that 
Congress has no power, under the Consti- 
tution, to confer upon the Supreme Court 
of the United States the originnl juris- 
diction sought for it by this bill. The 
only clause of the Constitution which 
could be plausibly invoked to enable Con- 
gress to provide the legal machinery for 
the litigation proposed, is that which gives 
the Supreme Court original jurisdiction 
in " cases " or " controversies " between a 
State and the citizens of another State. 
The committee are of the opinion that this 
expression "cases" and "controversies" 
was not intended by the framers of the 
Constitution to embrace an original pro- 
ceeding by a State in the Supreme Court 
of the United States to oust any incum- 
bent from a political office filled by the de- 
claration and decision of the two Houses 
of Congress clothed with the constitutional 
power to count the electoral votes and de- 
cide as a final tribunal upon the election 
for President and Vice-President. The 
Forty-fourth Congress selected a commis- 
sion "to count the votes for President and 
Vice-President, reserving to itself the rigiic 
to ratify or reject such count, in the way 
prescribed in the act creating such com- 
mission. By the joint action of the two 
Houses it ratified the count made by the 
commission, and tlnis made it the expres- 
sion of its own judizment. 
I All the Departments of the Federal 



THE HAYES ADMI!fISTUAT10N, 



237 



Government, all the State g)vernmcnt.s in 
tlieir relations to Federal authority, for- 
eign nation.s, the j)eoj»lo of the United 
States, all the material intereat-s and indus- 
tries of the country, have aeouieHced in, 
and acted in accordance with, the pro- 
nounced finding of that Congress. In the 
opinion of this committee, the i)rescnt 
Congress has no power to undo the work 
of its predecessor in CDUnting the electoral 
ivote, or to confer upon any judicial tri- 
hunal the right to pass upon and i)erhaps 
set iLside the action of that predecessor in 
reference to a purely political question, the 
decision of which is confided by the (Jou- 
stitutijn in Congress. 

But apart froni these fundamental ob- 
jections to the bill under consitleration, 
there are features and provisions in it 
which are entirely impracticable. Your 
committee can find no warrant of authority 
to summon the chief-justices of the 
supreme courts of the several States to sit 
at Washington as a jury to try any ease, 
however grave and weighty may be its 
nature. The right to summon must carry 
with it the power to enforce obedience to 
the mandate, and the Committee can see 
no means by which the ju<licial officers of 
a Stiite can be compelled to assume the 
functions of jurors in the Supreme Court 
of the United States. 

There are other objections to the prac- 
tical working of the bill under considera- 
tion, to which we do not think it necessary 
to refer. 

It may be true that the State of Mary- 
land has been, in the late election for 
President and Vice-President, deprived of 
her just and full weight in deciding who 
were legally chosen, by reason of frauds 
perpetrat -d by returning boards in some 
of the States. It may also be true that 
these fraudulent acts were countenanced 
or encouraged or participated in by some 
who now enjoy high oliices as the fruit of 
such frauds. It is due to the present gen- 
eration of the people of this country and 
their posterity, and to the principles on 
which our Government is founded, that 
all evidence tending to establish the fact 
of such fraudulent practices shoulil be 
calmly, carefully, and rigorously examined. 

But your committee are of the opinion 
that the consequence of such examination, 
if it discloses guilt upon tlie part of any in 
high official position, should not be an ef- 
fort to set aside the judgment of a former 
Congress as to the election of a President 
and Vice-President, but should be conlined 
to the punishment, by legal and constitu- 
tional means, of the offijnders, and to the 
preservation and perpetuation of the evi- 
dences of their guilt, so that the .Vmerican 
people may be protected from a recurrence 
of the crime. 

Your committee, therefore, recommend 



the adoption of the accompanying resolu- 
tion : 

Jifsolvfd, That the two Housesj of tlio 
Forty-founh Congress having counU'd tlio 
voles ca.st for President and Vice-Pre.-.i- 
dent of the Unite.! States, and having de- 
clared Rutherford B. Hayes to be elected 
President, and William A. Wheeler to bo 
electid Vice-President, there is no ])owcr 
in any subse(iuent Congress to reverse that 
declaration, nor can any such power be 
exercised by the courts of the United 
States, or any other trii)unal that Congress 
can create under the Constitution. 

We agree to the foregoing report so far 
as it states the reasons for the resolution 
adopted by the committee, but dissent from 
the concluding portion, as not having re- 
ference to tuch reasons, as not pertinent 
to the inquiry before us, and as giving an 
implied sanction to the propriety of t!io 
pending investigation ordered by a ma- 
jority vote of the Houseof Representatives, 
to which we were and are opposed. 

Wm. p. Frye. 

O. D. CONCiEH, 

E. G. Lapham. 

Leave wa.s given to Mr. Kxott to pre- 
sent his individual views, also to Mr. But- 
ler (the full committee consisting of 
iNIessrs. Knott, Lijnde, JJarrif, of Virginia, 
Hartridge, Stenger, McMahon, Culberson, 
Frve, Butler, Conner, Lapham.) 

The question being on the resolution re- 
ported by the committee, it was agreed to 
— yeas 235, nays 14, not voting 42. 



The Hayes Administration. 

It can be truthfully said that from the 
very beginning the administration of Pre- 
sident Hayes had not the cordial support 
of the Republican party, nor was it solidly 
ojiposed by the Democrats, as was the hist 
administration of General Grant. His 
early withdrawal of the troops from the 
Southern States, — and it was this with- 
drawal and the suggestion of it from the 
" visiting statesmen " which overthrew the 
Packard government in Louisiana, — I'ui- 
bittered the hostility of many radical Ke- 
;)ublicans. Senator Conkling was conspi- 
cuous in his opposition, as was Logan of 
Illinois; and when he reached Washing- 
ton, the younger Senator Cameron, of 
Pennsylvania. It was during this admi- 
nistration, and because of its conservative 
tendencies, that these three leaders formed 
the purpose to bring Grant again to the 
Presidency. Yet the Hayes' administra- 
tion was not always conservative, and 
manv Republicans believed that its mode- 
ration had afforded a much needed breath- 
ing spell to the country. Toward its dose 
all became better satisfied, the radical por- 



238 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tion by the President's later eflbrts to pre- 
vrtit the intimidation of negro voters in 
the South, a form of intimidation which 
was now accomplished by means of riHe 
clubs, still another advance from the White 
League and the Ku Klux. He made this 
a leading feature in his annual message to 
the Congress which began December 2d, 
1878, ancl by a virtual abandonment of his 
earlier policy he succeeded in reuniting 
what were then fast separating wings of 
his own party. The conference report on 
the Legislative Appropriation Bill was 
adopted by both Houses June 18th, and 
approved the 21st. The Judicial Expenses 
Bill was vetoed by the President June 23d, 
on the ground that it would deprive him of 
the means of executing the election laws. 
An attempt on the part of the Democrats 
to pass the Bill over the veto failed for 
want of a two-thirds vote, the Republicans 
voting solidly against it. June 26th the 
veltoed bill was (livided, the second division 
still forbidding the pay of deputy marshals 
at elections. This was again vetoed, and 
the President sent a special message urging 
the necessity of an appropriation to pay 
United States marshals. Bills were accord- 
ingly introduced, but were defeated. This 
failure to apjiropriate moneys called for 
continued until the end of the session. 
The President was compelled, therefore, to 
call an extra session, which he did March 
19th, 1879, in words which briefly explain 
the cause : — 

THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 

"The failure of the last Congress to 
make the requisite appropriation for legis- 
lative and judicial purposes, for the ex- 
penses of the several executive departments 
of the Government, and for the support of 
the Army, has made it necessary to call 
a special session of the Forty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

"The estimates of the appropriations 
needed, which were sent to Congress by the 
Secretary of the Treasury at the opening 
of the last session, are renewed, and are 
herewith transmitted to both the Senate 
and the House of Representatives. 

"Regretting the existence of the emer- 
gency which require?; a special session of 
Congress at a time when it is the general 
judgment of the country that the public 
welfare will be best promoted by perma- 
nency in our legislation, and by peace and 
rest, I commend these few necessary mea- 
sures Uy your considerate attention." 

By this time both Houses were Demo- 
cratic. In the Senate there were 42 De- 
mocrats, 83 Republicans and 1 Independent 
(David Davi^). In the Hou^e 149 Demo- 
crats, 130 Rei)ublicans, and 14 Nationals — 
a name then assumed by the Greenbackers 
and Tjabor-Reformers. The House jnissed 
the Warner Silver Bill, providing for the 



unlimited coinage of silver, the Senate Fi- 
nance Committee refused to report it, the 
Chairman, Senator Bayard, having refused 
to report it, and even after a request to do 
so from the Democratic caucus, — a course 
of action which heralded him evojy where 
as a "hard-money" Democrat. 

The main business of the extra session 
was devoted to the consideration of the 
Appropriation Bills which the regular ses- 
sion had failed to pass. On all of these 
the Democrats added " riders " for the. 
purpose of destroying Federal supervision 
of the elections, and all of these political 
riders were vetoed by President Hayes. 
The discussions of the several measures 
and the vetoes were highly exciting, and 
this excitement cemented afresh the Re- 
publicans, and caused all of them to act in 
accord with the administration. The De- 
mocrats were equally solid, while the Na- 
tionals divided — Forsythe, Gillette, Kellej', 
Weaver, and Yocum generally voting with 
the Republicans; De La Matyr, Steven- 
son, Ladd and Wright with the Demo- 
crats. 

President Hayes, in his veto of the Army 
Apyjropriation Bill, said : 

" I have maturely considered the im- 
portant questions presented by the bill en- 
titled 'xVn Act making appropriations for 
the support of the Army for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1880, and for other pur- 
poses,' and I now return it to the House of 
Representatives, in which it originated, 
with my objections to its approval. 

"The bill provides, in the usual form, for 
the appropriations required for the support 
of the Army during the next fiscal year. 
If it contained no other provisions, it would 
receive my prompt approval. It includes, 
however, further legislation, which, at- 
tached as it is to appropriations which are 
requisite for the efficient performance of 
some of the most necessary duties of the 
Government, involves questions of the 
gravest character. The sixth section of the 
bill is amendatory of the statute now in 
force in regard to the authority of persons 
in the civil, military and naval service of 
the United States ' at the place where any 
general or special election is held in any 
State.' This statute was adopted February 
25, 1865, after a protracted debate in the 
Senate, and almost without opposition in 
the House of Representatives, by tl)e_ con- 
current votes of both of the leading political 
parties of the country, and became a law 
by the approval of President Lincoln. It 
was re-enacted in 1874 in the Revised Sta- 
tutes of the United States, sections 2002 

and 5528. 

******* 

" Upon the assembling of this Congress, 
in pursuance of a call for an extra session, 
which was made necessary by the failure 
of the Forty -fifth Congress to make the 



THE HAYES ADMINISTRATION, 



239 



neciUul <ii)proi>ri:itions for the siipport of 
tlieCJovenimc'iit, llio(|uostion was jirosi-nted 
wliethcr the attoiu|)t uuuU' in the hist Con- 
gress to cn;:raft, ny eonstnietioii, u now 
prineiple ui)()n the Constitution shonhl be 
persisted in or not. This Congress lias 
amjile opi)ortunity and time to pass the 
appropriation hills, and also to enact any 
jxilitical measures which may \)r. deter- 
mined upon in separate bills by the usual 
and onlci'ly methods of proceetling. Ikit 
the majority of both Houses have deemed 
it wise to adlior;^ to the principles asserted 
and maintained in the bust Congress by tlie 
majority of the llou-e of Ilepresentntives. 
That principle is that the House of lleprc- 
sentatives has the solo right to originate 
bills for raising revenue, and therefore has 
the right to withhold approjiriations upon 
which the existence of the Crovernment may 
depend, unless the Senate and the Presi- 
dent sh ill give their assent to any legisla- 
tion which the llou-e may see fit to attach 
to appnipriation bills. To establish this 
principle is to make a radical, dangerous, 
and unconstitutional change in the charac- 
ter of our institutions. The various De- 
partments of the Government, and the 
Army and Navy, are established by the 
Constitution, or by laws pa.ssed in pursuance 
thereof. Their duties are clearly defined, 
and their support is carefully provided for 
by law. The money required for this pur- 
pose has been collected from the people, 
anil is now in the Treasury, ready to be 
paitl out as so m as the apjiropriation bills 
are passed. Whether appropriations are 
made or not, the collection of the taxes 
will go on. The public money will accu- 
mulate in the Treasury. It was not the in- 
tention of the framcrs of the Constitution 
that any single branch of the Government 
should have the power to dictate conditions 
upon which this treasure should be applied 
to the purpose for which it was collected. 
Any such intention, if it had been enter- 
tained, would have been plainly expressed 
in the Constitution." 

The vote in tlie House on this Bill, not- 
withstanding the veto, was 148 for to 122 
against — a party vote, save the division of 
the Nationals, previously given. Not re- 
ceiving a two-thirds vote, the Bill failed. 

The other appropriation bills with po- 
litical riders shared the same fate, jus did 
the bill to prohibit military interference at 
elections, the modification of the law touch- 
ing supervisors and marshals at congre-s- 
sional elections, etc. The debates on these 
measures were bitterly partisan in their 
character, a.s a few quotations from the 
Congressional Record will show : 

The Republican view was succinctly and 
very eloquently stated by General Garfield, 
when, in his speech of the 29th of March, 
1879, he said to the revolutiouary Demo- 
cratic House : 



" The last act of Democratic dominatioa 
in this Caj)ilol, eighteen years ago, wa« 
striking and (Iramatic, perhiips heroic. 
Then the Democratic partv said totheKc- 
l)u!)lieans, ' If you elect ilie man of your 
choice as rresiilent of the I'nited Slates 
we will shoot your ( Joveriimcnt to death ; ' 
and the j)eople of this country, refusing to 
be coerced by threats or violence, voted its 



they pleased, and lawfully elected Abra- 
ham Lint 
States. 



icolu President of the United 



"Then your leaders, though holding a 
majority in the other branch of Congress, 
were heroic enough to withdraw from their 
scats and lling down the gage of mortal 
battle. We called it rebellion; but we 
recognized it as courageous and manly to 
avow your purpose, take all the risks, "and 
fight it out on the open field. Notwith- 
standing your utmost efl'orts to destroy it, 
the (Jovernment was saved. Year by year 
since the war ended, those who resisted you 
have come to believe that you have finally 
renounced your purpose to destroy, and arc 
willing to maintain the Government. In 
that belief you have been permitted to re- 
turn to power in the two Houses. 

"To-day, after eighteen years of defeat, 
the book of your domination is again 
opened, and your first act awakens every 
unhapiiy memory and threatens to destroy 
the confidence which your professions of 
patriotism inspired. You turned down a leaf 
of the history that recorded your last act of 
power in 1861, and you have now signal- 
ized your return to power by beginning a 
second chapter at the same l>age ; not this 
time by a heroic act that declares war on 
the battle-field, but you say if all the legis- 
lative powers of the Ciovernment do not 
consent to let you tear certain laws out of 
the statute-book, you will not shoot our 
Government to death as you tried to do in 
the first chai)ter ; but you declare that if 
we do not consent against our will, if you 
cannot coerce an indei)endent branch of 
this Government against its will, to allow 
you to tear from the statute-books some laws 
put there by the will of the people, you 
will starve the Government to death. [Great 
applause on the Republican side.) 

" Between death on the field and death 
by starvation, I do not know that the 
American people will see any great differ- 
ence. The end, if successfully reached, 
would be death in either case, (icntlemen, 
you have it in your power to kill this Gov- 
ernment ; you have it in your power, by 
withholding these two bills, to smite the 
nerve-centres of our CNmstitution with the 
paralysis of death ; and you have declared 
your purpose to do this, if you cannot break 
down that fundamental element of free 
consent which up to this hour has always 
ruled in the legislation of this Govern- 
ment." 



240 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



The Democratic view was ably given by 
Repre^^entative Tucker of Virginia, April 
3, 1879 : " I tell you, gentlemen of the 
Ilouse of Representatives, the Army dies 
on the aOfh day of June, unless ice resuscitate 
it by legislation. And what is the question 
here on this bill ? Will you resuscitate the 
Army after the 30th of June, with the 
power to use it as keepers of the polls ? 
That is the question. It is not a question 
I of repeal. It is a question of re-enact- 
ment. If you do not appropriate this 
money, there will be no Army after the 
30th of June to be used at the polls. The 
only way to secure an Army at the polls is 
to apjjropriate the money. Will you ap- 
propriate the money fur the Army in order 
that they may be used at the polls f We say 
no, a thousand times no. * * * The 
gentlemen on the other side say there must 
be no coercion. Of whom ? Of the Presi- 
dent? But what right has the President 
to coerce us? There may be coercion one 
way or the other. He demands an uncon- 
ditional supply. We say ice will give him 
no supply but upon conditions. * * * 
When, therefore, vicious laws have fas- 
tened themselves upon the statute-book 
which imperil the liberty of the people, 
this House is bound to say it will appro- 
priate no money to give effect to such laws 
until and except upon condition that they 
are repealed. [Applause on the Demo- 
cratic side.] * * We will give him the 
Army on a single condition that it shall 
never be used or be present at the polls 
when an election is held for members of 
this House, or in any presidential election, 
or in any State or municipal election. * * * 
Clothed thus with unquestioned power, 
bound by clear duty, to expunge these vi- 
cious laws from the statute-book, ibllowing 
a constitutional method sanctioned by 
venerable precedents in English history, 
we feel that we have the undoubted right, 
and are beyond cavil in the right, in de- 
claring that with our grant of supply there 
must be a cessation of these grievances, 
and we make these appropriations condi- 
tioned on securing a free ballot and fair 
juries for our citizens." 

The tSenate, July 1, passed the House 
bill placing quinine on the free list. 

The extra session finally passed the Ap- 
propriation bills without riders, and ad- 
journed July 1st, 1879, with the Republi- 
can party far more firmly united than at 
the beginning of the Hayes administra- 
tion. The attempt on the part of the Demo- 
crats to pass these political riders, and their 
threat, in the words of Garfield, who had 
then succeeded Stevens and Blaine as the 
Republican Commoner of the House, re- 
awakened all the partisan animo.-^ities 
which the administration of President 
Hayes had up to that time allayed. Even 
the President caught its spirit, and pLiinly 



manifested it in his veto messages. It was 
a losing battle to the Democrats, for they 
had, with the view not to "starve the gov- 
ernment," to abandon their position, and 
the temporary demoralization which fol- 
lowed bridged over the questions pertain- 
ing to the title of President Hayes, over- 
shadowed the claims of Tilden, and caused 
the North to again look with grave con- 
cern on the establishment of Democratic 
power. If it had not been for this extra 
session, it is asserted and believed by 
many, the Republicans could not have so 
soon gained control of the lower House, 
which they did in the year following ; and 
that the plan to nominate General Han- 
cock for the Presidency, which originated 
with Senator Wallace of Pennsylvania, 
could not have otherwise succeeded if Til- 
den's cause had not been kept before his 
party, unclouded by an extra session which 
was freighted with disaster to the Demo- 
cratic party. 

Tbe 'ScgTo £xodiu. 

During this summer political comment, 
long after adjournment, was kept active by 
a great negro exodus from the South to the 
Northwest, most of the emigrants going to 
Kansas. The Republicans ascribed this to 
ill treatment, the Democrats to the opera- 
tions of railroad agents. The people of 
Kansas welcomed them, but other States, 
save Indiana, were slow in their manifes- 
tations of hospitality, and the exodus soon 
ceased for a time. It was renewed in South 
Carolina in the winter of 1881-82, the de- 
sign being to remove to Arkansas, but at 
this writing it attracts comparatively little 
notice. The Southern journals generally 
advise more liberal treatment of the blacks 
in matters of education, labor contracts, 
etc., while none of the Northern or West- 
ern States any longer make efforts to get 
the benefit of their labor, if indeed they 
ever did. 



Closing Hoars of tlie Haj'es AdmLnlstra^ 
tlon. 

At the regular session of Congress, which 
met December 1st, 1879, President Hayes 
advised Congress against any further legis- 
lation in reference to coinage, and favored 
the retirement of the legal tenders. 

The most important political action ta- 
ken at this session was the passage, for 
Congress was still Democratic, of a law to 
prevent the use of the army to keep the 
peace at the polls. To this was added the 
Garfield proviso, that it should not be con- 
strued to prevent the Constitutional use of 
the army to suppress domestic violence in 
a State — a proviso which in the view of 
the Republicans rid the bill of material 
partisan objections, and it was therefore 



CLOSING HOURS OF HAYES' ADMINISTRATION. 



241 



Passed and a;»prove<l. Tho " political ri- 
ders" were a;;ain iiddcfl to the Appropria- 
tion and Drlicii-ncy bills, hut were uj^ain 
vetoed and failed in this form to heionie 
laws. Upon these questions President 
Hayes showed nmch firinnes-t. During the 
session the Democratic opjiosition to the 
(reneral Election Law was f^reatly tem- 
j)ered, the 8ui)reme ('ourt having nuulean 
in>])ortant decision, which upheld it-s con- 
stilutinnalily. Like all sessions under the 
adiniuistra'.ion of President JIayes and 
since, nothing was done to provide perma- 
nent and safe mctiiods for completing tlic 
electoral count. On this question each 
party seemed to be afraid of the other. 
The session adjourned June Kith, 1880. 

The second session of the 4()th Congress 
began December 1st, 1880. Tho last an- 
nual message of President Hayes recom- 
mended the earliest practicable retirement 
of the legal-tender notes, and the mainte- 
nance of the jiresent laws for the accumula- 
tion of a sinking fund sufficient to extin- 
guish the]niblic debt within a limited peri- 
od. The laws against polygamy, he said, 
should be lirmly and cflectively executed. 
In the course of a lengthy discussion of 
tho civil service the President declared 
that in his opinion " every citizen has an 
equal right to the honor and profit of en- 
tering the public service of his country. 
The only just ground of discrimination is 
the measure of character and capacity he 
has to make that service most useful to the 
people. Except in cases where, upon just 
and recognized principles, as upon the 
theory of pensions, offices and promotions 
are bestowed as rewards for past services, 
their bestowal upon any theory which dis- 
regards personal merit is an act of injus- 
tice to the citizen, as well as a breach of 
that trust subject to which the appointing 
power is held. Considerable space was 
given in the Message to the condition of 
the Indians, the President recommending 
the passage of a law enabling the govern- 
ment to give Indians a title-fee, inaliena- 
ble for twenty-tive years, to the farm lands 
assigned to them by allotment. He also 
repeats the recommendation made in a 
former message that a law be passed admit- 
ting the Indians who can give satisfactory 
proof of having by their own labor sup- 
ported their families for a number of years, 
and who are willing to detach themselves 
from their tribal relations, to the benefit of 
the Homestead Act, and authorizing the 
government to grant them patents contain- 
ing the sarne provision of inalienability 
for a certain period. 

The Senate, on the 19th, appointed a 
committee of five to investigate the causes 
of the recent negro exodus from the South. 
On the same day a committee was appoint- 
ed by the House to examine into the sub- 
ject of an inter-oceanic ship-canal. 

16 



The payment of the award of the Hali- 
fax Fisheries Cummission — $.'i,.0i)(),(M^O — to 
the British government w:ls maile by tiio 
American minister in London, November 
2'{, ISJ'J, accomjtanied by a communica- 
tion protesting against the j)ayment being 
understood as an acqu!(vscence in the re- 
sult of the Commission " as furnisliing any 
just measure of the value of a jiarticijia- 
tion l)y ourcitizcns in the inshore fishericij 
of the I'ritish Provinces." 

On the 17tii of December 1870, gold waa 
sold in New York at ])ar. It was first sold 
at a jjremium January 13, 18(12. It reached, 
its highest rate, $2.85," July 11, 18G4. 

The electoral vote was counted without 
any partisan excitement or disagreement. 
Georgia's electoral college had met on the • 
second instead of the first Wednesday of 
December, as required by the Federal law. 
She actually voted under her old Confed- 
erate law, but a.s it could not change the 
result, both parties agreed to the count of 
the vote of Georgia " in the alternative," 
/. e. — " if the votes of Georgia were counted . 
the number of votes for A and B. for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President would be sa 
many, and if the votes of Georgia were not 
counted, the number of votes for A and B. 
for President and Vice-President would be 
so many, and that in either case A and B 
are elected." 

Among the bills not disposed of by this 
session were the electoral count joint rule; 
the funding bill ; the Irish relief bill ; the 
Chinese indemnity bill; to restrict Chijiese 
immigration; to amend the Constitution, 
as to the election of President ; to regulate 
the pay and number of supervisore of elec- 
tion and special deputy-marshals; to abro- 
gate the Clayton-Ruhver Treaty ; to pro- 
hibit military interference at elections ; to 
define the terms of office of the Chief Su- 
pervisors of elections; for the appointment 
of a tariflf commis.sion; the political assess- 
ment bill ; the Kellogg-Spollbrd case ; and 
the Fitz-Johu Porter bill. 

The regular appropriation bills were all 
completed. The total amount appropria- 
ted was about $18!;,000,000. Among the 
si)ecial sums voted were $30,000- for the cen- 
tennial celebration of the Yorktown vic- 
tory, and $100,000 for a monument to com- 
memorate the same. 

Congress adjourned March 3d, 1881, and 
President Hayes on the following day re- 
tired from office. The effect of his admin- 
istration w.'us, in a political sense, to 
strengthen a growing independent senti- 
ment in the ranks of the Republicans — an 
element more conservative generally in itj 
views than thosp represented by Conkling 
and Blaine. This sentiment began with 
Bristow, who while in the cabinet made a 
show of seeking out and punishing all cor- 
ruptions in government office or service. 
On this platform and record he had con- 



242 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tested with Hayes the honors of the Presi- 
dential nominations, and while the latter 
was at the time believed to well represent 
the same views, they were not urgently 
pressed during his administration. Indeed, 
without the knowledge of Hayes, what is 
believed to be a most gigantic "steal," 
and which is now being prosecuted under 
the name of the Star Route cases, had its 
birth, and thrived so well that no import- 
ant discovery was made until the incoming 
of the Garfield administration. The Hayes 
administration, it is now fashionable to 
say, made little impres:, for good or evil 
upon the country, but impartial historians 
will give it the credit of softening party as- 
perities and aiding very materially in the 
restoration of better feeling between the 
North and South. Its conservatism, al- 
ways manifested save on extraordinary oc- 
casions, did that much good at least. 



The Campaign of 1880. 

The Republican National Convention 
met June 5th, 1880, at Chicago, in the Ex- 
position building, capable of seating 20,000 
people. The excitement in the ranks of 
the Republicans was very high, because of 
the candidacy of General Grant for what 
was popularly called a "third term," 
though not a third consecutive term. His 
three powerful Senatorial friends, in the 
face of bitter protests, had secured the in- 
structions of their respective State Conven- 
tions for Grant. Conkling had done this 
in New York, Cameron in Pennsylvania, 
Logan in Illinois, but in each of the three 
States the opposition was so impressive that 
no serious attempts were made to substi- 
tute other delegates for those which had 
previously been selected by their Congres- 
sional districts. As a result there was a 
large minority in the delegations of these 
States opposed to the nomination of Gene- 
ral Grant, and the votes of them could only 
be controlled by the enforcement of the 
unit rule. Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, 
the President of the Convention, decided 
against its enforcement, and as a result all 
of the delegates were free to vote upon ei- 
ther State or District instructions, or as they 
chose. The Convention was in session three 
daj-s. We present herewith the 



Ballots. 



BALLOTS. 
2 3 



Ballots. 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


Grant, 


305 


306 


308 


305 


305 


304 


lihiine, 


281 


284 


282 


282 


281 


283 


Sherman, 


94 


91 


90 


91 


62 


93 


Edmunds, 


32 


31 


31 


30 


31 


31 


VVashburne,3I 


32 


32 


22 


32 


33 


Windom, 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield, 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


1 


Hayes, 










1 


2 


Ballots, 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


Grant, 


305 


305 


309 


306 


303 


305 


Blaine, 


285 


285 


281 


283 


284 


283 


Sherman, 


89 


89 


88 


88 


90 


92 


Edmunds, 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


Washburne, 33 


35 


36 


36 


34 


35 


Windom, 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield, 


1 












Hayes, 


1 


1 










Davis, 










1 




McCrary, 


1 













Ballots, 19 20 21 22 23 24 
Grant, 305 308 305 305 304 305 
Blaine, 279 276 276 275 274 279 



Sherman, 95 


93 


96 


95 


98 


93 


Edmunds, 31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


Washburne, 31 


35 


35 


35 


36 


35 


Windom, 10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield, 1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


Hartranft, 1 


1 


1 


1 






Ballots, 25 


26 


27 








Grant, 302 


303 


306 








Blaine, 281 


280 


277 








Sherman, 94 


93 


93 








Edmunds, 31 


31 


31 








Washburne, 36 


35 


36 








Windom, 10 


10 


10 








Garfield, 2 


2 


2 









Grant, 304 305 305 305 305 305 
Blaine, 284 282 282 281 281 281 
Sherman, 93 94 93 95 95 95 

31 

31 

]0 

2 



Edmunds, 


34 


32 


32 


32 


32 


Washburne 


,30 


32 


31 


31 


31 


Windom, 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield, 




1 


1 


1 


2 


garrison, 




.1 









There was little change from the 27th 
ballot until the 36th and final one, which 
resulted as follows : 

Whole rtumber of votes 755 

Necessary to a choice 378 

Grant 306 

Blaine 42 

Sherman 3 

Washburne 5 

Garfield 399 

As shown. General James A. Garfield, 
of Ohio, was nominated on the 36th ballot, 
the forces of General Grant alone remain- 
ing solid. The result was due to a sudden 
union of the forces of Blaine and Sherman, 
it is believed with the full consent of both, 
for both employed the same wire leading 
from the same room in Washington in 
telegraphing to their friends at Chicago. 
The object was to defeat Grant. After 
(Jarfield's nomination there was a tempo- 
rary adjournment, during which the 
friends of the nominee consulted Conkling 
and his leading friends, and the result was 
the selection of General Chester A. Arthur 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 



243 



of New York, for Vicc-rrcsident. The 
object of this selection was to curry New 
York, the jireut State which Wiis then al- 
most universally believed to hold the key 
to the Tresidential position. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at Cincinnati, June 22d. Tilden had 
up to the hohling of tiie Pennsylvania 
State Convention been one of the most 
prominent canditlates. In this Convention 
there was a bitter Ktru,ir<i:le bi-tween tiie 
WaUace and Ran. ".all I'actions, the former 
favorinjj; Hancock, the latter Tilden. Wal- 
lace, after a contest far sharper than he 
expected, won, and bound the deleL;;ation 
by the unit rule. When the National 
Convention met, Jolin Kelly, the Tam- 
many leader of New York, was again 
there, as at St. Louis four years before, to 
oppose Tilden, but the latter sent a letter 
disclaiming that he was a candidate, and 
yet really inviting a nomination on the is- 
sue of "the fraudulent counting in of 
Hayes." There were but two ballots, as 
follows : 

FIRST BALLOT. 



Hancock 171 

Bayard 153 J 

Payne 81 

Thurman 63V 

Field 06 

Morrison 62 

Hendricks 46 V 

Tilden 38" 

Ewing 10 

Seymour 8 



Randall 6 

Loveland 5 

McDonald 3 

McClellan 3 

English 1 

Jewett 1 

Black 1 

Lothrop 1 

Parker 1 



SECOND BALLOT. 

Hancock 705 

Tilden 1 

Bayard 2 

Hendricks 80 

Thus General AV'infield S. Hancock, of 
New York, was nominated on the second 
ballot. Wm. H. English, of Indiana, was 
nominated for Vice-President. 
_ The National Greenback-Labor Conven- 
tion, held at Chicago, June 11, nominated 
(xeneral J. B. W^eaver, of Iowa, for Presi- 
dent, and General E. J. Chambers, of 
Texas, for Vice-President. 

In the canvass which followed, the Re- ' 
publicans were aided by such orators as 
Conkling, Blaine, Grant, Logan, Curtis, 
Boutwell, while the Camerons, father and 
son, visited the October States of Ohio and 
Indiana, as it was believed that these 
would determine the result, Maine having 
in September very unexpectedly defeated 
the Republican State ticket by a" small ma- 
jority. The Democrats were aided by 
Bayard, Voorhees, Randall, Wallace, Ilili, 
Hampton, Lamar, and hosts of their best 
orators. Every issue was recalled, but for j 
the first time in the history of the Repub- 
licans of the West, they accepted the tariff. 



issue, and made <)i)en war on Wattcrson's 
plank in the Democratic i>!atform — " a 
tarilf for revenue oidy." Iowa, (Jhio, and 
lutliana, all elected the Rej)ublican SUite 
tickets with good margins; West Virginia 
went Democratic, but the result wa.s, not- 
withstanding this, reasonably iussured to 
the Republicans. The Democrats, how- 
ever, feeling the strong pi'rsonal popularity 
of their leailing camlidate, i)ersisted with 
high courage to the end. In Novendjer 
all of the Southern States, with New .Icr- 
sey, California,* and Nevada in the North, 
went Democratic; all of the others Re- 
publican. The (ireenbackers held only a 
balance of })Ower, whicli tiicy could not 
exercise, in California, Indiana, and New 
Jersey. The electoral vote of Garfield and 
Arthur was 214, that of Hancock and Eng- 
lish 155. The popular vote wits Republi- 
can, 4,442,950; Democratic, 4,442,(j;!5; 
Greenback or National, 30(3, SG7 ; scatter- 
ing, 12,576. The Congressional elections 
in the same canvass gave the Republicans 
147 members; the Democrats, 136; Greeu- 
backers, 9 ; Independents, 1. 

Fifteen States elected Governors, nine 
of them Republicans and six Democrats. 

General Garfield, November 10, sent to 
Governor Foster, of Ohio, his resignation 
as a Senator, and John Sherman, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was in the win- 
ter following elected as his successor. 

The third session of the Forty-sixth 
Congress was begun December 6. The 
President's Message was read in both 
Houses. Among its recommendations to 
Congress were the following : To create 
the oflice of Captain-General of the Army 
for General Grant; to defend the inviola- 
bility of the constitutional amendments; 
to promote free popular education by 
grants of public lands and appropriations 
from the United States Treasury ; to ap- 
propriate S25,000 annually for the expen- 
ses of a Commission to be appointed by 
the President to devise a just, unitbrm, 
and efficient system of conij)etitivc exami- 
nations, and to supervise the application 
of the same throughout the entire civil 
service of the government; to p:iS3 a law 
defining the relations of Congressmen to 
appointments to office, so as to end Coa- 
gressional encroachment upon the appoint- 
ing power ; to repeal the Teniire-of- office 
Act, and pass a law protecting office- 
holders in resistance to political a.ssesa- 
ments ; to abolish the present system of 
executive and judicial government in 
Utah, and substitute for it a government 
by a commission to be appointed by the 
President and confirmed by the Senate, or, 
in case me present government is con- 
tinued, to withhold from all who practice 

• Onp Pemocrntic elortor was defculod, being cut by 
over MX) vutvn ou a local insue. 



244 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



polygamj'^ the right to vote, hold office, and 
sit on juries ; to repeal the act authorizing 
the coinage of the silver dollar of 412] 
grains, and to authorize the coinage of a 
niew silver dollar equal in value as bullion 
with the gold dollar; to take favorable ac- 
tio:! on the bill providing for the allotment 
of lands on the difl'erent reservations. 

Two treaties between this country and 
China were signed at Pekin, November 17, 
ISSl, one of commerce, and the other se- 
curing to the Uuited States the control and 
regulation of the Chinese immigration. 

President Hayes, February 1, 1881, sent 
a iness'ige to Congress sustaining in the 
main the findings of the Ponca Indian 
Goinmission, and approving its recom- 
mendation that they remain on their reser- 
vation in Indian Territory. The Presi- 
dent suggested that the general Indian 
policy for tlie future should embrace the 
fbllowin^r ideas: First, the Indians should 
be prepared ibr citizenship by giving to 
their young of both sexes that industrial 
and general education which is requisite 
to enable them to be self-supporting and 
capable of self-protection in civilized com- 
munities; second, lands should be allot- 
ted to the Indians in severalty, inalienable 
for a certain period; third, the Indians 
should have a fair compensation for their 
lands not required for individual allot- 
ments, the amount to be invested, with 
suitable safeguards, for their benefit; 
fourth, with these prerequisites secured, 
the Indians should be made citizens, and 
invested with the rights and charged with 
the rcdponsibilities of citizenship. 

Tlie Senate, February 4, passed Mr. 
Slorgan's concurrent resolution declaring 
that t!ie President of the Senate is not in- 
vested by the Constitution of the United 
States with the right to count the votes ol' 
electors f-r President and Vice-President 
of the United States, so as to determine 
what votes shall be received and counted, 
or what votes shall be rejected. An 
amendment was added declaring in effect 
that it is the duty of Congress to pass a 
lav»' at once providing for the orderly 
counting of the electoral vote. The House 
concurred February 5, but no action by 
bill or otherwise has since been taken. 

Senator Pendleton, of Ohio, December 
15, ISSl, introduced a bill to regulate the 
civil service and to promote the efficiency 
thereof, and also a bill to prohibit Federal 
officers, claimants, and contractors from 
making or receiving assessments or contri- 
butions for political purposes. 

The IJurnside Educational Bill passed 
the Senate December 17, 1881. It pro- 
vides that the proceeds of the sale of pub- 
lic land and the earnings of the Patent 
Office shall be funded at four per cent., 
and the interest divided among the States 
in proportion to their illiteracy. An 



amendment by Senator Morgan provides 
for the instruction of women in the State 
agricultural colleges in such branches of 
technical and industrial education as are 
suited to their sex. No action has yet 
been taken by the House. 

On the 9th of February the electoral 
votes were counted by the Vice-President 
in the presence of both Houses, and Gar- 
field and Arthur were declared elected 
President and Vice-President of the United 
States. There was no trouble as to the 
count, and the result previously stated was 
formally announced. 



The Three Per Cent. Funding BlU. 

The 3 per cent. Funding Bill passed the 
House March 2, and was on the following 
day vetoed by President Hayes on the 
ground that it dealt unjustly with the Na- 
tional Banks in compelling Ihem to accept 
and employ this security for their circu- 
lation in lieu of the old bonds. This fea- 
ture of the bill caused several of the Banka 
to surrender their circtilation, conduct 
which for a time excited strong political 
prejudices. The Republicans in Congress 
as a rule contended that the debt could 
not be surely funded at 3 per cent. ; that 
3'} was a salcr figtxre, and to go below this 
might render the bill of no effect. The 
same views were entertained by President 
Hayes and Secretary Sherman. The Dem- 
ocrats insisted on 3 per cent., until the 
veto, when the general desire to fund at 
moie favorable rates broke party lines, and 
a 3.} per cent, funding bill was iiassed, with 
the feature objectionable to the National 
Banks omitted. 

The Republicans were mistaken in their 
view, as the i-esult proved. The loan was 
floated so easily, that in the session of 1882 
Secretary Sherman, now a Senator, him- 
self introduced a 3 per cent, bill, which 
passed the Senate Feb. 2d, 1882, in this 
shape : — 

Be it enacted, &c.. That the Secretary of 
the Treasury is hereby authorized to 
receive at the Treasury and at the office of 
any Assistant Treasurer of the United 
States and at any postal money order of- 
fice, lawful m(,ney of the United States to 
the amount of fifty dollars or any multiple 
of that sum or any bonds of the United 
States, bearing three and a-half per cent, 
interest, which are hereby declared valid, 
and to issue in exchange therefore an 
equal amount of registered or coupon 
bonds of the United States, of the denom- 
ination of fifty, one hundred, five hundred, 
one tliousand and ten thousand dollars,_of 
such form as he may prescribe, bearing in- 
terest at the rate "three per centum per 
annum, payable either quarterly or semi- 
annually, at the Treasury of the United 



iIISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 



245 



States. Such bonds shall be exempt from 
ail taxation by or uiuler state authority, 
and be i)ayable at tbe pleasure of tlie 
United State-i. " Provided, That the bonds 
herein auth')rized shall not be called in and 
pai 1 so lon^ as any bonds of the United 
Htates hereto lore issued bearinjr a higher 
rate of interest tiian three per centum, ami 
wliioh shall be redeemable at the ple;isure 
of thj United States, shall be ouLstanding 
and uncalled. The last of the said bond.-. 
ori;^inally issued and their substitutes 
uu ler this a>;t shall be first called in and 
this ord-T of payment shall be followed 
until all shall have been paid." 

The money deposited under this act 
sh.iU bo prom )tly applieil solely to the re- 
demption of the bonds of the United States 
beinng three and a-half per centum in- 
terest, and the aj^gre:^ate amount of de- 
posits made and bonds issued under this 
act shall not exceed the sum of two hun- 
dred million d )llars. The amount of law- 
ful money so received on deposit, us afore- 
said, shall n )t exceed, at any time, the 
sam of twenty-five million dollars. Be- 
fore any deposits are received at any pos- 
tal money office uider this act, the post- 
mister at such offi ;e shall file with the 
Se M'etiry of the Treasury his bond, with 
satisfactory security, conditioned that he 
will promptly transmit to the Treasury of 
th3 LFnitei States the money received by 
hi;n in conf)rmity with regulations to be 
proscribed by such secretary ; and the de- 
posit with any postmaster shall not at any 
time, exceed the amount of his bond. 

Section 2. Any national banking asso- 
ciation now organized or hereafter or- 
ganized desiring t) withdraw its circulat- 
ing notes up)n a deposit of lawful money 
with the Troisury of the United States as 
provided in section 4 of the Act of June 
21, 1874, entitled " An act fixing the 
amount of United Stat m notes providing 
for a re listribu'ion of National bank cur- 
rency and for ofclur purposes," shall be re- 
QTiired to give thirty diys' notice to the 
Controller of the Carrcncy of its intention 
to deposit lawful mousy anl withdraw its 
circulatin.; mtis; provided that not more 
than five million of dollars of lawful 
m>neyshill be deposited during any cal- 
ender month f )r this purpose; and pro- 
vided further, that the provisions of this 
sejtion shall not apoly to bonds cdled for 
redemption by the Secretary of the Trea- 
Burv. 

SBorrov 3. That nothing in this .act 
shall be so construed :ls to authorize an in- 
crease of the public debt. 

In th) past few years opinions on the 
rates of interest have undergone wonderful 
changes. Many supposed — indeed it was 
a "standard" argument — that rates must 
ever be higher in new than old countries. 
that these higher rates comported with and 



aided the higher rates paid for commodi- 
ties and labor. The funding operations 
since the war have dissipated this belief, 
and so shaken political theories that no 
f>arty can n(j\v claim a monopoly of bound 
financial doctrine. So high is the credit 
of the government, and so abundant are 
the rescuirces of our people after a eoin- 
paratively short period of general pro-^per- 
ity, that tiiey seem to have jdenty of ^ur- 
plus funds with which to aid any funding 
onrration, however low the rate of intercjit, 
il the government — State or National — 
shows a willingness to j)ay. As late as 
February, 1X82, rennsylvania funded seven 
millions ofher indebtedness at o, ;ij and 4 
per cent., the two large r sums commanding 
premiums sufficient to cause the entire 
debt to be floated at a little more than 8 
per cent., and thus floating commands an 
additional premium in the money ex- 
changes. 



History of the National Liouns. 

In Book VII of this volume devoted to 
Tabulated History, we try to give the read-> 
or at a glance some idea of tiie history of 
our National finauces. An attempt to go 
into details would of itself fill volumes, for 
no class of legislation has taken so much 
time or caused such a diversity of opinion. 
Yet it is shown, by an admirable review of 
the loans of the United States, by Rafael 
A. Bayley, of the Treasury Department 
published in the February fl882) number 
of the Into- national Remew, that the "finan- 
cial system of the government of the 
United States has continued the same from 
its organization to the i)resent time." Mr. 
Bayley has completed a history of our Na- 
tional Loans, which will be j)ublished in 
the Census volume on " Public Debts." 
From his article in the Review we con- 
dense the leading facts bearing on the his- 
tory of our national loans. 

The financial system of the United States, 
in all its main features, is simple and well 
defined, and its very simplicity may proba- 
bly be assigned as the reason why it ap- 
pears so difficult of comprehe ision by 
many people of intelligence and education. 
It is based upon the principles laid down 
by Alexander Hamilton, and the practical 
adoption of the fundamental maxim which 
he regarded as the true secret for render- 
ing public credit immortal, viz., " that the 
creation of the debt should always be ac- 
companied with the means of extinguish- 
ment." A faithful adherence to this sys- 
tem by his successors has stood the test of 
nearly a century, with the nation at pcoc-e 
or at war, in prosperity or adversity ; eo 
that, with all the change that progress has 
entailed upon the people of the age, tk) 
valid grounds exist for any change here. 

" During the colonial period, and under 



246 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the confederation, the financial operations 
of the Government were based on the law 
of necessity, and depended for success 
upon the patriotism of the ])eople, the co- 
operation of the several States, and the 
assistance of foreign powers friendly to our 
cause. 

" It was the willingness of the people to 
receive the various kinds of j^aper money 
iseiied under authority of the Continental 
Congress, and used in payment for services 
and su})plies, together with the issue of 
similar obligations by the different States, 
lor the redemption of which they assumed 
the responsibi.ity ; aided by the munificent 
gift of money from Louis XVI. of France, 
tollowed by loans for a large amount from 
both France and Holland, that made vic- 
tory possible, and laid the foundations for 
the rejmblic of to-day, with its credit un- 
impaired, and with securities command- 
ing a ready sale at a high premium in all 
the principal raai'kets of the world. 

" Authorities vary as to the amount of 
paper money issued and the cost of the war 
for independence. On the 1st of Septem- 
ber, 1779, Congress resolved that it would 
' on no account whatever emit more bills 
of credit than to make the whole amount 
of such bills two hundred millions of dol- 
lais.' Mr. Jefferson estimates the value 
of this sum at the time of its emission at 
$36,367,719.83 in specie, and says ; ' If we 
estimate at the same value the like sum of 
8200,000,000 supposed to have been 
emitted by the States, and reckon the 
Federal debt, foreign and domestic, at 
about $43,000,000, and the State debt at 
$25,000,000, it will form an amount of 
$140,000,000, the total sum which the war 
cost the United States. It continued eight 
years, from the battle of Lexington to the 
cessation of hostilities in America. The 
annual expense was, therefore, equal to 
about $17,500,000 in specie.' 

" The first substantial aid rendered the 
colonies by any foreign power was a free 
gill of money and military supplies from 
Louis XVI. of France, amounting in the 
aggrearate to 10,000,000 livres, equivalent 
to $1,815,000. 

"These supplies were not furnished 
openly, for the rea.son that France was not 
in a position to commence a war with 
Great Britain. The celebrated Caron de 
Beaumarchais was employed as a secret 
agent, between whom and Silas Deane, as 
the political and commercial agent of the 
United States, a contract was entered into 
whereby the former agreed to furnish a 
large amount of military supplies from the 
arsenals of France, and to receive Ameri- 
can produce in payment therefor. 

" Under this arrangement supplies were 
fiirnished by the French Government to 
the amount of 2,000,000 livres. An addi- 
tional 1,000,000 was contributed by the 



Government of Spain for the same pur- 
pose, and through the same agency. The 
balance of the French subsidy was paid 
through Benjamin Franklin. In 1777 a 
loan of 1,(100,000 livres was obtained from 
the ' Farmers General of France ' under 
a contract for its repayment in American 
tobacco at a stipulated price. From 1778 
to 1783, additional loans were obtained 
from the French King, amounting to 34 - 
000,000 livres. From 1782 to 1789, loans 
to the amount of 9,000,< 00 guilders were 
negotiated in Holland, through the agency 
of John Adams, then the American Minis- 
ter to the Hague. 

" The indebtedness of the United States 
at the organization of the present form of 
government (including interest to Decem- 
ber 31, 1790) may be briefly stated, as fol- 
lows : 

Foreign debt $11,883,315.96 

Domestic debt 40,256,802.45 

Debt due foreign officers... 198,208.10 

Arrears outstanding (since 

discharged) 450,395.52 

Total $52,788,722.03 

To this should be added the individual 
debts of the several States, the precise 
amount and character of which was then 
unknown, but estimated by Hamilton at 
that time to aggregate about $25,000,000. 

"The payment of this vast indebtedness 
was virtually guarantied by the provisions 
of Article VI. of the Constitution, which 
says : ' All debts contracted, and engage- 
ments entered into, before the adoption of 
this Constitution shall be as valid against 
the United States under this Constitution 
as under the confederation.' On the 21st 
of September, 1789, the House of Repre- 
sentatives adopted the following resolu- 
tions : 

Resolved, That this House consider an 
adequate provision for the support of the 
public credit as a matter of high import 
ance to the national honor and prosperity. 

Itesolved, That the Secretary of the 
Treasury be directed to prepare a plan for 
that purpose, and to rej.ort the same to 
this House at its next meeting. 

" In reply thereto Hamilton submitted 
his report on the 9th of January, 1790, in 
which he gave many reasons for assuming 
the debts of the old Government, and of 
the several States, and furnished a plan 
for supporting tlie public credit. His rec- 
ommendations were adopted, and embodied 
in the act making provision for the pay- 
ment of the debt of the United Statea, 
approved August 4, 1790. 

"This act authorized a loan of $12,000,- 
000, to be applied to the payment of the 
foreign debt, })rincipal and interest; a loan 
equal to the full amount of the domestic 
debt, payable in certificates issued for its 



HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 



247 



amount acconlin;; to their specie vuluf, 
and c()iTi{)ULiiig the interest to DeceinluT 
31, 17U1, uj)oii siieh a.s bore interest; iiiul si 
further loan of $2 1, .000,000, payal.le in the 
principal and iatiTL-st ol'the eerti(i"ates or 
note-s which, prior to January 1, 171)0, 
were issued by tiie respective States as evi- 
dences of iniiebtcdncss incurred by thcni 
for the ex[)ensc3 of the kite war. ' In tlie 
case of th^' debt of the UnitiMl States, in- 
terest Ui^on two-thirds of the i)riiKipal 
only, at G per cent., was immediately paiil; 
interest upon the remainin;.; third was de- 
ferred for ten yeirs, and only three j>er 
cent. wa.s allowed u[)on tiie arrears of in- 
terest, making one-third of the whole debt. 
In the case of the separate del)ts of the 
States, interest upon four-ninths only of 
the entire sum was immediately paid ; in- 
terest upon two-ninths was dei'erred for ten 
years, and only ;> per cent, allowed on throe- 
ninths.' Under this authority (5 per cent, 
stock was isuied to the amount of $;)0,0G0,- 
511, and deferred 8 per cent, stock, bear- 
ing interest from January 1, ISOO, amount- 
ing to $14,035,386. This stock was made 
subject to redemption by payments not ex- 
ceeding, in one year, on account both of 
principal and interest, the proportion of 
eight dollars upon a hundred of the sum 
mentioned in the certificates ; $19,719,237 
was issued in 3 per cent, stock, subject ti> 
redemption whenever provision should be 
made by law for that purpose. 

" The money needed for the payment of 
the principal and interest of the foreign 
debt was procured by new loans negotiated 
in Holland and Antwerp to the amount of 
$9,400,000, and the issue of new stock for 
the balance of $2,024,900 due on the 
French debt, this stock bearing a rate of 
interest one-half of one per cent, in ad- 
vance of the rate previously paid, and re- 
deemable at the pleasure of the Govern- 
ment. Sub'^eijuent legislation provided 
for the establishment of a sinking fund, 
under the management of a board of com- 
missioners, consisting of the President of 
the Senate, Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, Secretary of State, Secretary of the 
Treasury, and Attorney General, for the 
time being, who, or any three of whf>m. 
were authorized, under the direction of the 
President of the United States, to make 
purchases of stock, and otherwise provide 
for the gradual liquidation of the entire 
debt, from funds set apart for this purpose. 
On a-<-;uming the position of Secretary of 
the Treasury, Hamilton found himself en- 
tirely without funds to meet the ordinarj- 
expenses of the Government, except by 
borrowing, until such time as the revenues 
from duties on imports and tonnage began 
to come into the Trea-sury. Under these 
circumst mces, he was forced to make ar- 
rangements with the Bank of New York 
and the Bank of North America for tem- 



j)orary loans, and it w.as from the moneys 
received from these banks that Ik; paid the 
first installment of salary due Prt-siflcnt 
Washington, Senators. ReprescutativeJ* and 
officers of C )ngress, during the first nm- 
sion under tlie ( Vjiistitntion, whirh began 
at the city of New York, March 4, 17«9. 

"The iirst ' IJank of the L' ni ted States ' 
ajijiears to have been ])ropose(i by Alex- 
andt r Hamilton in December, 1790, and it 
was incorporated by an act of Congress, 
approved Feiirnary 2"), 1791, with a capi- 
tiil stock of J10,000,000 divided into 2/5,- 
000 shares at $400 eacii. The government 
subscription of $2,000,000, under authority 
of the act, was paid bv giving to the bank 
bills of exchange on lioUand equivalent 
to gold, and borrowing from the bank a 
like sum for ten years at 6 per cent, inter- 
est. The bank went into operation very 
soon after its charter was obtained, and 
declared its first dividend in July, 1792. 
It was evidently well managed, and was of 
great benefit to the GovernnuMit and the 
people at large, assisting the Government 
by loans in ca.ses of emergency, and forc- 
ing the 'wildcat' banks of the country 
to keep their issues ' somewhere within 
reasonable bounds.' More than $100,000,- 
000 of Government money was received 
and disbursed by it without the loss of a 
single dollar. It made semi-annual divi- 
dends, averaging about 8i per cent., and 
its stock rose to a high price. The stock 
belonging to the United States was sold 
out at different time-s at a profit, 2,220 
sliares sold in 1S02 bringing an advance of 
45 per cent. The government subscription, 
vv-ith ten years' interest amounted to $3,200- 
000, while there was received in dividends 
and for stock sold $3,773,580, a profit of 
neatly 28.7 per cent. In 1796 the credit of 
the Government was very low, as shown by 
its utter failure to negotiate a loan for the 
purpose of paying a debt to the Bank of 
the United States for moneys boiTowed and 
used, partly to pay the expenses of sup- 
pressing the whisky insurrection in Penn- 
sylvania and to buy a treaty with the 
pirates of Algiers, On a loan authorized 
for $-5,000,000, only $80,000 could be ob- 
tained, and this at a discount of 12i per 
cent.; and, there being no other immediate 
resource, United States Bank stock to the 
amount of $1,304,260 was sold at a pre- 
mium of 25 per cent. 

" Under an act approved June 30, 1798, 
the President was authorized to accept 
such vessels jis were suitable to be armed 
for the public service, not exceeding twelve 
in number, and to issue certificates, or 
other evidences of the public debt of the 
United Stat^?s, in payment. The ships 
Geor<re Wiishington, Merrimack, Maryland 
and Patapseo, brig Richmond, and frigates 
Boston, Philadelphia, John Adams, Essex 
and New York, were purchased, and 6 per 



248 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



cent, stock, redeemable at the pleasure of 
Congress, was issued in payment to the 
amount of $711,700. 

"The idea of creating a navy by the 
purchase of vessels built by private parties 
and issuing stock in payment therefor, 
seems to have originated -with Hamilton. 

" In the years 1797 and 1798 the United 
States, though nominally at peace with all 
the world, was actually at war with France 
— ^a war not formally declared, but carried 
on upon the ocean with very great viru- 
lence. John ]\Iarshall, Elbridge Gerry and 
Charles C. Pinckney were appointed en- 
voys extraordinary to the French Repub- 
lic", with power for terminating all differ- 
ences and restoring harmony, good under- 
standing and commercial and friendly in- ! 
tercourse between the two nations ; but } 
their efforts were in vain, and extensive 
preparations were made to resist a French 
invasion. It was evident that the ordinary 
revenues of the country would be inade- 
quate for the increased expenditure, and a 
loan of $5,000,000 was authorized by an 
act approved July 16, 1798, redeemable at 
pleasure alter filteen years. The rate of 
interest was not specified in the act, and 
the market rate at the time being 8 per 
cent, this rate was paid, and it was thought 
by a committee of Congress that the loan 
was negotiated ' u[)on the best terms that 
could be procured, and with a laudable 
eye to the public interest. ' A loan of 
$8,500,000 was authorized by an act ap- 
proved May 7, 1800, for the purpose of 
meeting a large deficit in the revenues of 
the preceding year, caused by increased 
expenditures rendered necessary on ac- 
count of the difliculties with France, and 
stock bearing 8 per cent, interest, reim- 
bursai^le after fifteen years, was issued to 
the amount of $1,481,700, on which a pre- 
mium was realized of nearly 5^ per cent. 
These are the only two instances in which 
the Government has paid 8 per cent, in- 
terest on its bonds. 

*' The province of Louisiana was ceded 
to the United States by a treaty with 
France, April 30, 1803, in payment for 
which 6 per cent, bonds, payable in fifteen 
years, were issued to the amount of $11,- 
250,000, and the balance which the Gov- 
ernment agreed to pay for the province, 
amounting to S"3, 750,000, was devoted to 
reimbursing American citizens for French 
depredations on their commerce. These 
claims were paid in money, and the stock 
redeemed by i)urchases made under the di- 
rection of the Commissioners of the Sink- 
ing Fund within twelve years. Under an 
act approved February 11, 1807, a portion 
of the 'old 6 per cent.' and 'deferred 
Btocks" was refunded into new stock, bear- 
ing the same rate of interest, but redeema- 
ble at the pleasure of the United States. 
This was done for the purpose of placing 



it within the power of the Government to 
reimburoc the amount refunded within a 
short time, as under the old laws these 
stocks could only be redeemed at the rate 
of 2 per cent, annually. Stock was issued 
amounting to $6,294,051, nearly all of 
which was redeemed within four years. 
Under the same act old ' 3 per cent, stock ' 
to the amount of $2,861,309 was converted 
into 6 per cents., at sixty-five cents on the 
dollar, but this was not reimbursable with- 
out the assent of the holder until after the 
whole of certain other stocks named in the 
act was redeemed. The stock issued under 
this authority amounted to $1,859,871. It 
would appear that the great majority of the 
holders of the "' old stock " preierred it to 
the new. A loan equal to the amount of 
the principal of the public debt reimbursa- 
ble during the current year was authorized 
by an act approved May 1, 1810, and $2,- 
750,000 was borrowed at 6 per cent, interest 
from the Bank of the United States, for the 
purpose of meeting any deficiency arising 
from increased expenditures on account of 
the military and naval establishments. 
This was merely a temporary loan, which 
was repaid the following year. 

" The ordinary expenses for the year 1812 
were estimated by the Committee of Ways 
and Means of the House of Eepresentativea 
at $1,200,000 more than the estimated re- 
ceipts for the same period, and the impend- 
ing war with Great Britain made it abso- 
lutely necessary that some measures should 
be adopted to maintain the public credit, 
and provide the requisite funds for carrying 
on the Government. Additional taxes were 
imposed upon the people, but as these 
could not be made immediately available 
there was no other resource but new loans 
and the issue of Treasury notes. This was 
the first time since the formation of the new 
Government that the issue of such notes 
had been proposed, and they were objected 
to as engrailing on our system of finance a 
new and untried measure. 

" Under various acts of Congress ap- 
proved between March 4, 1812, and Feb- 
ruary 24, 1815, 6 per cent, bonds were is- 
sued to the amount of $50,792,674. These 
bonds were negotiated at rates varying from 
20 per cent, discount to par, the net cash 
realized amounting to $44,530,123. A fur- 
ther sum of $4,025,000 was obtained by 
temporary loans at par, of which sum 
$225,000 was for the purpose of repairing 
the public buildings in VVashington, dam- 
aged by the enemy on the night of August 
24, 1814. These 'war loans' were all 
nuide redcemi^)le at the pleasure of the 
Government after a specified date, and the 
faith of the United States was solemnly 
pledged to provide sufficient revenues for 
this purpose. The ' Treasury note system ' 
wjus a new feature, and its success was re- 
garded as somewhat doubtful. 



HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 



249 



" Its subsequent popularity, howcvor, 
was owing to a variety of causes. Tlie 
notes wrre muilc receivable everywhere lor 
dues and ciisUims, and in jtayinent lor pub- 
lic ianiis. Tliey wore to bear interest i'roui 
the day of issue, at the rate of 5 2-5 per 
cent, per uiuium, and their ])ayinent was 
guaranteed by the United States, i)rincipal 
and intere<t, at maturity. Tiiey thus fur- 
nished a eireulatinj; meiliuni to tiie eouii- 
try, supcri )r to the j>apcr of the suspend- 
ed and doubtful State banks. These 
issues were therefore considered more 
desirable than the issue of adilitional 
stock, wliieli could be reali/.ed in cash 
only by the payment of a ruinous dis- 
count. The whole amount of Treasury 
notes issued during the war period was 
$oO,G80,7iH. The Commissioners of the 
Sinking Fund wore authorized to provide 
for their redemption by purcha.se, in the 
same manner as for other evidences of the 
public debt, and by authority of law $10,- 
575,738 was redeemed by tiie issue of cer- 
tificates of funded stock, bearin'2; interest at 
f.om G to 7 per cent, per annum, redeema- 
ble at any time after 1824. 

" During the years 1812-13 the sum of 
$2,9S4,747 of the old G per cent, and de- 
ferred stocks were refunded into new 6 per 
cent. stock redeemable in twelve years ; and 
by an act approved March 31, 1814, Con- 
gress having authorized a settlement of the 
Yazoo claims ' by an issue of non-interest- 
bearing stock, payable out of the first re- 
ceipts from the sale of public lands in the 
Missisipi territory, $4,282,037 was is-iued for 
this purpose. On the 24th of February, 
1815, Secretary Dallas reported to Congress 
that the public debt had been increased, in 
consequence of the war with Great Bri- 
tain, $68,783,122, a large portion of which 
was due and unpaid, while another con- 
sideraM ; prop jrtion was fast becoming 
due. These unpaid or accruing demands 
were in part for temporal y loans, and the 
balance for Treasury noies either due or 
maturing daily. To provide for their pay- 
ment a new loan for the full amount 
needed w.us authorized by act of iMarch 3, 
1815, and six per. cent stock redeemable in 
fifteen year:*, was issued in the sum of 
$12,2S8,14S. This stock was sold at from 
95 per cent. t« par, and was nearly all re- 
deemed in 1S20 by purchases made by the 
Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. 

" The Government became a stockholder 
In the second Bank of the United States, to 
the amount of 70,000 shares, umlcr the act 
of incorporation, approved April 10, 1816. 
The capital stock was limited to $35,000,000. 
divided into 35:),000 shires of $109 each. 
The Government subscription wa.s paid by 
the issue of 5 per cent, stock to the amount 
of $7,000,000, redeemable at the pleasure 
of the Government. This was a profitable 
investment for the United States, as in ad- 



dition to $1,500,000 which the bank paid a<» a 
bonus for its eiiarier, the net r .'ceipls over 
and above disljur^ianenls isinounted to 
i<4,'J03,lti7. Tiie available fumls in the 
Treasury on the 1st of .J:inuary, iSiiO, were 
less than ^2oO,000, und the e-^tiniated dt-li- 
cii-ncy for the year amounted to nearly 
.■i;4,00(),0(l'l. Tiiis 8tate olatl'airs was owing 
partly to the disastrous e(le-ts of the eom- 
inercial crisis of l.Sl'.), heavy payments for 
the redemption of the public <lebt, contin- 
ued throuj;h a series of yeai>>, and large 
outstan ling claims, amounting to over 
$.".0,000,000, re-ulling from the late war 
with Great Britain. To meet the emer- 
irenev, a loan was authorized bvactof M.iy 
15. 1820. and $l)99.ir.»l). 13 wis borrowed at 5 
[)er cent., redeeuiablc in twelve vears, and 
.v2,00O0,0J0 at C per cent., reimbursable at 
pleasure, this lytfcer stock realizing a nre- 
ininm of 2 per cent. By act of Slarcn 3, 
1S21, 5 per cent, stock amounting to $4,735,- 
27G was i-ssued at a premium of over 5! per 
cent., and tlie pro -eeds used in payment of 
the princijial atid interest of the public 
debt falling due within the year. 

" An effort wa-s made in 1822 to refund a 
portion of the 6 per cent, war loans of 
1812-14 into 5 per cents., but only $5t),705 
could be obtained. Two years later the 
Government was more successful, and, un- 
der the act of May 2t>, 1824, G i)er cent, 
stock of 1813 to the amount of $4,454,728' 
w;is exchanged for new stock bearing 4J 
per cent, interest, redeemable in 1833-34. 
During the same year $5,000,000 was bor- 
rowed at 4^ i)er cent, to provide for the 
payment of the awards made by the Com- 
missioners under the treaty with Spain of 
February 22, 1819, and a like amount, at 
the same rate of interest, to be applied in 
paying off that part of the 6 per cent. 
stock of 1812 redeemable the following 
year. The act of March 3, 1825, author- 
ized a loan of $12,000,000, at 4} per cent, 
interest, the money borrowed to be applied 
in p.aying ofl' prior loans, but only $1,539,- 
33G was exchanged for an equal amount of 
G per cent, stock of 1813. 

" In the year 1836 the United States w.os, 
for the first time in the history of the coun- 
try, practically out of debt. Secretiiry 
Woodbury, in his report of December 8, 
1836, estimated the amount of public debt 
still ontstandi n',' at about $328, 5S2, and this 
remained unpaid solely because payment 
had not been demanded, ample funds to 
meet it having been deposited in the 
United States Bank and loan ottires. The 
debt outstanding consisted mainly of un- 
claimed interest and dividen<ls. of claims 
for services and .sn|)plies dnrinu' the Eevo- 
lution, and of old Treasury notes, and it is 
supposed that payment of these had not 
been asked for solely because the evilencea 
of the debt h.ad been lost or destroyed. 
The estimates showed the probability of • 



250 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



surplus of at least $14,000,000 in the Trea- 
sury at the close of tlie year 1836, and this 
estimate proved to be far below the truth. 
In this favorable condition of the public 
finances, Congress adopted the extraordi- 
nary resolution of depositing the surplus 
over ^5,OUU,000 with the several States, and 
under the act of June 2-'}, 1836, surplus 
revenue amounting to $28,101,644.91 was 
so deposited. 

"In 1837, however, the state of the 
country had changed. The 'flush' times 
of 1835 and 1836 had been succeeded by 
extraordinary depression, which ultimately 
produced a panic. In May most of the 
banks suspended specie payments. The 
sales of public lands, and the duties on the 
importations of f ireign goods, which had 
helped to swell the balance in the Treasury 
to over !{;42,000,000, had fallen off enor- 
mously. Even on the goods that were im- 
ported it was dithcult to collect the duties, 
for the law compelled them to be paid in 
specie, and specie was hard to obtain. It 
had become impossible not only to pay the 
fourth installment of the surplus at the end 
of 1836 to the several States, but even to 
meet the current expenses of the Govern- 
ment from its ordinary revenues. In this 
emergency the Secretary of the Treasury 
suggested that contingent authority be 
given the President to cause the issue of 
Treasury notes. This measure was gener- 
ally supported on the ground of absolute 
necessity, as there was a large deficit al- 
ready existing, and this was likely to in- 
crease from the condition of the country at 
that time. The measure was opposed, 
however, by some who thought that greater 
economy in expenditures would relieve 
the Treasury, while others denounced it as 
an attempt " to start a Treasury bank." 

" However, an act was approved October 
12, 1837, authorizing an issue of $10,000,- 
000 in Treasury notes in denominations 
not less than fifty dollars, redeemable in 
one year from date, with interest at 
rates fixed by the Secretary, not exceed- 
ing 6 per cent. These notes, as usual, 
were receivable in payment of all duties 
and taxes levied by the United States, and 
in payment for public lands. Prior to 
1846, the issue of notes of this character 
amounted to $47,002,900, bearing interest 
at rates varying from one-tenth of one per 
cent, to 6 per cent. To provide in part for 
their redemption, authority was granted 
for the negotiation of several loans, and 
$21,021,0!)4 was borrowed for this ])urpose, 
bonds being issued for a like sum, bearing 
interest at from 5 to 6 per cent., redeema- 
ble at specified dates. These bonds were 
sold at from 2J per cent, discount to 3J per 
cent, premium, and redeemed at from par 
to 10| per cent, advance. 

" War with Mexico was declared May 13, 
1846, and in order to provide against a 



deficiency a further issue of $10,000,000 in 
Treasury notes was authorized by act of 
July 22, 1846, under the same limitations 
and restrictions as were contained in the act 
of October, 1837, except that the authority 
given was to expire at the end of one year 
from the passage of the act. The sum of 
$7,687,800 was issued in Treasury notes, 
and six per cent, bonds having ten years to 
run were issued under the same act to the 
amount of $4,999,149. These were sold at 
a small advance, and redeemed at various 
rates from j^ar to eighteen and two-thirds 
per cent, premium. 

" The expens-es incurred on account of 
the war with Mexico were much greater 
than the original estimates, and the failure 
to provide additional revenues sufficient to 
meet the increased demands made a new 
loan necessary, as well as an additional 
issue of notes, which had now become a 
pojHilar method of obtaining lunds. Under 
the authority granted by act of January 
28, 1847, Treasury notes to the amount of 
$26,122,100 were issued at par, redeemable 
one and two years from date, with interest 
at from 5 2-0 to 6 per cent. More money 
still being needed, a 6 per cent, loan, hav- 
ing twenty year, to run, was placed upon 
the market, under the authority of the 
same act, and bonds to the amount of $28,- 
230,350 were sold at various rates, ranging 
from par to 2 per cent, premium. Of this 
stock the sum of $18,815,100 was redeemed 
at an advance of from Ih to 211 per cent., 
the premium paid (exc'islve of commis- 
sions) amounting to $3,466,107. Under 
the act of March 31, 1848, 6 per cent, 
bonds, running twenty years, were l-sued 
to the amount of $16,000,000, and sold at a 
premium ranging from 3 to 4.05 per cent. 
This loan was made for the same purpose 
as the preceding one, and $7,091,658 was 
redeemed by purchase at an advance 
ranging from 8 to 22.46 per cent., the 
premium jaid amounting to H, 251, 258. 

" The widespread depression of trade 
and commerce which occurred in 1857 was 
severely felt by the Government, as well as 
by the people, and so great -was the de- 
crease in the revenues from customs that it 
became absolutely necessary to provide 
the Treasury with additional means for 
meeting the demands upon it. Treasury 
notes were considered as preferable to a 
new loan, and by the act of December 23, 
1857, a new issue was authorized for such 
an amount as the exigencies of the public 
service mitrht require, but not to exceed at 
any one time $20,000,000. These notes 
were receivable in payment for all debts 
due the United States, including customs, 
and were issued at various rates of inter- 
est, ranging from 8 to 6 per cent., to the 
amount of $52,778,900, redeemable one 
year from date, the interest to cease at the 
expiration of sixty day's' notice after 



UISTOUY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 



2ol 



maturity. In May, 1S.')S, the Secretary <>f 
the Treasury iiii')rnuil (Jongres.s that, 
owing to the ai>|ir()[>riatii)ns havinjr been 
increa.seJ by le^;slatiuii nearly 5*lU,()iM»,Oi»0 
over the eHtiniate4, while the eu^toins 
revenue had I'alL'u oil" to a like an\i)urit, it 
w )uld be neees^ary to provide some means 
to meet the delicit. In these eireumslances, 
a new loan was authorize 1 by act <)1" .June 
14, 1S')S, and o per cent, bonds amounting 
to $2'),i)Jtl,0JI), redeemable in fifteen years, 
were sold at an average premium of over 
3V per cent. Under the act of December 
17, 1873, $13,9J7,00:) iu bonds of the loan 
of 1881, and $2oO,000 in br)uds of a loan of 
l!)(7, were issued in exchange for a like 
amount of bonds of this lo in. 

"The act of June 22, 18G0, authorized 
the President to borrow $21,0i).),000 on the 
credit of the United States the money to 
be used only in the redempuoa of Trea- 
sury notes, and to replace any amount of 
such notes in tlie Treasury which should 
have been paid in for public dues. (Jnly 
$7,022,00i) was borrowed at 5 per cent, in- 
terest, the certificates selling at from par 
to 1.45 per cent, premium. The failure to 
roili/.e the \vh )le loan was caused by the 
p ditical troubles which culminated in the 
civil war. In Sijptember, bids were in- 
vited f)r $10,0)0,00), and the whole amount 
o.Tered was speedily taken. It so )n be- 
ca'ue evident, however, that war was inevi- 
table, and a commercial crisis ensued, dur- 
ing whieh a portion of the bid lers forfeit- 
ed their deposits, and the balance of the 
loan w;is withdrawn from the market. Au- 
th )rity was granted by the act of Decem- 
ber 17, 1830, for a new issue of Treasury 
notes, redeemable in one year from date, 
but not to exceed $10,000,000 at any one 
time, with interest at such rates as might 
be offered by the lowest responsible bid- 
ders after advertisement. An unsuccess- 
ful attempt was made to pledge the receipts 
fr)inthe sale of public iands specifically 
fi')r their redemption, Th-? whole amount 
of notes issued under th's act was .^10,010,- 
9)0, of which 84,810,000 bore interest at 
12 per cent. Additional offers followed, 
ranging from lo to 33 per cent., but the 
Tre.isury deelined to accept them. 

" Up to this period of our national exist- 
ence the obtaining of the money necessary 
for carrying on the Government and the 
preservation inviolate of the public credit 
had been comparatively an easy task. The 
people of the several States had contributed 
in pr )portion to their financial resources ; 
and a strict adherence to the fundamental 
maxim laid down by Hamilton had been 
maintained by a judicious system of taxa- 
tion to an extent amply sufficient to pro- 
vide for the redemption of all our national 
securities as they became due. But the 
time had come when we were no longer a 
united people, and the means required for 



'defr.aying the ordinary exjx'nses of the 
; Government wire almost immediately cur- 
I tailed and ji'ooardi/.ed by llie attitude of 
the States wiiiili altemptid to .secede. The 
confusion which fuilowi'd ihu inauguration 
of the administration of I'resident Lincoln 
demonstial>'d the lUHes-iily of providing 
unusual resources without Uiday. A sys- 
tem of internal levenut; taxation w.ts in- 
troduced, and the tarifl" adjusted with a 
: view to increased revenues from customs. 
As the Government had not only U) exiit 
and pay its way, but also to provide for an 
army and navy constantly increasing in 
numbers and e(|uipment, new and extiaor- 
dinary methods were resorted to for the 
purpose of securing the money which must 
be had in order to preserve the integrity 
of the nation. Among the.->e were the issue 
of its own circulating medium in the Ibrin 
of United States notes* and circulating 
notes, t for the redemption of wliich tlie 
faith of the nation was solemnly pledged. 
New loans were authorized to an amount 
never before known in our history, and 
the success of our armies was a.ssured by 
the determination manifested by the peo- 
ple themselves to sustain the Government 
at all hazards. A brief review of the loan 
transactions during the period covered by 
tlie war is all that can be attempted within 
the limited space atfordedthis article. The 
first war loan may be considered as having 
been negotiated under the authority of an 
act api)roved Februarys, 18(jl. The cred- 
it of the Government at this time was very 
low, and a loan of $18,415,000, having 
twenty years to run, with G per cent, inter- 
est, could only be negotiated at a discount 
of $2,019,770.10, or at an average rate of 
889.03 per one hundred dollars. From 
this time to June 30, 1865, Government se- 
curities of various descriptions were issued 
under authoritv of law to the amount of 
$3,888,<JSG,575, including the several issues 
of bonds. Treasury notes, seven-thirties, 
lesral tenders and fractional currency. The 
whole amount issued under the .same au- 
thority to June 30, 1880, was $7,137,646,836, 
divided as follows : 

Six per cent, bonds $1,130,270,000 

Five per cent, bonds 196,118.300 

Temporarv loan certificates.. 969,992,250 

Seven-thifty notes 716,099,247 

Treasurv notes and certifi- 
cates of indebtedness 1,074,713,132 

Old demand notes, legal tend- 
ers, coin certificates and 
fractional currency 3,050,444,907 

Total $7,137,646,836 

"This increase may be readily accounted 
for by the continued issue of legal tenders, 

• Commonly siillod " Groenljaclvs," or " Lef;al Tcmlaf 
notou ■• 
t Commjaly called " Nktiuual Bank nutes." 



252 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



compound interest notfs, fractional cur- 
rency and coin certificates, together with a 
hirge amount of bond*? issued in order to 
raise the muney necessary to pay for mili- 
tary supplies, and other forms of indebted- 
ness gruwing out of the war. The rebel- 
lion was jiractically at an end in May, 
1865, yet the large amount of money re- 
quired for immediate use in the payment 
and disbandment of our enormous armies 
necessitated the still further negotiation of 
loans under the several acts of Congress 
then in force, and it was not until after the 
31st of August, 1805, that our national 
debt began to decrease. At that time the 
total indebtedness, exclusive of the " old 
funded and unfunded debt" of the Revo- 
lution, and of cash in the Treasury, 
amounted to $2,844,646,026.5(3. The course 
of our financial legislation since that date 
has been constantly toward a reduction of 
the interest, as well as the principal of the 
public debt. 

"By an act approved March 3, 1865, a 
loan of $600,000,000 was authorized upon 
similar terms as had been granted for pre- 
vious loans, with the exception that no- 
thing authorized by this act should be 
made a legal tender, or be issued in smaller 
denominations than fifty dollars. The rate 
of interest was limited to 6 per cent, in 
coin, or 7.3 per cent, in currency, the bonds 
issued to be redeemable in not less than 
five, nor more than forty, years. Authority 
was also given for the conversion of Trea- 
sury notes or other interest-bearing obliga- 
tions into bonds of this loan. An amend- 
ment to this act was passed April 12, 1866, 
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury, 
at his discretion, to receive any Treasury 
notes or other obligations issued under any 
act of Congress, whether bearing interest 
or not, in exchange for any description of 
bonds authorized by the original act ; and 
also to dispose of any such bonds, either in 
the United States or elsewhere, to such an 
amount, in such manner, and at such rates 
as he might deem advisable, for lawful 
money, Treasury notes, certificates of in- 
debtedness, certificates of deposit, or other 
representativesof value, which had been or 
might be issued under any act of Congress; 
the proceeds to be used only for retiring 
Treasurj' notes or other national obligations, 
provided the public debt was not increased 
thereby. As this w:is the first important 
measure presented to Congress since the 
close of the war tending to place our secu- 
rities upon a firm basis, the action of Con- 
gress in relation to it was looked forward 
to with a great deal of interest. The dis- 
cussion took a wide range, in which the 
whole financial administration of the Go- 
vernment during the war was reviewed at 
length. After a long and exciting debate 
the bill finally passed, and was approved by 
the President. Under the authority of 



these two acts, 6 per cent, bonds to the 
amount of $958,483,550 have been issued to 
date. These bonds were disposed of at an 
aggregate premium of $21,522,074, and un- 
der the acts of July 14, 1870, and Januaiy 
20, 1871, the same bonds to the amount of 
$725,582,400 have been refunded into other 
bonds bearing a lower rate of interest. The 
success of these several loans was remarka- 
ble, every exertion being used to provide for 
their general distribution among the people. 

" In 1807 the first is&ue of 6 per cent, 
bonds, known as five-twenties, authorized 
by the act of Feb. 25, 1862, became re- 
deemable, and the question of relunding 
them and other issues at a lower rate of in- 
terest had been discussed by the Secretary 
of the Treasury in his annual reports, but 
the agitation of the question as to the kinds 
of money in which the various obligations 
of the Government should be paid, had so 
excited the apprehension of investors as to 
prevent the execution of any relunding 
scheme. 

" The act to strengthen the public credit 
was passed March 18. 1869, and its effect 
was such as secured to the public the strong- 
est assurances that the interest and princi- 
pal of the public debt outstanding at that 
time would be paid in coin, according to 
the terms of the bonds issued, without any 
abatement. 

"On the 12th of January, 1870, a bill 
authorizing the refunding and consolidation 
of the national debt was introduced in the 
Senate, and extensively debated in both 
Houses for several months, during which 
the financial system pursued by the Go- 
vernment during the war was freely re- 
viewed. The adoption of the proposed 
measure resulted in an entire revolution of 
the refunding system, under which the 
public debt of the United States at that 
time was provided for, by the transmission 
of a large amount of debt to a succeeding 
generation. The effect of this attempt at 
refunding the major portion of the public 
debt was far more successful than any si- 
milar effort on the part of any Government, 
so far as known. 

The act authorizing refunding certifi- 
cates convertible into 4 per cent, bonds, 
approved February 26, 1879, was merely 
intended for the benefit of parties of limit- 
ed means, and was simply a continuation 
of the refunding scheme authorized by 
previous legislation. 

" The period covered precludes any at- 
tempt toward reviewing the operation by 
which the immediate predecessor of the 
present Secretary reduced the interest on 
some six hundred millions of 5 and 6 per 
cent, bonds to 3} per cent. It is safe to say, 
however, that under the administration of 
the present Secretary there will be no de- 
viation from the original law laid down by 
Hamilton. 



REPUBLICAN FACTIONS. 



253 



James A. Oarflelcl. 

JaniC3 A. Garlield and Chester A. Ar- 
thur \TLTc ])ul)licly iuau^ijurated President 
and Vioe President of the United 8tates 
March 4, ISSl. 

President (rarfiehl in his iiiausjural ad- 
dress promised full and eipial ])r()tection of 
tlie Constitution an 1 the hiws for the ne;^ro, 
advocated universal education as a safe- 
guard of sutlVa;j;e, and reeoniniendeil such 
an adjustment of our monetary system 
"that the nurchasinj:^ power of every coined 
dollar will be exailly eijual to its del)t- 
payin:; power in all the markets of the 
world." The national debt .should be re- 
funded at a l')\ver rate of interest, without 
compelling the withdrawal of the National 
lianlv notes, polygamy should be prohibit- 
ed, and civil s?rvico regul.ited by law. 

An cxtri s/ssion of the Senate was 
opened March 4. On the r)th, the follow- 
in;^ cabinet nominations Avcre made and 
ooafirmed: S.'cretary of State, Jamea G. 
lilaine, of Maine; Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, William Windom, of Minnesota; 
Secretary of the Navy, William II. Hunt, 
of Louisiana; Secretary of War, Robert 
T. Lincoln, of Illinois; Attorney General, 
Wayne MacVoagh, of Pennsvlvania ; Post- 
mivster General, Thomas L. James, of New 
Yor'r ; Secretary of the Interior, Samuel 
J. Kir'cwood, of Iowa. 

In this extra session of the Senate Vice 
President Arthur had to employ the cast- 
ing vote on all questions where the parties 
divided, and he invariably cast it on the 
side of the Republicans. The evenness of 
the parties caused a dead-lock on the ques- 
tion of organization, for when David Davis, 
of Illinois, voted with the Democrats, the 
Republicans had n')t enough even with the 
Vice President, and he was not, therefore, 
called upon to decide a question of that 
kind. The Republicans desired new and 
Republican officers; the Democrats de- 
sired to retain the old and Democratic 
ones. 



RepixMlcan Factlona. 

President Garfield, March 28d, sent in a 
large number of nominations, among which 
was that of William H. Robertson, the 
leader of the Pdaine wing of the Republi- 
can party in New York, to be Collector of 
Customs. He had previously sent in five 
names for prominent places in New York, 
at the suggefition of Senator Conkling, who 
had been invited by President Garfield to 
name his friends. At this interview it was 
stated that Garfield casually intimated that 
he would make no immediate change in 
the New York Collcetorship, and both fac- 
tions seemed satisfied to allow Gen'l Edwin 
A. Merritt to retain that place for a time 
at leist. There were loud protests, however, 
at tke first and early selection of the friends 



of Senator Conkling to five im;»ortant 
|>laccs, and these protests were ln-t.iit d by 
the President. With a view to meet tlieni, 
and, doubtless, to (piiet the spirit of faction 
rapidly developing between the (Jrant and 
anti-(>rant elements of tlie party in New 
York, the name of Judge RoberLson wits 
sent in for the (JoUectorship. He had but- 
tled against the unit rule at Chicago, dis- 
avowed the instructions of his State Con- 
vention to vote for Grant, and led the 
Blaine delegates from that State while 
Blaine was in the field, and when with- 
drawn went to (iarfield. Senator ( 'onkling 
nowsimght to confirm his I'ricnds, and hold 
back his enemy from confirmation; but 
these tactics induced Garlield to withdraw 
the nomination of Conkling's friends, and 
in this way Judge Robertson's name was 
alone presented for a time. Against thi.s 
course Vice-President Arthur and Senators 
Conkling and Piatt remonstrated in a let- 
ter to the President, but he remained firm. 
Senator Conkling, under the plea of " the 
privilege of the Senate," — a courtesy and 
custom which leaves to the Senators of a 
State the right to say who shall be con- 
firmed or rejected from their respective 
States if of the same party — now sought to 
defeat Robertson. In this battle he had 
arrayed against him the influence of his 
great rival, Mr. Blaine, and it is presumed 
the whole power of the administration. 
He lost, and the morning following the 
secret vote, May 17th, ISSl, his own and 
the resignation of Senator Piatt were read. 
These resignations caused great excitement 
throughout the entire country. They were 
prepared without consultation with any 
one — even Vice-President Arthur, the in- 
timate friend of both, not knowing any- 
thing of the movement until the letters 
were opened at the chair where he pre- 
sided. Logan and Cameron — Conkling's 
colleagues in the great Chicago battle — 
were equally unadvised. The resignations 
were forwarded to Gov. Cornell, of "Sew 
York, who, by all permissible delays, 
sought to have them reconsidered and 
withdrawn, but both Senators were firm. 
The Senate confirmed Judge Robertson 
for Collector, and General Merritt as Con- 
sul-General at London, May 18th, Prei^i- 
dent Garfield having wisely renewed the 
Conkling list of a])pointees. most of whom 
declined under the changed condition of 
affairs. 

These events more widely separated the 
factions in New York — one wing calling 
itself "Stalwart," the other "Half-Breed," 
a term of contempt flung at the Indepen- 
dents by Conkling. Elections must follow 
to fill the vacancies, the New York Legis- 
lature being in session. .These vacancies 
^ave the Democrats for the time control of 
the United States Senate, but they thought 
it unwise to pursue an advantage which 



254 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



would compel them to show their hands 
for or against one or other of the opposing 
Republican factions. The extra session ol 
the Senate adjourned May 20th. 

The New Yoric Legislature began ballot- 
ing for successors to Senators Conkling and 
Piatt on the 31st of May. The majority of 
the Republicans (Independents or " Half- 
breeds") supported Chauncey M. Depew 
as the successor of Piatt for the long term, 
and William A. Wheeler as the successor 
of Conkling for the short term, a few sup- 
porting Cornell. The minority (Stalwarts) 
renominated Messrs. Conkling and Piatt. 
The Democrats nominated Francis Kernan 
for the long term, and John C. Jacobs for 
the short term ; and, on his withdrawal, 
Clarkson N. Potter. The contest lasted 
until July 22, and resulted in a compro- 
mise on Warner A. Miller as Piatt's suc- 
cessor, and Elbridge G. Lapham as Conk- 
ling's successor. In Book VII., our Tabu- 
lated History of Politics, we give a correct 
table of the ballots. These show at a sin- 
gle glance the earnestness and length of 
the contest. 

The factious feelings engendered thereby 
were carried into the Fall nominations for 
the Legislature, and as a result the Demo- 
• crats obtained control, which in part they 
subsequently lost by the refusal of the 
Tammany Democrats to support their 
nominees for presiding officers. This De- 
mocratic division caused a long and tire- 
some deadlock in the Legislature of New 
York. It was broken in the House by a 
promise on the part of the Democratic 
candidate for Speaker to favor the Tam- 
many men with a just distribution of the 
committees — a promise which was not 
satisfactorily carried out, and as a result 
the Tammany forces of the Senate joined 
hands with the Republicans. The Repub- 
lican State ticket would also have been 
lost in the Fall of 1881, but for the inter- 
position of President Arthur, who quickly 
succeeded in uniting the warring factions. 
This work was so well done, that all save 
one name on the ticket (Gen'l Husted) 
succeeded. 

The same factious spirit was manifested 
in Pennsylvania in the election of U. S. 
Senator in the winter of 1881, the two wings 
takjng the names of " Regulars " and " In- 
dependents." The division occurred be- 
fore the New York battle, and it is trace- 
able not alone to the bitter nominating 
contest at Chicago, l)ut to the administra- 
tion of President Hayes and the experi- 
ment of civil service reform. Administra- 
tions which are not decided and firm upon 
political issues, invariably divide their 
parties, and whih; these divisions are not 
always to be deplored, and sometimes lead 
to pood results, the fact that undecided 
administrations divide the parties which 
they represent, ever remuina. The exam- 



jiles are plain : Van Buren's, Tyler's, Fill- 
more's, Buchanan's, and Haves'. The lat- 
ter's indecision was more excusable thau 
that of any of his predecessors. The in- 
exorable firmness of Grant caused the most 
bitter partisan assaults, and despite all his 
ellbrta to sustain the " carpet-bag govern- 
ments " of the South, they became unpopu- 
lar and were rapidly supplanted. As they 
disappeared, Democratic representation 
from the South increased, and this increase 
continued during the administration of 
Hayes — the greatest gains being at times 
when he f-howed the greatest desire to con- 
ciliate the South. Yet his administration 
did the party good, in this, that while at 
first dividing, it finally cemented through 
the conviction that experiments of that 
kind with a proud Southern people were 
as a rule unavailing. The re opening of 
the avenues of trade and other natural 
causes, apparently uncultivated, have ac- 
complished in this direction much more 
than any political effort. 

In Pennsylvania a successor to U. S. 
Senator Wm. A. Wallace was to be chosen. 
Henry W. Oliver, Jr., received the nomi- 
nation of the Republican caucus, the 
friends of Galusha A. Grow refusing to 
enter after a count had been made, and 
declaring in a written paper that they 
would not participate in any caucus, and 
would independently manifest their choice 
in the Legislature. The following is the 
first vote in joint Convention • 

OLIVER. WALLACE. 

Senate 20 Senate 16 

House 75 House 77 

Total 95 Total 93 

GROW. AGIvEW. 

Senate 12 Senate 1 

House 44 House 

Total 56 Total 1 

BREWSTER. BAIRD, 

Senate Senate 

House 1 House 1 



Total 1 

m'veagh. 

Senate 

House 1 



Total, 



Total. 



Whole number of votes cast, 248 ; ne- 
cessary to a choice, 125. 

On the 17th of January the two factions 
issued opposing addresses. From these 
we quote the leading ideas, which divided 
the factions. The " Regulars " said : 

"Henry W. Oliver, jr., of Allegheny 
county, was nominated on the third ballot, 
receiving 79 of the 95 votes present. Un- 
der the rules of all parties known to the 



REPUBLICAN FACTIONS. 



255 



pre-icnt or past hisfon' of our (■(niiitrv, a 
majority of those ])arLici|)iitiii;^ .should liavo 
been suHkrioiit; but sui-h wius tho(h:sirr lor 
party harmony and lor absDhito lairiioH, 
that a majority ol' all tin; Uo[)ublicaii mem- 
bers of the Senate and House \v;us recjuired 
to nominate. The eileet of this was to 
give those remaining out a ne;.;ative voice 
in the {)r()ceedin,L's, the extent of aiiv priv- 
ilege given them in regular legislative ses- 
sions by the Constitution. In no other 
caueus or convention has the minority ever 
found such higii consideration, and we be- 
lieve there remains no just cause of com- 
plaint against tiie result. Even Cii[)tious 
laulthnding can linil no place upon whicli 
to hang a sensible objection. Mr. Oliver 
was, therefore, fairly nominated by the 
only body to which is delegated the power 
of nomination and by methods which were 
more than just, which, from every stand- 
point, must be regarded as generous; and 
in view of these things, how can we, your 
Senators and Representatives, in fairness 
withhold our support from him in o(>cn 
sessions ; rather how can we ever abandon 
a claim established by the rules regulating 
the government of all parties, accepted by 
all as just, and which arc in exact harmony 
with that fundamental principle of our 
Government whicli proclaims the right of 
the majority to rule? To do otherwise is 
to confess the injustice and the failure of 
that principle — something we are not pre- 
pared to do. It would blot the titles to 
our own positions. There is not a Senator 
or member who does not owe his nomina- 
tion and election to the same great prin- 
ciple. To profit by its acceptance in our 
own cases and to deny it to Mr. Oliver 
would be an exhibition of selfishness too 
flagrant for our taste. To acknowledge 
the right to revolt when no unfairness can 
be truthfully alleged and when more than 
a majority have in the interest of harmony 
been required to govern, would be a tra- 
vesty upon every American notion and 
upon that sense of manliness which yields 
when fairly beaten." 
The "Independent" address said: 
" First. We recognize a public senti- 
ment which demands that in the selection 
of a United States Senator we have regard 
to that dignity of the office to be filled, its 
important duties and functions, and the 
qualifications of the individual with refer- 
ence thereto. This sentiment is, we un- 
derstand, that there are other and higher 
qualifications for this distinguished posi- 
tion than business experience and success, 
and reckons among these the accomplish- 
ments of the scholar, the acquirements of 
the student, the mature wisdom of experi- 
ence and a reasonable familiarity with 
public affiiirs. It desires that Pennsylva- 
nia shall be distinguished among her sister 
Commouwealths, not only by her populous 



cities, her prosperous cf>mmnnitios, her 
vast material wealth ami diversiliud inilus- 
tries and resources, but that in the wis- 
dom, sagacity and statesmanship of \u:r 
representative hhe shall occujiy a corres- 
ponding rank and inlluence. To meet 
this public expectation and demand we are 
and have at all times i)cen willing to su- 
bordinate our jiersonal preferences, uW 
h^cal consi<ierations and factional ililfer- 
ences, and unite with our colleagues in the 
selection of a candidate in whom are com- 
bined at least someof these im]>orlant and 
essential qualilieations. It was only when 
it became apparent that the party caucu.s 
was to be used to defeat this popular desire 
and to coerce a nomination which is con- 
spicuously lacking in the very essentials 
which were demanded, that we determined 
to absent ourselves from it. * * * * 

" /^second, Having declined to enter the 
caucus, we adhere to our determination to 
defeat, if possible, its nominee, but only by 
the election of a citizen of unquestioned 
fidelity to the principles of the Rei)Ubli- 
can party. In declaring our independency 
from the caucus domination we do not 
forget our allegiance to the party whose 
chosen representatives we are. The only 
result of our policy is the transfer of the 
contest from the caucus to the joint con- 
vention of the two houses. There will be 
afforded an opi)ortunity for the expression 
of individual preferences and honorable 
rivalry for an honorable distinction. If 
the choice shall fall upon one not of ap- 
])roved loyalty and merit, the fault will not 
be ours." 

After a long contest both of the leading 
candidates withdrew, and quickly the Reg- 
ulars substituted General James A. Beaver, 
the Independent Congressman, Thomas 
M. Bayne. On these names the dead-lock 
remained unbroken. Without material 
change the balloting continued till Febru- 
ary 17th, when both Republican factions 
agreed to appoint conference committees 
of twelve each, with a view to selecting by 
a three-fourths vote a compromise candi- 
date. The following were the respective 
committees: For the Independents: Sena- 
tors Davis, Bradford ; Lee, Venango; Stew- 
art, Franklin ; Lawrence, Washington ; 
Representatives Wolfe, Union ; Silver- 
thorne, Erie ; Mapes, Venango ; ^IcKee, 
riiiladelphia; Slack, Allegheny; Stubs, 
Chester; Niles, Tioga; and Derickson, 
Crawford. For the Regulars: Senators 
Greer, Butler; Herr, Dauphin; Smith, 
Philadelphia; Kcefer, Schuylkill; Cooper, 
Delaware; Representatives Pollock, Phila- 
del]>hia; Moore, Allegheny; Marshall, 
Huntingdon; Hill, Indiana; Eshleman, 
Lancaster ; Thomson, Armstrong ; and 
Billingsley, Washington. 

The joint convention held daily sessions 
and balloted without result until February 



256 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



22d, when John I. Mitchell, of Tioga, 
Congressman I'rom the IGth district, was 
unanimously agreed upon as a compro- 
mise candidate. lie was nominated by a 
full Republican caueus on the morning of 
February 23il, and elected on the lirst bal- 
lot in joint convention on that day, the 
vote standing: Mitchell, 150; Wallace, 92; 
MacVeagh, 1 ; Brewster, 1. 

The spirit of this contest continued until 
fall. Senator Davies, a friend of Mr. Grow, 
was a prominent candidate for the Repub- 
lican nomination for State Treasurer. He 
was beaten by General Silas M. Baily, 
and Davies and his friends cordially made 
Baily's nomination unanimous. Charles 
S. Wolfe, himself the winter before a can- 
didate for United Stales Senator, was dis- 
satisfied. He suddenly raised the Inde- 
pendent flag, in a telegram to the Phila- 
delphia Press, and as he announced was 
"the nominee of a convention of oue" for 
State Treasurer. After a canvass of re- 
markable energy on the part of Mr. Wolfe, 
General Baily was elected, without sufler- 
ing materially from the division. Mr. 
Wolfe obtained nearly 50,000 votes, but as 
almost half of them were Democratic, the 
result was, as stated, not seriously affected. 
The Independents in Pennsylvania, 
however, were subdivided into two wings, 
known as the Continental and the Wolfe 
men — the former having met since the 
election last fall, (State Senator John 
Stewart, chairman) and proclaimed them- 
selves willing and determined to abide all 
Republican nominations fairly made, and 
to advocate " reform within the party 
lines." These gentlemen supported Gen. 
Baily and largely contributed to his suc- 
cess, and as a rule they regard with dis- 
favor equal to that of the Regulars, what 
is known as the Wolfe movement. These 
divisions have not extended to other States, 
nor have they yet assumed the shape of 
third parties unless Mr. Wolfe's individual 
canvass can be thus classed. Up to this 
writing (March 10, 1882,) neither wing 
has taken issue with President Arthur or 
his appointments, though there were some 
temporary indications of this when Attor- 
ney General MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania, 
persisted in having his resignation ac- 
cepted. President Arthur refused to ac- 
cept, on the ground that he desired Mac- 
Veagh's services in the prosecution of the 
Star Route cases, and Mr. MacVeagh with- 
drew for personal and other rea.sona not 
yet fully explained. In this game of po- 
litical fence the position of the President 
was greatly strengthened. 

Singularly enough, in the only two 
States where factious divisions have been 
recently manifested in the Republican 
ranks, they effected almost if not quite as 
seriously the Democratic party. There 
can be but one deduction drawn from this, 



to wit: — That a number in both of the 
great parties, were for the time at least, 
weary of their allegiance. It is possible 
that nothing short of some great issue will 
restore the old partisan unity, and partisan 
unity in a Republic, where there are but 
two great parties, is not to be deplored if 
relieved of other than mere political dif- 
ferences. The existenf e of but two great 
parties, comparatively free from factions, 
denotes government health ; where divi- 
sions are numerous and manifest increas- 
ing growth and stubbornness, there is grave 
danger to Republican institutions. We 
need not, hov.-ever, philosophize Avhen 
Mexico and the South American Repub- 
lics are so near. 



THe Canciis. 

Both the "Independents" of Pennsyl- 
vania and the " Half-Breeds " of New York 
at first proclaimed their opposition to the 
caucus system of nominating candidates 
for U. S. Senators, and the newspapers in 
their interest wrote as warmly for a time 
against " King Caucus" as did the dissat- 
tisfied Democratic journals in the days of 
De Witt Clinton. The f-ituation, however, 
was totally different, and mere declamation 
could not long withstand the inevitable. 
In Pennsylvania almost nightly " confer- 
ences " were held by the Independents, as 
indeed they were in New York, though in 
both States a show of hostility was kept up 
to nominating in party caucus men who 
were to be elected by representative, more 
plainly legislative votes. It was at first 
claimed that in the Legislature each man 
ought to act for himself or his constituents, 
but very shortly it was found that the cau- 
cuses of the separate wings were as binding 
upon the respective wings as they could 
have been upon the whole. Dead-locks 
were interminable as long as this condition 
of affairs obtained, and hostility to the 
caucus system was before very long quietly 
discouraged and finally flatly abandoned, 
for each struggle was ended by the ratifi- 
cation of a general caucus, and none of 
them could have been ended without it. 
The several attempts to find other means 
to reach a result, only led the participants 
farther away from the true principle, under 
republican forms at least, of the right of 
the majority to rule. In Pennsylvania, 
when Mr. Oliver withdrew, fifty of his 
friends assembled and informally named 
General Beaver, and by this action sought 
to bind the original 95 friends of Oliver. 
Their conduct was excused by the plea that 
they represented a majority of their fac- 
tion. It failed to bind all of the original 
number, though some of the Independents 
were won. The Independents, rather the 
original 44, bound themselves in writing 
not to change their course of action unless 



THE CAUCUS. 



257 



there wa.sscoure<l the previous concurrence 
of two-thirds, luid this iiriiiL-ipli.' was ex- 
tcnilfil tu ihi' '>i) who suiiportc'il Mr. li.iyuc. 
Then wlu-ii the joint ciuiiiiiittce of U4 was 
agrrc'd U[ion, it was hound by a rulo re- 

auiriug tiirc'c'-fourllis Iv) nxoiuaiLiul ii cun- 
idate. All ot' tlii'se wrre nhiiu di-purluri's 
from a great [iriiiciple, and tho deeper tiie 
contest becuMio, the j^roalor the departure'. 
True, these were but voluntary I'onns, but 
they were indel'ensiUle, and are only re- 
ferred to now to show tlie ilanger ot" mad 
assaulted upon great priueiph-s wheu ])er- 
sonal and lactiou-s aims are at stake. Op- 
position to the early Congressional caucus 
was plainly right, since one departniont of 
the (lovernment was by voluntary agencies 
actually controlling another, while the law 
gave legal forms which could be more pro- 
perly initiated through voluntary action. 
The writer believes, and past contests all 
confirm the view that the voluntary action 
can only be safely employed by the power 
by the law with the right of selection. 
Thus the people elect township, county and 
State olhcers, and it is their right and duty 
by the best attainable voluntary action to 
indicate their choice. This is done through 
the caucus or convention, the latter not 
differing from the former save in extent 
and po-sibly breadth of representation. 
The same rulo applies to all offices elective 
by the peoj)le. It cannot properly apply 
to appointive offices, and while the attempt 
to apply it to the election of U. S. Senators 
shows a strong desire on the part, frequently 
of the more public-spirited citizens, to ex- 
ercise a greater share in the selection of 
these officers than the law directly gives 
thera, yet their representatives can very 
properly be called upon to act as they would 
act if thoy had direct power in the pre- 
mises, and such action leads them into a 
party caucus, where the will of the majority 
of their respective parties can be fairly 
ascertained, and when ascertained re- 
spected. The State Legislatures appoint 
U. S. Senators, and the llcpresentative? 
and Senators of the States are bound lo 
consider in their selection the good of the 
entire State. If this comports with the 
wish of their respective districts, very 
well ; if it does not, their duty is not less 
plain. Probably the time will never come 
when the people will elect United States 
Senators ; to do that is to radically change 
the P'ederal system, and to practically de- 
stroy one of the most important branches 
of the Government; yet he is not a careful 
observer who does not note a growing dis- 

f»osition on the part of the people, and 
argely the people of certain localities, and 
imaginary political sub-divisions, to control 
these selections. The same is true of 
Presidential nominations, where masses of 
people deny the right of Stiite Conventions 
to instruct their delegates-at-large. In 



many States the people composing cither 
of the great parties now select their 
own rej)resentative delegates to National 
Conventions, and where their seleclioua 
are not respected, grave piirty danger is 
sure to follow. There is noihing wnjiigin 
this, since it points to, and is but j)uving 
the way for a more pojnilar selection ot 
Presidents and Vice i're-idents — to an 
eventual selection of Presidential electf)r3 
probably by Congressional districts, '^'et 
those to be selecteil at large must through 
practical voluntary forms be nomi;iated in 
that way, and the partisan State Conven- 
tion is the be>t metlKxl yet devised for this 
work, and its instructions should be as 
binding a.s those of the people upon their 
rej)resentatives. In this government of 
ours there is voluntary and legal work 
delegated to the people directly ; there is 
legal work delegated to appoiniing powers, 
and an intelligent discrimination should 
ever be exercised between the two. " Ren- 
der unto Cajsar those things which are 
Caesar's," unless there be a plain desire, 
backed by a good reason, to promote popu- 
lar reforms as enduring as the i)ractices and 
I)rinciplcs which they are intended to 
support. 

Fredrick W. Whitridge, in an able re- 
view of the caucus system published ■ in La- 
lor's Eiici/dnpa'dia of Political Science, says : 

"A caucus, in the political vocabulary 
of the United States, is primarily a private 
meeting of voters holding similar views, 
held prior to an election for the purpose of 
furthering such views at the election. 
With the development of parties, and the 
rule of majorities, the caucus or .some 
equivalent has become an indispensable 
adjunct to party government, and it may 
now be defined as a meeting of the majority 
of the electors belonging to the same party 
in any political or legislative body held 
j)relirainary to a meeting thereof, ibr the 
purjiose of selecting candidates to be 
voted for, or for the purpose of de- 
termining the course of the party at 
the meeting of the whole body. The 
candidates of each party are univer- 
sally selected by caucus, either directly or 
indirectly through del-egates to conven- 
tions chosen in caucuses. In legislative 
bodies the course of each party is oftea 
predetermined with certainty in caucus, 
and often discussion between parties has 
been, in consequence, in some degree 
superseded. The caucus system is, in 
short, the basis of a complete electoral 
svstein which has grown up within each 
party, side by side with that whi'h is alone 
contemplated by the laws. This condition 
has in recent years attracted much atten- 
tion, and has been bitterly announced as 
an evil. It was, however, early foreseen. 
John Adams, in 1S14. wrote in the "Tenth 

* By Eand Jt McNully, Chiciigo, III., 1884 



258 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Letter on Government :" " They have 
invented a balance to all balance in their 
caucuses. We have congressional caucuses, 
state caucuses, county caucuses, city cau- 
cuses, district caucuses, town caucuses, 
parish caucuses, and Sunday caucuses at 
church doors, and in these aristocratical 
caucuses elcctiuns have been decided." The 
caucus is a necessary consequence of 
majority rule. If the majority is to define 
the policy of a party, there must be some 
method within each party of ascertaining 
the mind of the majority, and settling the 
party programme, before it meets the op- 
posing party at the polls. The Carlton 
and Reform clubs discharge for the Tories 
ajid Liberals many of the functions of a 
congressional caucus. Meetings of the 
members of the parties in the reichstag, 
the corps legislatif and the chamber of 
deputies are not unusual, although they 
have generally merely been for consulta- 
tion, and neither in England, France, 
' Germany or Italy, has any such authority 
. been conceded to the wish of the majority 
of a party as we have rested in the deci- 
sion of a caucus. What has been called a 
caucus has been established by the 
Liberals of Birmingham, England, as to 
which, see a paper by W. Eraser Rae, in 
the " International Review " for August, 
1880. The origin of the term caucus is 
obscure. It has been derived from the 
Algonquin word Kaiv-kaw-ums — to con- 
sult, to speak — but the more probable 
derivation makes it a corruption of 
caulkers. In the early politics of Boston, 
and particularly during the early difficul- 
ties between the townsmen and the British 
troops, the seafaring men and those em- 
ployed about the ship yards were promi- 
nent among the town-people, and there 
were -numerous gatherings which may 
have- very easily come to be called by 
way of reproach a meeting of caulkers, 
after the least influential class who at- 
tended .them, or from the caulking house 
or caulk: house in which they were held. 
"What was at first a derisive description, 
came to be an appellation, and the gather- 
ings of so-called caulkers became a cau- 
cus. John Pickering, in a vocabularj' of 
words and phrases peculiar to the United 
States (Boston, 1816), gives this derivation 
of the word, and says several gentlemen 
mentioned to him that they had heard 
this derivation. Gordon, writing in 1774, 
says: "More than fifty years ago Mr. 
Samuel Adams' father and twenty others, 
one or two from the north end of the town 
where all the shi > business is carried on, 
used to meet, make a caucus and lay their 
plan for introducing certain persons into 
places of trust and power. When they had 
settled it they separated, and each used 
their particular influence within his own 
circle. He and.hi« friends would furnish 



themselves with ballots, including the 
names of the parties fixed upon, which 
they distributed on the days of election. 
By acting in concert, together with a care- 
ful and extensive distribution of ballots, 
they generally carried their elections to 
their own mind. In like manner it was 
that Mr. Samuel Adams first became a 
representative for Boston." [History oj 
the American devolution, vol. i., p. 365.) 
February, 1763, Adams writes in his 
diary : "This day I learned that the cau- 
cus club meets at certain times in the gar- 
ret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Bos- 
ton regiment. He has a large house and 
he has a movable partition in his garret 
which he takes down and the whole club 
meets in his room. There they smoke 
tobacco until they cannot see one end of 
the room from another. There they drink 
flip, I suppose, and there they choose a 
moderator who puts questions to the vote 
regularly ; and selectmen, assessors, col- 
lectors, wardens, fire wards and representa- 
tives are regularly chosen in the town. 
Uncle Fairfield, Story, Ruddock, Adams, 
Cooper, and a rudis indigcsfaqiics moles ol 
others, are members. They send commit- 
tees to wait on the merchants' club, and to 
propose in the choice of men and measures. 
Captain Cunningham says, they have of- 
ten solicited him to go to the caucuses ; 
they have assured him their benefit in his 
business, etc." (Adams' h'orks, vol. ii., p. 
144.) Under the title caucus should be 
considered the congressional nominating 
caucus ; the caucuses of legislative assem- 
blies ; primary elections, still known out- 
side the larger cities as caucuses ; the evils 
which have been attributed to the latter, 
and the remedies which have been pro- 
posed. These will accordingly be men- 
tioned in the order given. 

" The democratic system is the result of 
the reorganization of the various anti- 
Tammany democratic factions, brought 
about, in 1881, by a practically self-ap- 
pointed committee of 100. Under this sys- 
tem primary elections are to be held annu- 
ally in each of 678 election districts, at 
which all democratic electors resident in 
the respective districts may participate, pro- 
vided they were registered at the last gene- 
ral election. The persons voting at any 
primary shall be members of the election 
district association for the ensuing year, 
which is to be organized in January of each 
year. The associations may admit demo- 
cratic residents in their respective districts, 
who are not members, to membership, and 
they have general supervision of the inte- 
rests of the party within their districts. 
Primaries are held on not less than four 
days' public notice, through the newspa- 
jters, of the time and place, and at the ap- 

Sointed time the mcefing is called to order 
y the chairman of the election district as- 



THE CAUCUS. 



259 



gociation, [)rovi(lod twenty persona be pre- i 
sent; if that number sliall not be present, j 
the meeting miiy be ealled to order with u j 
les3 number, at the end of (ift^'en minutes. | 
The first business of the meeting; is to se- 
lect ii ehuirman, and all eleetions oJ dele- 
gates or eoinmitteemen shall take [>!aee in 
open meetiii'^. E;u'h person, as heoders to 
vote, states his name anil residence, which 
mav be com|)ared with the refjistration list 
at the hust election, and each person shal' 
Htute for whom he votes, or he may hand to 
the judges an open ballot, iiavinj; desi^rnated 
thereon the persons for whom he votes, and 
for what positions. Nominations are ail 
nia<le by conventions of delegates from the 
districts within which the candidate to be 
clioen is to be voted for. There is an as- 
eembly district committee in each ;issembly 
district, coinposed of one delegate lor eacli 
100 votes or fraction thereof, from each 
election district within the assembly dis- 
trict. There is also a county coniiuittee 
composed of delegates from each of the as- 
sembly district committees. The function 
of these committees is generally to look af- 
ter the interests of the parties within their 
respective spheres. This system is too new 
for its workings to be as yet fairly criti- 
cised. It may prove a really popular .sys- 
tem, or it may prove only an inchoate form 
of the other hystems. At present it can 
only be said that the first primaries under 
it were participated in by 27,000 electors. 

"The evils of the caucus and primary 
election svstems lie in the stringent obliga- 
tion which is attached to the will of a for- 
mal majority ; in the fact that the {)rocess 
of ascert.iining what the will of the major- 
ity is, has been surrountlinl with so many 
restrictions that the actual majority of votes 
are disfranchised, and take no part in that 
process, so that the formal majority is in 
consequence no longer the majority in fact, 
although it continues to demand recogni- 
tion of its decisions as such. 

" The separation between the organiza- 
tion and the party, between those who no- 
minate and those who elect, is the sum of 
the evils of the too highly organized cau- 
cus system. It has its roots in the notiim 
that the majority is right, because it is the 
majority, which is the popular view thus 
expressed by Hammond : ' I think that 
when political friends consent to go into 
caucus for the nomination of officers, every 
member of such caucus is bound in honor 
to support and carry into effect its deter- 
mination. If you suspect that determina- 
tion will be so preposterous that you can- 
not in conscience support it, then you ought 
on no account to become one of its mem- 
bers. To try your chance in a caucus, and 
then, becau.se your wishes are not gratified, 
to attempt to defeat the result of the deli- 
berat'on of your friends, strikes me as a 
palpable violation of honor and good faith. 



You caucus for no other possible purpose 
than under the implied argiimcnl that the 
opinion aixl wishe-. of the ndiu^rity hIiuH be 
yielcKd to tlu- opinions of tlu; majority, and 
tiie s.)le object of caucusing is to ascertain 
what is the will of the majority. I rejK-at 
that unless you intend to carry into eflect 
I he wishes of the majority, however con- 
trary to your own, yon have no bu-iincss at 
a caucus.' { J'olitical JJistur-i/ uj' \itr Yitrk, 
••.(»1. i., p. 11)2). — In accordance with this 
tiieory, the will of the majority becomci 
obligatory as soon as it is made known, and 
one cannot a.ssi>t at a caucus in ordiT to 
ascertain the will of the majority, without 
thereby being bound to follow it; and the 
theory is .so deeply rootcil that, under the 
caucus and primary election .system, it lias 
been extended to cases in which the ma- 
J!)rities are such only in form. 

" The remedies as well as the evils of the 
caucus and nominating system have been 
made the subject of general discussion in 
connection with civil service reform. It is 
claimed that that reform, by giving to pub- 
lic officers the same tenure of their positions 
which is enjoyed by the employes of a cor- 
poration or a. private business house, or 
during the continuance of efficiency or good 
behaviour, would abolish or greatly dinu- 
nish the evils of the caucus system by de- 
priving public officers of the illegitimate 
incentive to maintain it under which they 
now act. Ot-Jjej more si)eculative remcdiea 
have been suggested. It is proi)osed, on 
the one hand, to very greatly diminish the 
number of elective officers, and, in order to 
do away with tlie pre-determination of elec- 
tions, to restrict the political action of the 
peoi)le in their owa persons to districts so 
small that they can meet together and act 
as one body, and that in all other affaii-s 
than those "of these small districts the 
people should act by delegates. The the- 
ory here se^ms to be to get rid of the ne- 
cessity for election and nominating ma- 
chineVy. (See 'A True Repuhlic,' by Al- 
bert Strickney, New York, 1870; and a se- 
ries of articles in Scribner's Monthly for 
1881, by the same writer). On the other 
hand, it is proposed to greatly increase the 
number of elections, by taking the whole 
primary .system under the protection of the 
law.* This plan proi)oses: 1. The direct 
nomination of candidates by the members 
of the respective jiolitical parties in place 
of nominations by delegates in conventions. 
2. To apply the election laws to primary 
elections. 3. To provide that both politi- 
cal jiarties .shall participate in the .same 
j)rimary election instead of having a dificr- 
ent caucus for each party. 4. To provide 
for a final election to be held between two 
cindidates, each representative of a party 

» This wn<< partially done by the Legislature of 



260 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



who have been selected by means of the 
primary election. This plan would un- 
doubteiUy do away with the evils of the 
present caucus system, but it contains no 
guarantee that a new caucus system would 
not be erected for the purpose of influ- 
encing ' the primary election' in the same 
manner in wnich the present primary sys- 
tem now influences the final election. (Hee 
however ' The Elective Franchise in the 
United States,' New York, 1880, by D. C. 
McClellan.) — The effective remedy for the 
evils of the caucus system will probably be 
found in the sanction of primary elections 
by law. * * * Bills lor this purpose were 
introduced by the Hon. Erastus Brooks in 
the New York Legislature in 1881, which 
provided substantially for the system pro- 
posed by Mr. McClellan, but they were left 
unacted upon, and no legislative attempt 
to regulate primaries, except by providing 
for their being called, and for their pro- 
cedeure, has been made elsewhere. In 
Ohio what is known as the Baber law pro- 
vides that where any voluntary political 
association orders a primary, it must be by 
a majority vote of the central or control- 
ling committee of such party or association ; 
that the call must be published for at least 
five days in the newspapers, and state the 
time and place of the meeting, the autho- 
rity by which it was called, and the name 
of the person who is to represent that au- 
thority at each poll. The law also provides 
for challenging voters, for punishment of 
illegal voting, and for the bribery or inter- 
vention of electors or judges. {Rev. Stat. 
Ohio, sees. 291G-2'J21.) A similar law in 
Missouri is made applicable to counties 
only of over 100,000 inhabitants, but by 
this law it is made optional with the volun- 
tary political a.ssociation whether it Mill or 
not hold its primaries under the law, and 
if it does, it is provided that the county 
shall incur no expense in the conduct of 
such elections. {Lavs of Missouri, 1815, 
p. 54.) A similar law also exists in Cali- 
fornia. {Laws of Cali/nrnia, 18(55-1806, p. 
438.) Tbese laws comprise all the existing 
legislation on the subject, except what is 
known a.s the Landis Bill of 1881, which 
requires primary officers to take an oath, 
and which punishes fraud." 



Assassination of President Garfield. 

At 9 o'clock on the morning of Satur- 
day, July 2d, 1881, President Garfield, ac- 
companied by Secretary Blaine, left the 
Executive jMansion to take a special train 
from the lialtimore and Potomac depot 
for New England, where he intended to 
visit the college from which he had gradu- 
ated. Arriving at the depot, he was walk- 
ing arm-in-arm through the main waiting- 
room, when Charles J. Guiteau, a i)ersist- 
ent applicant for an office, who had some 



time previously entered through the maia 
door, advanced to the centre of the room, 
and having reached within a few feet of 
his victim, fired two shots, one of which 
took fatal effect. The bullet was of forty- 
four calibre, and striking the Presideiat 
about four inches to the right of the spinal 
column, struck the tenth and badly shat- 
tered the eleventh rib. The President 
sank to the floor, and was conveyed to a 
room where temporary conveniences were 
attainable, and a couch was improvised. 
Dr. Bliss made an unsuccessful effort to 
find the ball. The shock to the President's 
system was very severe, and at first appre- 
hensions were felt that death would ensue 
speedily. Two hours after the shooting, 
the physicians decided to remove him to 
the Executive IMansion. An army ambu- 
lance was procured, and the removal ef- 
fected. Soon after, vomiting set in, and the 
patient exhibited a dangerous degree of 
prostration, which threatened to end speed- 
ily in dissolution. This hopeless condition 
of affairs continued until past midnight, 
when more favorable symptoms were ex- 
hibited. Dr. Bliss was on this Sunday 
morning designated to take charge of the 
case, and he called Surgeon -General 
Barnes, Assistant Stirgeon-General Wood- 
ward, and Dr. Reyburn as consulting phy- 
sician. To satisfy the demand of the 
country, Drs. Agnew, of Philadelphia, and 
Hamilton, of New York, were also sum- 
moned by telegra|)h, and arrived on a 
special train over the Pennsylvania Kail- 
road, Sunday afternoon. For several days 
immediately succeeding the shooting, the 
patient suffered great inconvenience and 
j)ain in the lower limbs. This created an 
ap])rehension that the spinal nerves h;id 
been injured, and death was momentarily 
expected. On the night of July 4th a 
favorable turn Avas observed, and the morn- 
ing of the 5th brought with it a vague but 
undefined hope that a fiivorable issue 
might ensue. Under this comforting con- 
viction, Drs. Agnew and Hamilton, after 
consultation with the resident medical at- 
tendants, returned to their homes; first 
having published to the country an in- 
dorsement of the treatment inaugurated. 
During July 5th and Gth the i)at ent con- 
tinued to improve, the pulse and respira- 
tion showing a marked approach 1o the 
condition of ■ healthfulness, the lormef 
being reported on the morning of the 6th 
at 98, and in the evening it only increased 
to 104. On the 7th Dr. Bliss became very 
confident of ultimate tr'uniph over the 
malady. In previous bulletins meagre 
hope was giren, and the chances for reco- 
very e.-tinuited at one in a liundred. 

From .luly 7th to the 16th there was a 
slight but uninterrupted improvement, and 
the country began to entertain i confident 
hope that the patient would recover. 



"BOSS RULE, 



261 



Hope and foar altorniitcd from d ly to 
day, amid tlio iiio-t piiiiilul fX( itnia-iit. 
On the 8th of August Drs. Aguesv and 
Hamilton had to pt'itbrm thrir si-coini 
operation to alh)w u free How ot" pus from 
the would. This resulted in an iuiportaMt 
discovery. It was ascertained that the 
track of the huHet had turned from its 
downward ilellection to a forward course. 
The operation histed an hour, and ether 
Wits adniiiiisteretl, the etiect of whicii was 
very unfortntiato. Nausea succeeded, and 
vomi in;:; foHowed every effort to achninis- 
tor nourisiiment for some time. However, 
he soon rallied, and the operation w:us pro- 
nounced successlnl, and, on the following 
day, the Pre-s'd.-nt, for the first time, wrote 
his name. On the 10th he signed an im- 
portant extradition paper, and on the 11th 
wrote a letter of hopefulness to his aged 
mother. On the l^th Dr. Hamilton ex- 
pre.^^ed the ojiinion that the further at- 
ttindmce of him-iclf and Dr. Agnew was 
unnecess.iry. The stomach continued 
weak, however, and on the loth nausea re- 
turned, and the most menacing physical 
prostration followed the frequent vomiting, 
and the evening bulletin announced that 
" the President's couditiou. on the whole, 
is ies-! satisfiU'tory." 

Next a new complication forced itself 
upon the attention of the physicians. This 
was described as " inllammation of the 
right parotid gland." On August 2-4th it 
w.is decided to make an incision below 
and forward of the right ear, in order to 
prevent supjjuration. Though this opera- 
tion was i>r.)nounced satisfactory, the pa- 
tient grailually sank, until August 2oth, 
when all hope seemed to have left those 
in attendance. 

Two d lys of a dreary watch ensued ; on 
the 27th an improvement inspired new 
hope. This continued throughout the 
we3k, but failed to build up the system. 
Then it was determined to remove the pa- 
tient to a more favorable atmosphere. On 
the 6th of September this design was exe- 
cuted, he having been conveyed in a car 
arranged for the purpose to Long Branch, 
where, in a cottage at Elberon, it was 
h >ped vigor would return. At first, indi- 
cations justified the most sanguine expec- 
tations. Ou the 9th, however, fever re- 
turned, and a cough came to harass the 
wast<»d sufferer. It was attended with 
purulent expectoration, and became so 
troublesome as to entitle it t<i be regarded 
as the leadius; feature of the case. The 
surgeon-! attributed it to the septic condi- 
tion of the blood. The trouble increased 
until Sa'urday, September 10th, when it 
was thought the end was reached. He 
rallied, however, and improved rapidly, 
durino: the succeeding few days, and on 
Tuesday, the 13th, w:is lifted from the bed 
and placed in a chair at the window. The 



improveniont was not enduring, however, 
and on Siturday, September 17th, the 
rigor returned. Dur.ug the nighi.s and 
days sueceedinij, until the firnil moment, 
hope rose and Kil altern itely, ami thou;rh 
the jiatient's spirits Hu' tuated to justify 
this ciiange of feeiinir, the improvement 
tailed to bring with it tiie strength neces- 
sary to meet the strain. 

i'resident ( larfield died at 10..35 on the 
night of Sept. l'.>th, IXKI, aiid our nation 
m lurned, as it had only done once before, , 
when Abraham Lincoln also fell by the 
hand of an assassin. The assiussiu Guiteau 
was tried and convicted, the jury rejecting 
his plea of insan.ty. 



Pretildeut Artlinr. 

Vice-President Arthur, during the long 
ill.'ie^s of the President, and at the time of 
his death, deoorted himself so well that he 
won the good opinion of nearly all cla.s.se8 
of the people, and hai)i)i!y for weeks and 
months all tactions or partisan spirit w;i3 
hr.shed by the nation's great calamity. 
At midnight on the lUth of Sey>tember the 
Cabinet telegra])hed him from Long 
Branch to take the oath of ofllice, and this 
he very jn'operly did before a local judge. 
The Government cannot w'sely be left 
without a head for a single day. He was 
soon afterwards again sworn in at Washing- 
ton, with the usual ceremonies, and took 
occasion to make a speech which improved 
the growing better feeling. The new 
President requested the Cabinet to hold 
on until Congress met, and it would have 
remained intact had Secretary Windom 
not found it necessary to resume his place 
in the Senate. The vacancy was offered 
to ex-Crovernor Morgan, of New York, 
who was actually nominated and confirmed 
before he made up his mind to decline it. 
Judge Folger now fills the ]>lace. The 
several changes since made will be found 
in tlie Tabulated History, Book VII. 

It his thus far been the effort of Presi- 
dent Arthur to allay whatever of factious 
bitterness remains in the Repuldican party. 
In his own State of New York the terms 
" Half-Breed " and "Stalwart" are pa.s8- 
ing into comparative disuse, as are the 
terms "Regulars" and "Independents" 
in Pennsylvania. 



<< Boss Rule." 

The complaint of" Boss Rule" in these 
States — by which is meant the control of 
certain leaders — still obtains to some ex- 
tent. Wayne MacVeairh was the author of 
this very telling political e])ith(>t, and he 
used it with rare force in his <trert speeches 
at Chicairo when opposinsr the nomination 
of Grant. It was still further cultivated 



2G2 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



by Rufus E. Shapley, Esq,, of Philadel- 
phia, the author of " Solid tor IVIulhooly," 
a most admirable political satire, which 
had an immense sale. Its many hits were 
freely quoted by the Reformers of Phila- 
de!i)hia, who organized under the Com- 
mittee of One Hundred, a body of mer- 
chants who first banded themseives 
together to promote reforms in the munici- 
pal government. This organization, aided 
l)y the Den)ocrats, defeated Mayor Wm. 
S'. Stokley for his third term, electing Mr. 
King, therctoibre a very popular Demo- 
cratic councilman. In return for this sup- 
port, the Democrats accepted John Hun- 
ter, Committee's nominee for Tax Receiver, 
and the combination succeeded. In the 
fall of 1881 it failed on the city ticket, but 
in the spring of 1882 secured material suc- 
cesses in the election of Councilmen, who 
were nominees of both parties, but aided 
by the endorsement of the Committee of 
One Hundred. A similar combination 
failed as between Brown (Rep.) and Eisen- 
brown (Dem.) for Magistrate. On this 
part of the ticket the entire city voted, and 
the regular Republicans won by about 500 
majority. 

The following is the declaration of prin- 
ciples of the Citizens' Republican Associ- 
ation of Philadelphia, which, under the 
banner of Mr. Wolfe, extended its organi- 
zation to several counties : 

I. We adhere to the platform of the 
National Convention of the Republican 
party, adopted at Chicago, June 2d, 1880, 
and we proclaim our unswerving alle- 
giance to the great principles upon which 
tliat party was founded, to wit : national 
supremacy, universal liberty, and govern- 
mental probity. 

II. The Republican party, during its 
glorious career, having virtually estab- 
lished its principles of national supremacy 
and universal liberty as the law of the 
land, we sliall, while keeping a vigilant 
watch over the maintenance of those prin- 
ciples, regard the third one, viz.: govern- 
mental probity, as the living issue to be 
struggled for in the future ; and as the 
pure administration of government is es- 
sential to the permanence of Republican 
institutions, we consider this issue as in no 
way inferior in importance to any other. 

III. The only practical method of re- 
storing purity to administration is through 
the adoption of a system of civil service, 
under which public officials shall not be 
the tools of any man or of any clique, sub- 
ject to dismissal at their behest, or to as- 
sessment in their service; nor appoint- 
ment to office be " patronage " at the 
di.sposal of any man to consolidate his 
power within the party. 

IV. It is the abuse of this appointing 
power which has led to the formation of 
the " nuichiue," and the subjection of the 



party to " bosses." Our chosen leader, the 
late President Garfield, fell a martyr in hia 
contest with the " bosses." We take up 
the struggle where he leit it, and we hereby 
declare that we will own no allegiance to 
any "boss," nor be subservient to any 
" machine ;" but that we will do our ut- 
most to liberate the party from the " boas" 
domination under which it has fallen. 

V. Recognizing that political parties 
are simply instrumentalities for the en- 
forcement of certain recognized principles, 
we shall endeavor to promote the principles 
of the Reiniblican party by means of that 
party, disenthralled and released from the 
domination of its " bosses." But should 
we fail in this, we shall have no hesitation 
in seeking to advance the principles of the 
party through movements and organiza- 
tions outside of the party lines. 

The idea of the Committee of One Hun- 
dred is to war against " boss rule" in muni- 
cipal affains. James McManes has long 
enjoyed the leadership of the Rejjublican 
party in Philadelph^i, and the relorm ele- 
ment has directed its force against his 
power as a leader, though he joined at 
Chicago in the MacVeagh war against the 
form of " boss rule," which was then di- 
rected against Grant, Conkling, Logan and 
Cameron. This episode has really little, 
if anything, to do with Federal politics, 
but the facts are briefly recited with a view 
to explain to the reader the leading force 
which supported Mr. Wolfe in his inde- 
pendent race in Pennsylvania. Summed 
up, it is simply one of those local wars 
against leadership which precede and fol- 
low factions. 

The factious battles in the Republican 
party, as we have stated, seem to have 
spent their force. The assassination of 
President Garfield gave them a most seri- 
ous check, for men were then compelled to 
look back and acknowledge that his plain 
purpose was to check divisions and heal 
wonnds. Only haste and anger assailed, 
and doubtless as quickly regretted the as- 
sault. President Arthur, with commend- 
able reticence and discretion, is believed 
to be seeking the same end. He has made 
few changes, and these reluctantly. His 
nomination of ex-Senator Conkling to a 
seat in the Supreme Bench, which, though 
declined, is generally accepted as an assu- 
rance to New Yorkers that the leader 
hated by one side and loved by the other, 
should be removed from partisan politics 
peculiar to his own State, but removed 
with the dignity and honor becoming his 
high abilities. It has ever been the policy 
of wise administrations, as with wise gene- 
rals, to care for the wounded, and Conk- 
ling was surely and sorely wounded in his 
battle against the confirmation of Robert- 
son and his attempted re-election to the 
Senate. He accepted the situation with 



THE KEADJUSTERS. 



263 



quiet composure, and saw his friend Ar- 
thur unite tlie ninlcs whieli liis rtsij(n;ai(Ui 
h;iii sundered. Alter tliis tlicre remained 
little if any causf for furtlur iiuarnd, and 
while in writin;; history it is dangiTous to 
utteniot a pro[)hecy, the writer believe-t 
that rresident Arthur will sueceed in 
keepini? his party, if not fully united, at 
lea-<t as coinijuct :w the opposing Denioera- 
lic forces. 



The RrailJ listers. 

This party was founded in lS78byOen'l 
William Malionc, a noted Brigadier in 
the rebel army, lie is of Seotch-Irish de- 
scent, a man of very small stature but 
most remarkable energy, and accpiired 
wealth in the eonstruetion an<l develop- 
ment of Southern railroads. He sounded 
the first note of revolt against what he 
styled the Bourbon rule of Virginia, and 
beintj classed as a Democrat, rapidly di- 
vided that party on the que.-(tio:i of the 
Virginia debt. His enemies charge tliat 
he s;)Ught tlie repudiation of this debt, but 
in return he not only denied the charge, 
but said the Bourbons were actually re- 
pudiiting it by making no provision for 
Its payment, either in appropriations or 
the levying of taxes needed for the pur- 
pose. Doubtless his views on this ques- 
tion have undergone some modification, 
and that earlier in the struggle the uglier 
criticisms were partially correct. Certain 
it is that he and his friends now advocate 
full payment less the proportion equitably 
assigned to Wcit Virginia, which sepa- 
rated from the parent State during the 
war, and in her coustitution evaded her 
respondbility by deolirinjj that tho State 
sliould never contract a debt except one 
created to resist invasion or in a war for the 
government. This fact shiws how keenly 
alive the West Virginians were to a claim 
which could very justly be pressed in the 
event of Virginia being restored to the 
Union, and this claim Gen'l Mahone has 
persi-itently pressed, and latterly urged a 
funding of the debt of his State at a 3 per 
cent, rate, on the ground that the State is 
unable to pay nnre and that this is in ac- 
cord with proper rate^ of interest on the 
bonds of State governments — a view not 
altogether fair or sound, since it leaves the 
creditors powerless to do otherwise than 
accept. The regular or Rourb )n Demo- 
crats prochii-.ned in favor of full payment, 
and in this respect differed from their 
party associates as to ante-war debts in 
most other Southern States. 

Gen. Mahone rapidly organized his re- 
volt, and as the Republican partv was then 
in a hopeless minority in Virginia, public- 
ly invited an alliance by the pa.ssage of u 
platform which advocated free s< hools for 
the blacks and a full enforcement of the 



National laws touching their civil rights. 
Tiie I.,egisluture w:ls won, and on the I'lth 
of Di-eeniber, ISSO, (icn'l Maiione wan 
elected to the U. S. Senate to Huccoed .Sen- 
ator Withers, whobc term expired March 
4, 18S1. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1880, 
the Keadjusters supported (it-n 1 Hancock, 
but on a separate electoral ticket, while 
the Republicans supported (lariielil on an 
electoral ticket of tluir own selection. 
This divisidn was pursuant to an under- 
standing, and at the time thought a<lvi- 
sable by Mahone, who, if his electors won, 
could go for Hancock or not, a.s circum- 
stances might suggest; while if he failed 
the Ilepublicans might profit by the sepa- 
ration. There was, liowever, a third horn 
to this dilemma, for the regular Democratic 
electors were chosen, but the i)olitical 
comjdexion of the Legislature was not 
changed. Prior to the Presidential nomi- 
nations Mahone's Rcadjuster Convention 
had signified their willingness to support 
Gen'l (irant if he should be nominated at 
Chicago, and this fact was widely quoted 
by his friends in their advocacy of (Jrant's 
nomination, and in descanting upon his 
ability to carry Southern States. 

Tiie Readjuster movement at first had 
no other than local designs, but about the 
time of its organization there was a great 
desire on the part of the leading Rei)ubli- 
cans to break the ''Solid South," and 
every possible expedient to that end was 
suggested. It was solid for the Democratic 
party, and standing thus could with the 
aid of New York, Indiana and New Jer.-^ey 
(them all Democratic States) assure the 
election of a Democratic President. 

One of the iavorite objects of President 
Hayes was to break the "Solid South." 
He first ol)tained it by conciliatory speech- 
es, which were so conciliat(nT in fact that 
they angered radical Reiniblicans, and 
there were thus threatened division in un- 
expected quarters. He next tried it 
through Gen'l Key, whom he made Post- 
niiuster General in the hope that he could 
resurrect and reorganize the old Whig 
elements of the South. Key was to atteml 
to Southern postal patronage with this end 
in view, while ^Ir. Tener, his able First As- 
sistant, was tf> distribute Northern or Re- 
imblican patronage. So far as dividing 
the South was concerned, the scheme w;\8 
a flat failure. 

The next and mo"*! quiet and effectual 
effort was made by (Jen'l Simon Cameron. 
Ex-Senator from Pennsylvania. He started 
on a brief Southern tour, ostensibly for 
health atid enjoyment, but really to meet 
Gen'l Mahone, his leading Readjuster 
friends, and the leading Republicans 
Conferences were held, and the union of 
the two forces was made to embrace Na- 
tional obiccts. This was in the Fall of 1879. 



264 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Not long thereafter Gen'l Mahone consult- 
ed with Senator J. Don. Cameron, who 
was of course familiar with his father's 
movements, and he actively devised and 
carried out schemes to aid the new combi- 
nation by which the " Solid South " was 
to be broken. In the great State campaign 
of ISSl, when the Bourbon and anti-Bour- 
bon candidates for Governor, were stump- 
ing the State, Gen'l Mahone found that a 
large portion of his colored friends Avere 
handicapped by their inability to pay the 
taxes imposed upon them by the laws of 
Virginia, and this threatened defeat. He 
sought aid from the National administra- 
tion. President Garfield favored the com- 
bination, as did Secretary Windom, but 
Secretary Blaine withheld his support f(»r 
several months, finally, however, acceding 
to the wishes of the President and most of 
the Cabinet. Administration influences 
caused the abandonment of a straight-out 
Republican movement organized by Con- 
gressman Jorgensen and others, and a 
movement which at one time threatened a 
disastrous division was overcome. The 
tax question remained, and this was first 
met by Senator J. Don. Cameron, who 
while summering at Manhattan Island, 
was really daily engaged in New Yorlc 
City raising funds for Mahone, with which 
to pay their taxes. Still, this aid was insuf- 
ficient, and in the heat of the battle the 
revenue officers throughout the United 
States, were asked to contribute. Many of 
them did so, and on the eve of election all 
taxes were paid and the result was the 
election of William E. Cameron (Read- 
juster) as Governor by about 20,000 ma- 
jority, with other State officers divided be- 
tween the old Readjusters and Republi- 
cans. The combination also carried the 
Legislature. 

In that great struggle the Readjusters 
became known as the anti-Bourbon move- 
ment, and efforts are now being made to 
extend it to other Southern States. It has 
taken root in South Carolina, Georgia, 
Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and 
more recently in Kentucky, where the 
Union War Democrats in State Convention 
as late as March 1, 1882, separated from 
the Bourbon wing of the party. For a 
better idea of these two elements in the 
South, the reader is referred to the recent 
speeches of Hill and Mahone in the me- 
morable Senate scene directly after the 
latter took the oath of office, and cast his 
vote with the Re[)ubl leans. These speeches 
will be found in Book HI of this volume. 



Suppressing MormonlsTn. 

Polygamy, lastly denounced as "the 
true relic of barl)arism " while slavery ex- 
isted, hai< ever since the settlement of the 



Mormons in Utah, been one of the vexed 
questions in American politics. Laws 
passed for its suppression have proved, thus 
far, unavailing ; troops could not crush it 
out, or did not at a time when battles were 
fought and won ; United States Courts 
were powerless where juries could not be 
found to convict. Latterly a new and 
promising ellbrt hius been made for its sup- 
pression. This was begun in the Senate 
in the session of 1882. On the 16th of 
February a vote was taken by sections on 
Senator PMmunds' bill, which like the law 
of 1862 is penal in its provisions, but di- 
rectly aimed against the crime of poly- 
gamy. 

President Arthur signed the Edmunds 
anti-polvgamy bill on the 23d of March, 
1882. 

Delegate Cannon of Utah, was on the 
floor of the Senate electioneering against 
the bill, and he plead with some success, 
for several Democratic Senators made 
speeches against it. The Rej-ublicans were 
unanimously for the bill, and the Demo- 
crats were not solidly against it, though the 
general tenor of the debate on this side 
was against it. 

Senator Vest (Democrat) of Missouri, 
said that never in the darkest days of the 
rule of the Tudors and Stuarts had any 
measure been advocated Avhich came so 
near a bill of attainder as this one. It 
was monstrous to contend that the people 
of the United States were at the mercy of 
Congress without any appeal. If this bill 
passed it would establish a precedent that 
would come home to plague us for all 
time to come. The pressure agiiinst poly- 
gamy to-day might exist to-morrow against 
any church, institution or class in this 
broad land, and when the crested waves of 
prejudice and pnssion mounted high they 
would be told that the Congress of the 
United States had trani] led upon the Con- 
stitution. In conclusion, he s;;i(i : "lam 
prepared for the abuse and calumny that 
will follow any man who dares to criticise 
any bill against polygamy, and yet, if my 
official life had to terminate to-morrow, I 
would not give my vote lor the unconsti- 
tutional principles contained in this bill." 
Other speeches were made by Messrs. Mor- 
gan, Brown, Jones, of Florida, Saulsbury, 
C-all, Pendleton, Sherman, and Lamar, and 
the debate was closed by Mr. Edmunds in 
an eloquent fifteen-minutes' speech, in 
which lie carefully reviewed and contro- 
verted the objections urged against the 
bill of the committee. 

He showed great anxiety to have the 
measure disposed of at once and met a re- 
quest from the Democratic .'^ide for a post- 
pr)nement till other features should be em- 
bodied in the bills with the remark that 
this was the ]iolicy that had hitherto proven 
a hindrance to legislation on this subject 



SUPPRESSING M R M N I S M . 



2G5 



and that ho was tired of it. In the bill a-* 
anionilcd llie following section j)rov()k»'d 
more oi»;)o.sition than any other, alth(ju,i;h 
the Senators refrained I'rom niakinj:; any 
partieular mention of it: "That if any 
male ])erson in a Territory or other i)laee 
over wliieh the Unitetl Slates have exein- 
sive jnrisdietion hereafter tohai)its with 
more than one woman ho shall he deemed 
puilty of a mis^denieanor, and on eonvietion 
tiiereof he shall ho pnnisheil hy a fine of 
not more than 80OO or by imprisonment 
for not more than six months, or by both 
said [lunishmonts in the di.>;eretion of the 
conrt." The bill passed viva voce vole 
after a re-arranu:ement of its sections, one 
of tlie ehanges bei;ig that not more thr.n 
three of the eoniniis-;ioners shall be mem- 
bers of the same ])arty. The fact that the 
yeas and nays were not called, shows that 
there is no general desire on either side to 
make tlie bill a partisan measure. 

The Edmu!ids Bill passed the House 
March It, 1882, without material ainend- 
mont, the Republican majority, refusing to 
allow the time asked by the Democrats tor 
discussion. The vote was 19'> for to only 
4') against, all (jf the negative votes being 
De:nocratic save one, that of Jones, Green- 
backer from Texas. 

The only question was whether the hill, 
as pa.v-ed by the Senate, would accomplish 
that object, and whether certain provisions 
of tliis liiU did not provide aremedy which 
was worse thant'.ie disease. ]\[any Demo- 
crats thought that the precedent of inter- 
fering with the right of sufl'rage at the 
polls, Avhcn the voter had not been tried 
and convicted of any crime, was so dan- 
gerous that they could not bring them- 
selves to vote for the measure. Among 
these de:nocrat.s were P)elmoiit and Hew- 
itt, of New York, and a number of others 
c [ually prominent. But they all professed 
their rcadines-i to vote for any measure 
which woidd affect the abolition of poly- 
gamy wi'.h'iut impairing the fuTidamc'ital 
rights of citizens iu other parts of the coun- 
try. 

THE TEXT OF THE BILL. 

Be it enacted, d'c., That section .'),312 of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States 
be, and the same is hereby amended so as 
to read as follows, namely: 

" Every person who has a husband or 
wife living who, in a Territory or other 
place over which the United States have 
exclusive jurisdiction, liereafter marries 
anotlier, whether married or single, and 
any man who hereafter simultaneously, or 
on the same day, marries more than one 
woman, in a Territory or other place over 
which the United States has exclusive 
jurisdiction, isguilty of polygamy, and shall 
be Mini-hed by a fine of not more than 
$500 and by imprisonment for a term ofuut 



more than five years ; }>ut this section vljall 
not exteM<l to any person by re;i.son of anv 
former marriage wIiom; husi)and or wife by 
such niairiage shall have been absent for 
five suceissive years, and is not known to 
such person to iie living, and is bilieveij by 
su( h person to be ilead, nor to any jn-rson 
by reason of any tbrmer marriage whii h 
shall liave been dissolved by ji valid do 
cree of a competent court, nor to any per- 
son by reason of any former marriage which 
shaf 1 have been j)ronouneed void by a val- 
id (h'crce of a eompi'tent court, on the 
groun<l of nullitv of the marriage con- 
tract." 

Snc. 2. That the ff)regoing provisions 
shall iiotafTeetthe prosecutir)n or punish- 
ment of any olfencc already connnittod 
against the section amended by the first 
seel ion of this act. 

Si: '. 3. That if any male person, in a 
Territory or other place over which the 
United States have exclusive jurisdiction, 
herealtcr cohabits with more than one wo- 
man, he shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 
demeanor, and on conviction thereof shall 
be jtunished by a fine of not more than 
'?30o, or by imprisonment for not more 
than six montlis, or by both said punish- 
ments in the discretion of the court. 

Sec. 4. That counts for any or all of the 
offences named in sections 1 and 3 of this 
act may be joined iu the same information 
or indictment. 

Sec. 5. That in any prosecution for biga- 
my, polygamy or unlawt'ul cohabitation 
under any st.itute of t'.ie United States, it 
shall be suflicient cause of challenge to any 
person drawn or summoned as a juryman 
or talesman, first, that he is or his been 
living in the practice of bigamy, poly- 
gamy, or unlawful coh ibitati'm with more 
t!ian one woman, or that he is or has been 
guilty of an oflence punishable by either 
of the foregoing sections or by section 53.52 
of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States or the act of July 1, 1SG2, entitled 
" An act to punish and prevent the prac- 
tice of p'dygamy in the Territories of the 
United States and other jdaccs, and disap- 
proving and annulling certain acts of the 
Legislative Assembly of the Territory of 
Utah ;" or, second, that he believes it right 
f )r a mant^have more than one living and 
undivorced wife at the same time, or to live 
i.i the practice of cohabiting with more 
than one woman, and any person appear- 
ing or odered as a juror or talesman and 
challenged on ei'. lier of the foregoing 
grounds m. ay be que-tioued on his oath ai 
to the existence of any such cause of chal- 
lenge, and other evidence may bo intro- 
duced bearing upoti the question raised by 
sucli challonixe, .and this question sliall be 
trieil bv the court. Ihit as to the fir-^t ground 
of challenge before mentioned tlic person 
challenged shall be bound to answer if he 



266 



•AMERICAN POLITICS, 



shall say upon his oath that he declines on 
the ground that his answer may tend to 
criminate himself, and if he shall answer 
to said first ground his answer shall not be 
given in evidence in any criminal prose- 
cution against him for any offense named 
in sections 1 or 3 of this act, but if he 
declines to answer on any ground he shall 
be rejected as incompetent. 

Sec. 6. That the President is hereby au- 
thorized to grant amnesty to such classes 
of olfenders guilty before the passage of 
this act of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful 
cohabitation before the passage of this act, 
on such conditions and under such limita- 
tions as he shall think proper ; but no such 
amnes'y shall have effect unless the condi- 
tions thereof shall be complied with. 

Sec. 7. That the issue of bigamous or 
polygamous marriages known as Mormon 
marriages, in cases in which such marriages 
have been solemnized according to the 
ceremonies of the Mormon sect, in any 
Territory of the United States, and such 
issue shall have been born before the Ist 
day of January, A. D. 1883, are hereby 
legitimated. 

Sec. 8. That no polygamist, bigamist, or 
any person cohabiting with more than one 
woman, and no woman cohabiting with 
any of the persons described as aforesaid 
in this section, in any Territory or other 
place over which the United States have ex- 
clusive jurisdiction, shall be entitled to vote 
at any election held in any such Territory 
or other place, or be eligible for election or 
appointment to or be entitled to hold any 
office or place of public trust, honor or 
emolument in, under, or for such Territoiy 
or place, or under the United States. 

Sec. 9. That all the registration and 
election offices of every description in the 
Territory of Utah are hereby declared va- 
cant, and each and every duty relating to 
the registration of voters, the conduct of 
elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, 
and the canvassing and returning of the 
same, and the issuing of certificates or 
other evidence of election in said Terri- 
tory, shall, until other provision be made 
by the Legislative Assembly of said Terri- 
tory as is hereinafter by this section pro- 
vided, be performed under the existing 
laws of the United States and of said Ter- 
ritory by proper persons, who shall be ap- 
pointed to execute such offices and perform 
such duties by a board of five persons, to 
be appointed by the President, bv and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, and 
not more than three of whom shall be mem- 
bers of one political party, and a majority 
of whom shall constitute a quorum. The 
members of said board so appointed by the 
President shall each receive a salary at the 
rate of $3,000 per annum, and shall con- 
tinue in offifft until the Legislative As- 
sembly of said Territory- shall make pro- 



vision for filling said offices as herein au- 
thorized. The secretary of the Territory 
shall be the secretary of said board, and 
keep a journal of its proceedings, and at- 
test the action of said board under this 
section. The canvass and return of all 
the votes at elections in said Territory for 
members of the Legislative Asi^embly 
thereof shall also be returned to said board, 
which shall canvass all such returns and 
issue certificates of election to those per- 
sons who, being eligible for such election, 
shall appear to have been lawfully elected, 
which certificate shall be the only evidence 
of the right of such persons to sit in such 
Assembly : Frovided, IhvX said board of 
five persons shall not extlude any person 
otherwise eligible to vote from the polls on 
account of any opinion such person may 
entertain on the subject of bigamy or po- 
lygamy, nor shall they refuse to count any 
such vote on account of the opinion of the 
person casting it on the subject of bigamy 
or polygamy ; but each house of such As- 
sembly, after its organizatirn, shall have 
power to decide upon the elections and 
qualifications of its members. And at or 
after the first meeting of said Legislative 
Assembly whose members shall have been 
elected and returned according to the pro- 
visions of this act, said Legislative Assem- 
bly may make such laws, conformable to 
the organic act of said Territory and not 
inconsistent with other laws of the United 
States, as it shall deem proper concerning 
the filling of the cfBces in said Territory 
declared vacant by this act. 

John E. McEride writing in the Febru- 
arj^ number (1882) of The International 
Review, gives an interesting and correct 
view of the obstacles which the Mormons 
have erected against the eniorcement of 
United States hiws in the Ttrritory. It 
requires atquaintance with these facts to 
iuUy ccmprchcnd the d.'fiiculties in the 
way of Avhat seems to most minds a very 
plain and ea?y tas-k, Mr. Mt Pride says: 
Their first care on arriving in Utah was to 
erect a "free and Inc^ependtnt State," 
called the "State of Descret." It included 
in its nominal limits, not only all of Utah 
as it now is, but one-half of California, all 
of Nevada, part of Colorado, and a large 
portion of four other Territories now or- 
ganized. Prigham Young was elected 
Governor, and its departments, legislative 
and judicial, were fully organized and put 
into operation. Its kgislative acts were 
styled "ordinances," and -Hhen Congress, 
disregarding the State organization, insti- 
tuted a Territorial Government for Utah, 
the legislative body chosen by the Mor- 
mons adopted the ordinances ot the "State 
of Descret." Many of these are yet on 
the statute book of Utah. They show con- 
clusively the domination of the ecclesiasti- 
cal idea, and how utterly insignificant in 



SUPPRESSIXG MORMONISM. 



2G7 



compiirison was the power of the civil 
autlinrity. Tlu-y iinorporuii-ii Uu' IMi)riiii>n 
Cliurcii into a i)()ily politic ami corporate, 
and by thi' thirl .section of the act ^ave it 
supreme authority over its members in 
everythiu'i; temporal and spiritu;il, and as- 
signed as a reason lor so doing tliat it \v;ls 
because the powers confirmed were in 
"support of morality and virtue, and were 
founded 0:1 the revelations of the Lord." 
Uniler thisp )\ver to make laws and punish 
and forgive ollenses, to hear and determine 
between brethren, the civil law was sujjcr- 
seded. The decrees of the courts of this 
church, certified under seil, have been ex- 
amined by the writer, and lie found them 
exercising a jurisdiction witliout limit ex- 
cept tliat of appeal to the President of the 
church. That the ass:issinations of apos- 
tates, the massacres of the Morrisites at 
Morris Fort and of the Arkansas emigrants 
at Mountain Me idows, were all in pursu- 
ance of church decrees, more or less formal, 
no one acjuainted with the system doubts. 
This act of incorporation was passed Febru- 
ary 8, lS-51, a:ul is f )und in the latest com- 
pilation of Ut di statutes. It is proper also 
to observe that, for many years after the 
erection of the Territorial Government by 
Coagre-js, the '' State of Deseret " organiza- 
tion was maintained by the Mormons, and 
collision was only prevented because Brig- 
ham was Governor of both, and found it 
unaecessarv for his purpose to antagonize 
either. His church organization made 
both a shadow, while that was the sub- 
stance of all authority. One of the earli- 
est of their legislative act} was to organ- 
ize a Survevor GeaeraFs Department,^ and 
title to land was declared to be in the per- 
sons who held a certificate from that offije.^ 
Having instituted their own system of 
government and taken possession of the 
land, and assumed to distribute that in a 
system of their own, the next step was to 
vest certain leading men with the control 
of the timbers and waters of the country. 
By a series of acts granting lands, waters 
and timber to individuals, the twelve ; 
apostles became the practical proprietors of 
the better and more desirable portions of 
the country. By an ordinance dated Octo- 
ber 4, 1831, there was granted to Brigham 
Young the "sole control of City Creek and 
Canon for thesumof five hundred dollars." 
By an ordinance dated January 9, 18')(), 
the " waters of North Mill Creek and the 1 
waters of the Canon next north " were 
granted to Heber C. Kimball. On the 
same day was granted to George A. Smith 
the "sole control of the canons and timber 
of the east side of the ' West Mountains." 
On the ISth of January. 18')1, the North 
Cottinwo )d Can in was granted exclusively 
to Williard Richards. On the 15th of Janu- 



> Act of March 2, 1S50. 



«Act of January 19, 1866. 



lary, ISol, the waters of the "main chaa- 
nel " of Mill Cn-elc were donated to Brig- 
h im Young. On the iUii of December, 
l.sr)i», tilcre w:i.s granted to Ezra T. Ben.son 
the exclusive control of the waters of Twin 
S])rings and R')ck Springs, in Tooelle Val- 
ley ; and on the 11th of January, IS.'il, to 
the same person was g'-anled the contnd of 
all the cafions of the " West Mountain" 
and the timber therein. By the ordinance 
of September 14, iSoO, a " general ron- 
fer(!ncc of the Chundi of Latter Day 
Saints" was authorized to elect thirteen 
men to become a corporation, to be called 
the Emigration Com|»any ; and to this com- 
pany, elected exclusively by the church, 
was secured and a|>|)ropriated the two 
islands in Salt Lake known as Antelope 
and Stausberry Islands, to be under the 
exclusive control of President Brigham 
Young. These examples are given to show 
that the right of the Uniteil States to the 
lands of Utah met no recognition by these 
peo[de. They ai)propriated them, not only 
in a way to make the people slaves, but 
indicated their claim of sovereignty as 
superior to any. Young, Smith, Benson 
and Kimball were apostles, llichardj was 
Brigham Young's counsel t . By an act of 
December 28, 18-35, there was granted to 
the " University of the State of Deseret" 
a tract of land amounting to about five 
hundred acres, inside the city limits of 
Salt Lake City, without any reservation to 
the occupants whatever; and everywhere 
was the authority of the United States 
over the country and its soil and people 
utterly ignored. 

Not satisfied with making the grants re- 
ferred to, the Legislative Assembly entered 
upon a system of municipal incor[)orations, 
by which the fertile lauds of the Territory 
were withdrawn from the operation of the 
preemptive laws of Congress; and thus 
while Mey occupied these without title, non- 
Mormons were unable to make settlement 
on them, and thev were thus engrossed 
to Mormon use. From a report made by 
the Commissioner of the General Land Of- 
fice to the United States Senate,' it appears 
that the municipal corporations covered 
over 400,000 acres of the public lands, and 
over 600 square miles of territory. These 
lands' are not subject to either the Home- 
stead or Preemption laws, and thus the non- 
Mormon settler was prevented from attempt- 
ing, except in rare instances, to secure any 
lands in Utah. The spirit which prompted 
this course is well illustrated by an instance 
which was the subject of an invi^stigation 
in the Land Department, and the proofs 
are found in the document just referred to. 
George Q. Cannon, the late Mormon dele- 
gate in Congress, was called lo exercise his 

'Senate doc. 181, 4Rfh ConjjresBL 
» Sec. 2, 2J8, Kcv. Stat. U.S. 



268 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



duties as an apostle to the Tooelle "Stake" 
at the citv of Cirantville. In a discourse 
on Sunday, the 2t)th day of July, 1875, Mr. 
Cannon said : ' " Clod has given us (mean- 
ing the Mormon people) this land, and, if 
any outsider shail come in to take land 
wliifh we claim, a jiiece six feet by two is 
all they are entitletl to, and that will last 
them to all eternity." 

By measures and threats like these have 
the "Mormons unlawfully controlled the ag- 
ricultural lands of the Territory and ex- 
cluded therefrom the dissenting settler. 
The attempt of the United States to es- 
tablish a Surveyor-General's office in Utah 
in ISoo, and to "survey the lands in view of 
disposing of them aceor.ling to law, was 
met by such opposition that Mr. Burr, the 
Surveyor-General, was compelled to fly for 
liiC. The monuments of surveys made by 
his order were destroyed, and the records 
were supposed to have met a like fate, but 
were atterwards restored by Brigham 
Young to the Government. The report of 
his experience by I\Ir. Burr was instru- 
mental in causing troops to be sent in 1857 
to assert the authority of the Government. 
When this army, consisting of regular 
troops, was on the way to Utah, Brigham 
Young, a.s Governor, issued a jiroclamation, 
dated September 15, 1857, declaring mar- 
tial law and ordering the people of the 
Territory to hold themselves in readiness 
to marcii to repel the invaders, and on the 
29th of Septemlier following addressed the 
commander of United States forces an or- 
der forbidding him to enter the Territory, 
and directing him to retire from it by the 
same route he had come. Further evidence 
of the Mormon claim that they were inde- 
pendent is perhaps unnecessary. The trea- 
sonable character of the local organization 
is manifest. It is this organization that 
controls, not only the people who belong to 
it, but the 30,000 non-Mormons who now re- 
side in Utah. 

Every member of the territorial Legisla- 
ture is a Mormon. Every county officer is 
a Mormon, Every territorial officer is a 
Mormon, except such as are appointive. 
The schools provided by law and supported 
bv taxation are Mormon. The teachers are 
]\Iormon, and the sectarian catechism af- 
firming the revelations of Joseph Smith is 
regularly taught therein. The municipal 
corporations are under the control of Mor- 
mons. In the hands of this bigoted class 
all the material interest,s of the Territory 
are left, subject only to such checks as a 
Federal Governor and a Federal judiciary 
can impose. From beyond the sea they im- 
port some thousands of ignorant converts 
anrmally, and, while the non-Mormons are 
increasing, they are overwhelmed by the 
muddy tide of fanaticism shipped in upon 

1 Acccirdliig to the aflidavits of Samuel UowurJ and 
others, liage 14. 



them. The suffrage has been bestowed 
upon all classes by a statute so general that 
the ballot box is filled with a mass of votes 
which repels the free citizen from the ex- 
ercise of that right. If a Gentile is cho- 
sen to the Legislature (two or three such 
instances have occurred), he is not admit- 
ted to the seat, although the act of Congress 
(June 23, 1874) requires the Territory to 
pay all the expenses of the enforcement of 
the laws of the Territory, and of the care 
of persons convicted of offenses against the 
laws of the Territory. Provision is made 
for jurors' fees in criminal cases only, and 
none is made for the care of criminals.^ 
While Congress pays the legislative ex- 
penses, amounting to $20,000 per session, 
the Legislature defiantly refuses to comply 
with the laws which its members are sworn 
to support. And the same body, though 
failing to protect the marriage bond by any 
law whatever requiring any solemnities for 
entering it, provided a divorce act which 
practically allowed marriages to be annulled 
at will.^ Neither seduction, adultery nor 
incest find penalty or recognition in its legal 
code. The purity of home is destroyed by 
the beastly practice of plural marriage, and 
the brows of innocent children are branded 
with the stain of bastardy to gratify the 
lust which cares naught for its victims. 
Twenty-eight of the thirty-six members of 
the present Legislature of Utah are re- 
ported as having from two to seven wives 
each. While the Government of the Uni- 
ted States is paying these men their mile- 
age and pe7- diem as law-makers in Utah, 
those guilty of the same ofl'ense outside of 
Utah are leading the lives oi' felons in con- 
vict cells. For eight years a IMormon dele- 
gate has sat in the capitol at Washington 
having lour living wives in his harem in 
Utah, and at the same time, under the 
shadow of that capitol, lingers in a felon's 
prison a man who had been guilty of mar- 
rying a woman while another wife was still 
living. 

For thirty years have the Mormons been 
trusted to correct these evils and put them- 
selves in harmony with the balance of 
civilized mankind. This they have refused 
to do. Planting themselves in the heart 
of the continent, they have iiersistently 
defied the laws of the land, the laws of 
modern society, and the teachings of a 
common humanity. They degrade woman 
to the office of a breeding animal, and, 
after depriving her of all property rights 
in her husband's estate,* all control of her 
children,* they, with ostentation, bestow 
upon her the ballot in a way that makes 
it a nullity if contested, and compels her 
to use it to perpetuate her own degrada- 
tion if she avails herself of it. 

1 Sec Rpport of Atfcrnpv-flencriil VwWof^ S(a,(os. 1SS0-S1. 

2 Act of Jlnn-li n. is(y. :i Act of lM'l)ru.ir.v IG, 1S72. 
* Sees. 1 aud 2, act of February 3, 1S62. 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 



269 



No power has been piveii to the Mor- 
mon Hierarchy thai lum not heon abu.ie'i. 
The ri^^ht of rei)restntation in tlie k'gisla- 
tive councils has bi'cn viohited in the ap- 
portionment of members su as to disfran- 
chise the non-Mormon class. ^ Tlie system 
of revenue and taxation was lor twenty- 
five years a system of confiscation and ex- 
tortion.-' The courts were so organized and 
controlled that they were but the orjjjans of 
the church oppressions and ministers of 
its vencjeance.^ The legal profession was 
abolished by a statute that prohibited a 
lawyer from recovering on any contract 
for service, and allowed every person to 
appear ju* an attorney in any court.* The 
attorney was compelled to present " all the 
facts in the c:use," whether for or against 
his client, and a refusal to disclose the 
confidential communications of the latter 
subjected the attorney to fine and imprison- 
ment.* No law hook e.\cept the statutes 
of Utah and of the United States, " when 
applicable," was permitted to be read in 
any court by an attorney, and the citation 
of a decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, or even a quotation from 
the Bible, in the trial of any cause, sub- 
jected a lawyer to fine and imprisonment.'' 

The practitioners of medicine were 
equally assailed by legislation. The use 
of the most important remedies known to 
mo<lern medical science, including all an- 
aesthetics, was prohibited except under 
conditions which made their use impossi- 
ble, " and if death followed" the adminis- 
tration of these remedies, the person ad- 
ministering them was declared guilty of 
manslaughter or murder.'' The Legislative 
Assembly is but an organized conspiracy 
against the national law, and an obstacle 
in the way of the advancement of its own 
people. For sixteen years it refused to lay 
its enactments before Congress, and they 
were only obtained by a joint resolution 
demanding them. Once in armed rebel- 
lion against the auth')rity of the nation, 
the Mormons have always secretly strug- 
gled for, as they have openly pr(jphesied, 
its entire overthrow. Standing thus in the 
pathway of the material growth and devel- 
opment of the Territory, a disgrace to the 
balance of the country, with no redeeming 
virtue to plead for further indulgence, this 
travesty of a local government demands 
radical and speedy reform. 



The Soiitlk American Qaestlon. 

If it w.as not shrewdly surmised before it 
is now known that had President Garfield 

1 Soc act of .January 17. lSfi2. 

- Act of .Taniiury 7, !<.■>», s'C. 14, 

'Acts of .Ian 21, l«v?, and of January, 1855, sec. 29. 

<.\ctof February !.>*, 1S-.2. 

' Act of FcbniarT l^*. 1S.=i2. 

•Act of .Tanuavv 14. IS.54. 

' S«c. 106, Act aiarch 0, 1852. 



lived he intended to makr his administra- 
tion lir.Uiaiitat home and abroad — a view 
confirnieil by the uolicy coiice'Ved by 
Secretary lUaine ami .sanclion<rl, it HiUr,t 
be pre.suiiietl, Jjy President ( iarlield. Tiiia 
policy looked to chjser commercial and 
political relations with all of tile Repuldics 
on this HeinispluTc, as developed in the 
foll(!wing (luolatioiis from a correspond- 
ence, the puljlieation of which lacks com- 
pleteness l)eeause of delays in transmitting 
all of it to Congress. 

Ex-Secretary Blaine on the 3d of Janu- 
ary sent the following letter to President 
Arthur: 

"The suggestion of a congress of all the 
.\merican nations to assemble in the city 
of Washington for the purpose of agreeing 
on such a liasis of arnitration for interna- 
tional troubles as would remove all po.ssi- 
bility of war in the Western hemisphere 
wa.s warmly ap|)roved by your ])redecessor. 
The a.ssassination of July 2 prevented his 
issuing tlie invitations to the American 
States. After your accession to the Pre- 
sidency I acquainted you with the jjroject 
and submitted to you a dratt lor such an 
invitation. You received the suggestion 
with the most appreciative consideration, 
and after carefully examining the form of 
the invitation directed that it be sent. It 
was accordingly dispatched in November 
to the independent governments of Ameri- 
ca North and South, including all, from 
the Empire of Brazil to the smallest re- 
public. In a communication addressed by 
the present Secretary of State on January 
9, to Mr. Trescot and recently sent to the 
Senate I wjis greatly surprised to find a 
proposition looking to the annulment of 
these invitations, and I was still more sur- 
prised when I read the reasons assigned. 
If I correctly apprehend the meaning of 
his words it is that we might otl'end some 
European powers if we should hold in the 
United States a congress of the "selected 
nationalities" of America. 

" This is certainly a new position for the 
United States to assume, and one wliieli I 
earnestly beg you will not permit this 
government to occupy. The European 
powers assemble in congress whenever an 
object seems to them of sufficient imjiort- 
ance to justify it. I have never heard of 
their consulting the government of the 
United States in regard to the propriety of 
their so assembling, nor have I ever known 
of their inviting an .\merican representa- 
tive to be present. Nor would there, in my 
jude:inent, be any good reason for their so 
doing. Two Presidents of the United 
States in the year ISSl adjudged it to be 
expedient that the American nowers should 
meet in congress for the .sole puqiose of 
agreeing upon some basis for arbitration of 
differences that mav arise between them 
and for the prevention, as far as possible, 



270 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of war in the future. If that movement is 
now to be arrested for fear that it may 
give ofiense in Europe, tlie voluntary hu- 
miliation of this government could not be 
more complete, unless we should press the 
European governments for the privilege of 
holding the congress. I cannot conceive 
how the United [States could be placed in 
a less enviable position than would be se- 
cured by sending in November a cordial 
invitation to all the American governments 
to meet in Washington for the sole pur- 
pose of concerting measures of peace 
and in January recalling the invitation 
for fear that it might create "jealousy and 
ill will " on the part of monarchical govern- 
ments in Europe. It would be difficult to 
devise a more effective mode for making 
enemies of the American Government and 
it would certainly not add to our prestige 
in the European world. Nor can I see, 
Mr, President, how European governments 
should feel " jealou'^y and ill will " towards 
the United States because of an effort on 
our own part to assure lasting peace be- 
tween the nations of America, unless, in- 
deed, it be to the interest of European 
power that American nations should at 
intervals fall into war and bring re- 
proach on republican government. But 
from that very circumstance I see an ad- 
ditional and powerful motive for the 
American Governments to be at peace 
among themselves. 

"The United States is indeed at peace 
with all the world, as Mr. Frelinghuysen 
well says, but there are and have been 
serious troubles between other American 
nations. Peru, Chili and Bolivia have 
been for more than two years engaged in 
a desperate conflict. It was the fortunate 
intervention of the United States last 
spring that averted war between Chili and 
the Argentine Republic. Guatemala is at 
this moment asking the United States to 
interpose its good oflSces with Mexico to 
keep off war. These important facts were 
all communicated in your late message to 
Congress. It is the existence or the men- 
ace of these wars that influenced President 
Garfield, and as I supposed influenced 
yourself, to desire a friendly conference of 
all the nations of America to devise 
methods of permanent pence and conse- 
quent prosperity for all. Shall the United 
States now turn back, hold aloof and re- 
fuse to exert its great moral power for the 
advantage of its weaker neighbors? 

If yon have nn* formally and finally re- 
called the invitations to the Peace Con- 
gress, Mr. President, I beg you to consider 
well the effect of so doing. The invitation 
was not mine. It was yours. I performed 
only the part of the Secretar\' — to advise 
and to draft. You spoke in the name of 
the United States to each of the indepen- 
dent nations of America, To revoke that 



invitation for any cause would be embar- 
rassing ; to revoke it for the avowed fear of 
"jealousy and ill will " on the part of 
European powers would appeal as little to 
American pride as to American hospitality. 
Those you have invited may decline, and 
having now cause to doubt their welcome 
will, perhaps, do so. This would break up 
the congress, but it would not touch our 
dignity. 

" Beyond the philanthropic and Christian 
ends to be obtained by an American con- 
ference devoted to peace and good-will 
among men, we might well hope for 
material advantages, as the result of a bet- 
ter understandiEg and closer friendship 
with the nation of America. At present 
the condition of trade between the United 
States and its American neighbors is un- 
satisfactory to us, and even deplorable. 
According to the official statistics of our 
own Treasury Department, the balance 
against us in that trade last year was 
$120,000,000— a sum greater than the 
yearly product of all the gold and silver 
mines in the United States. This vast 
balance was paid by us in foreign exchange, 
and a very large proportion of it went to 
England, where shipments of cotton, pro- 
visions and breadstuffs supplied the 
money. If anything should change or 
check the balance in our favor in Euro- 
pean trade our commercial exchanges with 
Spanish America would drain us of our 
reserve of gold at a rate exceeding .SlOO,- 
000,000 per annum, and would probably 
precipitate a suspension of specie payment 
in this country. Such a result at home 
might be worse than a little jealousy and 
ill-will abroad. I do not say, Mr. Presi- 
I dent, that the holding of a peace congress 
will necessarily change the currents of 
trade, but it will bring us into kindly re- 
lations with all the American nations; it 
will promote the reign of peace and law 
and order ; it will increase production and 
consumption and will stimulate the de- 
mand for articles which American manu- 
facturers can furnish with profit. It will 
at all events be a friendly and auspicious 
beginning in the direction of American 
influence and American trade in a large 
field which we have hitherto greatly ne- 
glected and which has been practically 
monopolized by our commercial rivals in 
Europe. 

As Mr. Frelinghuysen's dispatdi, fore- 
shadowing the abandonment of the peace 
congress, has been made public, I deem it 
a m.atter of propriety and justice to give 
this letter to the press. Jas. G. Blaixe. 



The above well presents the Blaine view 
of the proposition to have a Con- 
gress of the Republics of America at 
Washington, and under the patronage of 
this government, with a view to settle all 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 



271 



diflicultics 1)}' arbitration, to promote trade, 
and it is pre-uiiiL't.1 to lurin ulliaiu;t;.s ri'ady 
to suit a now and advanced application ol 
the Monroe doctrine. 

The roUowini; is the letter j)roposinjj; a 
confi-ronecof Nortli and South Anioriean 
Republic-s sunt to the U. S. Ministers in 
Central and Soutli America: 

Sir: The attitude of the United States 
with respect to the (jucstion of general 
peace on the American Continent is wi^l 
Known throuj^ii its persistent ell'orts for 
years pa-<t to avert the evils of warfare, or, 
these oirort-i faiiin.,', to bring positive con- 
flicts to an end tlirough pacific counsels or 
the advocacy of impartial arbitration. 
This attitucL' has been consistently main- 
tained, and always with such fairness as to 
le;ive no room for imputing to our Govern- 
ment any motive except the humane and 
disinterested one of saving the kindred 
States of the American Continent from the 
burdens of war. The position of the 
United Stale-!, as the leading power of the 
new world, might woU give to its Govern- 
ment a claim t ) authoritative utterance for 
tlu' purpose of quieting discord among its 
neighbors, with all of whom the most 
friendly relations exist. Nevertheless the 
good offices of this Government are not, 
and have not at any time, been tendered 
with a show of dictation or compulsion, 
but only as exhibiting the solicitous 
good will of a common friend. 

THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN 
STATES. 

For some years past a growing disposi- 
tion has been manifested by certain States 
of Central and South America to refer dis- 
putes aflfecting grave questions of inter- 
national relationship and boundaries to 
arbitration rather than to the sword. It 
has been on several occasions a source of 
profound satisfaction to the Government 
of the United States to see that this 
country is in a large measure looked to by 
all the American powers as their friend 
and medi:itor. The just and impartial 
counsel of the President in such cases, has 
never been withheld, and his efforts have 
been rewarded by the prevention of 
sanguinary strife or angry contentions be- 
tween peoples whom we regard as brethren. 
The existence of this growing tendency 
convinces the President that the time is 
ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the 
good will and active co-operation of all the 
Btites of the Western Hemisphere both 
North and South, in the interest of hu- 
manity and for the common weal of na- 
tions. 

He conceives that none of the Govern- 
ments of America can be less alive thin 
our own to the dangers and horrors of a 
state of war, and especially of war between 
kinsmen. He is sure that none of the 



chiefs of Government or; tiie Continent can 
he le>8 sensiiive llian he i.s to tiie sacred 
duty of making every endeavor to do away 
witii the chaiues (jf fratritidal strife, and 
he looks with hopeful coniiileiice to buch 
active Jis.si.stance from them an will serve 
to show the broadness of our common hu- 
manity, the Htrength of tlie ties wiiich 
bind us all together as a great and har- 
monious system of American Common- 
wealths, 

A GENERAL CONGRESS PROPOSED. 

Imjjressed by these views, the President 
extends to all the independent countries of 
North and South America an earnest in- 
vitation to participate in a general (Jon- 
giess, to be held in the city of Washing- 
ton, on the 22d of November, 1882, for the 
I)urpose of considering and discussing the 
methods of preventing war between the 
nations of America. He desires that the 
attention of the Congress shall be strictly 
confined to this one great object; and its 
sole aim shall be to seek a way of per- 
manently averting the horrors of a cruel 
and bloody contest between countries 
oftenest of one blood and speech, or the 
even worse calamity of internal commotion 
and civil strife; that it shall regard the 
burdensome and far-reaching consequences 
of such a struggle, the legacies of exhau.sted 
finances, of oppressive debt, of onerous 
taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed in- 
dustries, of devastated fields, of ruthles.s 
conscriptions, of the slaughter of men, of 
the grief of the widow and orphan, of em- 
bittered resentments that long survive 
those who provoked them and heavily 
afflict the innocent generations that come 
after. 

THE MISSION OF THE CONGRESS. 

The President is especially desirous to 
have it understood that in putting forth this 
invitation the United States does not as- 
sume the position of counseling or attempt- 
ing, through the voice of the Congress, to 
counsel any determinate solution of exist- 
ing questions which may now divide any 
of the countries. Such questions cannot 
properly come before the Congress. Its 
mission is higher. It is to provide for the 
interests of all in the future, not to settle 
the individual differences of the present. 
For this reason especially the President 
has indicated a day for the assembling of 
the Congress so far in the future as to 
leave good ground for the hope that by the 
time named the present situation on the 
South Pacific coast will be happily termi- 
n.ated, and that thoH<» engaged in the con- 
test may take peaceable part in the discus- 
sion and solution of the general nuestion 
affecting in an equal degree the well-being 
of all. 

It seems also desirable to disclaim in ad- 



272 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



vance any purpose on the part of the 
United States t > prejudge the issues to be 
presented to the Congress, ll is fur from 
the intent of ihis Government to appear 
before the Congress as in any sense the 
protector of its neighbors or the predestined 
and necessary arbitrator of their disputes. 
The United States will enter into the deliber- 
ations of the Congress on the same looting 
as other powers represented, and with the 
.loyal determination to ai^proach any pro- 
posed solution, not merely in its own inter- 
est, or with a view to asserting its own 
power, but as a single member among 
many co-ordinate and co-equal States. So 
far as the influence of this Government 
may be potential, it will be exerted in the 
direction of conciliating whatever con- 
flicting interests of blood, or government, 
or historical tradition that; may necessarily 
come together in response to a call 
embracing such vast and diverse ele- 
ments. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE MINISTERS. 

You will jircsent these views to the 
Minister of Foreign Atla'rs of Costa Pdca, 
enlarging, if need be, in such terms as 
will readily occur to you ujjon the great 
mission which it is within the power of the 
proposed Congress to accomplish in the in- 
terest of humanity, and the firm jjurpose 
of the United States of America to main- 
tain a position of the most absolute and 
impartial friendship toward all. You will, 
therefore, in the name of the President of 
the United States, tender to his Excel- 
lency, the President of , a Ibrmal 

invitation to send two commissioners to 
the Congre s, jn-ovidcd with su.h powers 
and instructions on behalf of their Govern- 
ment as wiil enable them to consider the 
questions brought before that body within 
the limit of submission contemplated by 
this invitation. 

The United States, as well as the other 

Eowers, will in like manner be represented 
y two commissioners, so that equahtyand 
impartiality will -be amply secured in the 
proceedings of the Congress. 

In delivering this invitation through the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, you will read 
this despatch to him and leave with him a 
copy, intimating that an answer is desired 
by this Government as promptly as the 
just consideration of so important a pro{)0- 
sition will permit. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

James G. Blaine. 



Minister liogan'a Rrplj^. 

The following is an abstract of the re- 
ply of Minister Logan to the above. 

" From a full review of the situation, as 
heretofore detailed to you, I am not clear 
as to being able to obtain the genuine co- 



operation of all the States of Central 
America in the proposed congress. — Each, 
1 have no doubt, will ultimately agree to 
send the specilied number of commission- 
ers and assume, outwardly, an appearance 
of sincere co-ofieration, but, as you will 
perceive from your knowledge of the ])0S- 
ture of allhirs, all hope of effecting a union 
of these States except upon a basis the 
leaders will never permit— that of a free 
choice of the whole people — will be at an 
end. The obligation to keep the peate, 
imjiosed by the congress, will bind the 
United States as well as all others, and 
thus prevent any efforts to bring about the 
desired union other than those based upcn 
a sim])le tenderof good offices — this means 
until the years shall bring about a radical 
change — must be as inefficient in the future 
as in the past. The situation, as it ap- 
pears to me, is a difficult one. As a means 
of restraining the aggressive tendency of 
Mexico in the direction of Central Ameri- 
ca, the congress would be attended by the 
happiest results, should a full agreement 
be reached. Put as the Central American 
States are now in a chaotic condition, politi- 
cally considered, with their future status 
wholly undefinecl, and as a final settlement 
can only be reached, as it now appears, 
through the operation of military lorces, 
the hope of a Federal union in Ctntral 
America would be crushed, at least in the 
immediate present. Wiser heads than my 
own may devise a method to harmonize 
these difficulties when the congress is ac- 
tually in session, but it must be constuntly 
remembered that so far as the Central 
American commissioners are concerned 
they will represent the interests and posi- 
tive mandates of their respective govern- 
ment chieis in the strictest and most abso- 
lute sense. While all will probably send 
commissioners, through motives of ex]»edi- 
cncy, they may possibly be instructed to 
secretly defeat the ends of the convention. 
I make tln^se suggestions that you may 
have the whole field under view. 

" I may mention in this connection that 
I have received information that uj) to the 
tenth of the present month only two Ricm- 
bcrs of the proposed convention at Pana- 
ma had arrived and that it was considered 
as having failed." 

Contemporaneous with these movements 
or suggestions was another on the j art of 
Mr. Blaine to secure from England a mod- 
ification or abrogation of the Clayton- 
P.ulwer treaty, with the object of giving to 
the United States, rather to the Keiniblics 
of North and South America, full super- 
vision of the Isthmus and Panama Canal 
when constructed. This branch of the 
correspondence was sent to the Semite on 
the 17th of February. Lord Granville, in 
his despatch of January 7th to Minister 
West in reference to the Clayton-Bulwer 



THE SOUTU AMHIIICAN QUESTION. 



278 



Treaty controversy, denies any analogy ' it has yrt hei-n found i)ri;fiTal)le to arrive 
between the cases of the Panama and ' at a solution as to those details rather than 



Suez Canals. He cordially concurs in Mr. 
lilaine's statement in rej^ard to the unex- 
ampled development of the Pacific Coast, 
but (ionics that it was unexpected. 

lie says the declaration of President 
Monroe anterior to the treaty show that 
he and his Cabinet had a clear prevision of 
the great future of that region. The de- 



to sacrifice the general bases of the en- 
gagement, it must surely be allowed thit 
such a fact, far from being an argument 
against that engagement, is an argument 
distinctly in its favor. It is equally jjlain 
that either of the contracting i)arties which 
hail abandoned its own contention Ibr the 
l)urpose of preserving the agreement in its 



velopment of the interests of the British entirety would have reason to conijiiain if 

f>ossessions also continued, though possibly 
ess rapiilly. The Government are of the 
opinion that the canal, as a water way be- 
tween the two great oceans and Europe and 
Eastern Asia, is a work which concerns not 
only the American Continent, but the 
whole civilized world. With all deference 
to the considerations which prompted Mr. 
Blaine he cannot believe that his propo- 
sals will be even beneficial in themselves. 
He can conceive a no more melancholy 
spectacle than competition between nations 
in the construction of fortifications to com- 
mand the canal. He cannot believe that 
any South American States would like to 
admit a foreign power to erect fortifications 
on its territory, when the claim to do so is 
accompanied by the declaration that the 
canal is to be regarded as a part of the 
American coast line. It is difficult to be- 
lieve, he says, that the territory between it 
and the United States conld retain its pres- 
ent independence. Lord Granville believes 
tJiat an invitation to all the maritime 
states to participate in an agreement based 
on the stipulations of the Convention of 
1850, would make the Convention adequate 
for the purposes for which it was designed. 
Her Majesty's Government would gladly 
see the United States take the initiative 
towards such a convention, and will be 
prepared to endorse and support such action 
in any wav. provided it aoes not conflict 
with the Clayton-Bulwcr treaty. 

Lord Granville, in a subsequent despatch, 
draws attention to the fact that Mr. Blaine, 
in using the argument that the treaty has 
been a source of continual difficulties, 
omits to state that the questions in dispute 
which related to points occupied by the 
British in Central America were removed 
in 18(50 by the voluntary action of Great 
Britain in certain treaties concluded with 
Honduras and Nicaragua, the settlement 
being recognized as perfectly satisfactory 
by President Buchanan. Lord Granville 
says, further, that during this controversy 
America disclaimed any desire to have 
the exclusive control of the canal. 

The Earl contends that in cases where 
the details of an international agreement 
have given rise to difficulties and discus- 
sions to such an extent as to cause the 
contracting parties at one time to contem- 
plate its abrogation or modification as one 
of several possible alternatives, and where 
18 



nip 

the ditierences which had been settled by 
its concessions were alterwanls urged jus a 
reason for essentially modifying those other 
jjrovisions which it had made tliis sacrifice 
to maintain. In order to strengthen these 
arguments, the Earl reviews the corres- 
pondence, quotes the histf)rical points made 
by Mr. Blaine and in many instances in- 
troduces additional data as contradicting 
the inferences drawn by Mr. Blaine and 
supporting his own position. 

The point on which I\Ir. Blaine laid 
particular stress in his despatch to Earl 
Granville, is the objection made by the 
government of the United States to any- 
concerted action of tlie European powers 
for the purpose of guarantying the neu- 
trality ot the Isthmus canal or determin- 
ing the conditions of its use. 

CHILI A>-D PERU. 

The entire question is complicated by 
the war between Chili and Peru, the latter 
owning immense guano deposits in which 
American citizens have become financially 
interested. These sought the friendly in- 
tervention of our government to prevent 
Chili, the conquering Republic, from ap- 
propriating these deposits as part of her 
war indemnity. The Landreau, an original 
French claim, is said to represent $125,- 
000,000, and the holders were prior to and 
during the war pressing it upon Calderon, 
the Peruvian President, for settlement; 
the Cochet claim, another of the same 
class, represented $1,000,000,000. Doubt- 
less these claims are speculative and largely 
fraudulent, and shrewd agents are inter- 
ested in their collection and preservation. 
A still more preposterous and speculative 
movement was fathered by one Shipherd, 
who opened a correspondence with Minis- 
ter Hurlburt, and with other parties for 
the establishment of the Credit Industriel, 
which was to pay the $20,000,000 money 
indemnity demanded of Peru by Chili, and 
to be reimbursed by the Peruvian nitratea 
and guano deposits. 

THE SCAND.\L. 

All of these things surround the ques- 
tion with scandals which probably fail to 
truthfully reach any prominent officer of 
our government, but which have neverthe- 
less attracted the attention of Congress to 



274 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



such an extent that the following action 
has been already taken : 

On February 24th Mr. Bayard offered in 
the Senate a resolution reciting that where- 
as publication has been widely made by 
the public press of certain alleged public 
commercial contracts between certain com- 
panies and copartnerships of individuals 
relative to the exports of guano and nitrates 
from Peru, in which the mediation by the 
Government of the United States between 
the Governments of Peru, Bolivia and 
Chili is declared to be a condition for the 
effectuation and continuance of the said 
contracts ; therefore be it resolved, that 
the Committee on Foreign Relations be 
instructed to inquire whether any promise 
or stipulation by which the intervention by 
the United States in the controversies ex- 
isting between Chili and Peru or Chili and 
Bolivia has been expressly or impliedly 
given by any ])erson or persons officially 
connected with the Government of the 
United States, or whether the influence of 
the Government of the United States has 
been in any way exerted, promised or inti- 
mated in connection with, or in relation to 
the said contracts by any one officially con- 
nected with the Government of the United 
States, and whether any one officially con- 
nected with the Government of the United 
States is interested, directly or indirectly, 
with any such alleged contracts in which 
the mediation as aforesaid of the United 
States is recited to be a condition, and that 
the said committee have power to send for 
persons and paper and make report of their 
proceedings in the premises to the Senate 
at the e:^rliest possible day. 

Mr. Edmunds said he had drafted a 
resolution covering all the branches of 
" that most unfortunate affair " to which 
reference was now made, and in view of 
the ill policy of any action which would 
commit the Senate to inquiries about de- 
claring foreign matters in advance of a 
careful investigation by a committee, he 
now made the suggestion that he would 
have made as to his own resolution, if he 
had offered it, namely, that the subject be 
referred to the Committee on P'oreign Re- 
lations. He intimated that the proposition 
prepared by himself would be considered 
Dv the cominittee as a suggestion bearing 
upon the pending resolution. 

Mr. Bayard acquiesced in the reference 
with the remark that anything that tended 
to bring the matter more fully before the 
country was satisfactory to him. 

The resolution accordingly went to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations. 

In the House Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, 
offered a rc-<olution reciting that whereas, 
it is alleged, in connection with the Chili 
Peruvian correspondence recently and 
officially published on the call of the two 
Houses of Congress, that one or more 



Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United 
States were either personally interested or 
improperly connected with a business 
transaction in which the intervention of 
this Government was requested or expected 
and whereas, it is alleged that certain pa- 
pers in relation to the same subject have 
been improperly lost or removed from the 
files of the State Department, that there- 
fore the Committee on Foreign Affairs be 
instructed to inquire into said allegations 
and ascertain the facts relating thereto, 
and report the same with sui h recommen- 
dations as they may deem proper, and they 
shall have power to send for persons and 
papers. The resolution was adopted. 

THE CLAIMS. 

The inner history of what is known as 
the Peruvian Company reads more like a 
tale from the Arabian Nights than a plain 
statement of facts. The following is 
gleaned from the prospectus of the compa- 
ny, of Mhich only a limited number of cop- 
ies was printed. According to a note on 
the cover of these " they are for the strictly 
private use of the gentlemen into whose 
hands they are immediately placed." 

The pros])ects of the corporation are 
based entirely upon the claims of Cochet 
and Landreau, two French chemists, resi- 
dents of Peru. In the year 1833, the Pe- 
ruvian government, by published decree, 
promised to every discoverer of valuable 
deposits upon the public domain a premium 
of one-third of the discovery as an incen- 
tive to the development of great natural 
resources vaguely known to exist. In the 
beginning of 1830, Alexandre Cochet, who 
was a man of superior iufbrination, occu- 
pied himself in the laborious wf)rk of manu- 
facturing nitrate of soda in a small oficina 
in Peru, and being possessed with quick 
intelligence and a careful observer he soon 
came to understand that the vahiable pro- 
perties contaned in the guano — an article 
(jnly known to native cultivators of the soil 
— would be eminently useful as a restora- 
tive to the exhausted lands of the old con- 
tinent. With this idea he made himself 
completely master of the mode of applica- 
tion adopted by the Indians and small 
farmers in the province where he resided, 
and after a careful investigation of the 
chemical effects produced on the land by 
the proper application of the regenerating 
agent, he proceeded in the year 1840 to the 
capital (Lima) in order to interest some of 
his friends in this new enterprise. Not 
without great persuasion and nuich hesita- 
tion, he induced his countryman, Mr. Achil- 
les Allier, to take up the hazardous specu- 
lation and join with him in his discovery. 
He succeeded, however, and toward the 
end of the same year the firm of Quiroz & 
Allier obtained a concession for six years 
from the government of Peru for the ex- 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 



275 



pnrtiition of all the fruano cxistinc; in tho 
alUTwards fUnious islands of CliinoUi for 
the sum of sixty thousand dollars. In 
constviuence of the refusal of that firna to 
ailiiiit Coehet, the discoverer, to a j>artiei- 
I)ation in the profits prowinp out of this 
eontract a series of lawsuits resulted and a 
paper war cnsue>l in whieh C'ochet was 
oalHed. In vain he called the attention of 
the <roveriiment to the nature and value of 
this discovery ; he was told that he was a 
" visionary." In vain he demonstrated 
that the nation possessed hundreds of mil- 
lions of ddliars in the i:;rand de])osits: this 
only confirmed the o[)inion of the Council 
of State that he \v;is a madman. In vain 
he attempted to prove that one carp^o of 
guano was equal to fourteen cargoes of 
grain ; the Council of State cooly told him 
that guano was an article known to the 
Sjjaniards, and of no value : that Commis- 
sioner Humbolt had referred to it, and that 
they could not accept his theory respecting 
its .superior properties, its value and its 
probable use in foreign agriculture at a pe- 
riod when no new discovery could be made 
relative to an article so long and of so evi- 
dent small value. 

At length a new light began to dawn on 
the lethargic understanding of the officials 
in power, and as rumors continued to ar- 
rive from Europe confirming the assevera- 
tions of Cochet, and announcing the sale 
of guano at from $90 to $120 per ton, a de- 
gree of haste was suddenly evinced to se- 
cure once more to the public treasury this 
new and unexpected source of wealth ; and 
at one blow the contract with Quiroz & 
Allier, which had previously been extend- 
ed, was reduced to one year. Their claims 
were cancelled by the payment of ten thou- 
sand tons of guano which Congress de- 
creed them. There still remained to be 
settled the just and acknowledged indebt- 
edness for benefits conferred on the coun- 
try by Cochet, benefits which could not be 
denied as wealth and prosperity rolled in 
on the government and on the people. But 
few, if any, troubled themselves about the 
question to whom they were indebted for 
so much good fortune, nor had time to pay 
particular attention to Cochet's claims. 
Finally, however, Congress was led to de- 
clare Co -het the true discoverer of the value, 
uses and application of guano for European 
agriculture, and a grant of 5,000 tons was 
made in his favor September 30th, 1849, 
but was never paid him. After passing a 

f)eriod of year? in hopeless expectancy — 
i-om 1840 to 1851— his impoverished cir- 
cumstances made it necessary for him to 
endeavor to procure, through the influence 
of his own government, that measure of 
support in favor of his claims which would 
insure him a competency in his old age. 

He resolved upon returning to France, 
after having spent the best part of his life 



in the service of a country whose cities hid 
risen from desolation to splendor utidcr the 
sole magic of his touch — a touch that had 
in it for I'cru all the f;i!)led [.owcr of the 
long-sought "philosopher's stone." In \H.')'.i 
Co( het returned to France, but he was then 
already exhausted by enthusiastic explora- 
tions in a (leadly climate and never rallied. 
Me lingered in jmverty for eleven painful 
years and died in Paris in an almshouse in 
l.S(i4, entitled to an estate worth !?.ji)0,000,- 
(101) — the richest man in the historv of the 
world — and was buried by the city in the 
Potters' Field; his wonderful history well il- 
lustrating that truth is stranger than fiction. 

THE LAXDREAU CLAIM. 

About the year 1844 Jean Theophile 
Landreau, also a French citizen, in part- 
nership with his brother, .J"hn C. Landreau, 
a naturalized American citizen, upon the 
faith of the promised premium of 3o} per 
cent, entered ui)on a series of extended 8ys- 
tematic and scientific explorations with a 
view to ascertaining whether the deposits 
of guano particularly pointed out by Co- 
chet constituted the entire guano deposit of 
Peru, and with money furnished by hispart- 
ner, John, Theophile prosecuted his search- 
es with remarkable energy and with great 
success for twelve years, identifying br^ds 
not before known to the value of not less 
than $400,000,000. Well aware, however, 
of the manner in which his fellow-country- 
man had been neglected by an unprinci- 
pled people, he had the discretion to keep 
his own counsel and to extort Irom the Pe- 
ruvian authorities an absolute agreement 
in advance before he revealed his treasure. 
This agreement was, indeed, for a royalty 
of less than one-sixth the amount promised, 
but the most solemn assurances were given 
that the lessened amount would be prompt- 
ly and cheerfully paid, its total would give 
the brothers each a large fortune, and i)ay- 
ments were to begin at once. The solemn 
agreement having been concluded and duly 
certified, the precious deposits having been 
pointed out and taken possession of by the 
profligate government, the brothers were at 
first put off with plausible pretexts of de- 
lay, and when these grew monotonous the 
government calmly issued a decree recog- 
nizing the discoveric-s, accepting the trea- 
sure, and annuUingthe contract, with asug- 
gestion that a more suitable agreement 
might be arranged in the future. 

It will be seen that the<o two men. Co- 
chet and Landreau, have been acknow- 
ledged by the Peruvian government as 
claimants. No atteinnt has ever been made 
to deny the indel)tednes-s. The very de- 
cree of repudiation reaffirmed the oidiga- 
tion,andall the courts refus.d to pronounce 
against the plaintiffs. Botii of these claims 
came into the possession of Mr. Peter W. 
Hevcnor, of Philadelphia. Cochet left one 



270 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



son whom Mr. Hevenor found in poverty in 
Lima and advanced money to push his 
father's claim of $500,000,000 against the 
government. After S'50,000 were spent 
young Cochet's backer was surprised to 
learn of the Laudreaus and their claim. 
Not wishing to antagonize them, he ad- 
vanced them money, and in a short time 
owned nearly all the fifteen interests in the 
Landreau claim of $125,000,000. 

To the Peruvian Company Mr. Hevenor 
has transferred his titles, and on the basis 
of these that corporation maintains that 
eventually it will realize not less than $1,- 
200,000,000, computed as follows : 

The amount of guano already taken out 
of the Cochet Islands — including the Chin- 
chas — will be shown by the Peruvian Cus- 
tom House records, and will aggregate, it is 
said, not far from $1,200,000,000 worth. The 
discoverer's one-third of this would be 
$400,000,000, and interest upon this amount 
at six per cent. - say for an equalized aver- 
age of twenty years— would be $480,000,000 
more. The amount remaining in these 
islands is not jiositively known, and is pro- 
bably not more than $200,000,000 worth ; 
and in the Landreau deposits say $300,000,- 
000 more. The Chilian plenipotentiary re- 
cently announced that his government are 
about opening very rich deposits on the Lo- 
bos Islands — which are included in this 
group. It is probably within safe limits, 
says the Peruvian Company's prospectus, to 
say that, including interest to accrue before 
the claim can be fully liquidated, its owners 
will realize no less than $1,200,000,000. 

THE COUNTRIES INVOLVED. 

In South America there are ten inde- 
pendent governments ; and the three Gui- 
anas which are dependencies on Eurojiean 
powers. Of the independent governments 
Brazil is an empire, having an area of 
3,609,100 square miles and 11,058,000 in- 
habitants. The other nine are republics. 
In giving area and population we use the 
most complete statistics at our command, 
but they are not strictly reliable, nor as 
late as we could have wished. The area 
and the population of the republics are: 
Vcnzucla, 426,712 square miles and 2,200,- 
000 inhabitants; United States of Colom- 
bia, 475,000 square miles and 2,900.000 in- 
habitants; Peru, 580,000 square miles and 
2,500,000 inhabitants; Ecuador, 208,000 
square miles and 1,300,000 inhabitants; 
Bolivia, 842,730 square miles and 1,987,352 
inhabitants; Chili, 200,000 square miles 
and 2,084,960 inhabitants ; Argentine l\e- 
public, 1,323,560 square miles and 1,887,- 
000 inhabitants; Paraguay, 73,000 square 
miles and 1,337,439 inhabitants; Uruguay, 
60,716 square miles and 240,000 inhabi- 
tants, or a total in the nine republics of 
3,789,220 »qu;tre miles and 16,436,751 in- 
JUabitaute. The aggregate area of the nine 



republics exceeds that of Brazil 180,060 
square miles, and the total population ex- 
ceeds that of Brazil 5,069,552. Brazil, be- 
ing an empire, is not comprehended in the 
Blaine proposal — she rather stands as a 
strong barrier against it. Mexico and 
Guatamala are included, but are on this 
continent, and their character and re- 
sources better understood by our people. 
In the South American countries generally 
the Spanish language is spoken. The edu- 
cated classes are of nearly pure Spanish ex- 
traction. The laboring classes are of mixed 
Spanish and aboriginal blood, or of pure 
aboriginal ancestry. The characteristics 
of the Continent are emphatically Spanish. 
The area and population we have already 
given. The territory is nearly equally di- 
vided between the republics and the em- 
pire, the former having a greater area of 
only 180,060 square miles; but the nine 
republics have an aggregate population of 
5,059,522 more than Brazil. The United 
States has an area of 3,634,797 square 
miles, including Alaska ; but excluding 
Alaska, it has 3,056,797 square miles. The 
area of Brazil is greater than that of the 
United States, excluding Alaska, by 552,- 
363 square miles, and the aggregate area 
of the nine republics is greater by 732,423 
square miles. This comparison of the area 
of the nine republics and of Brazil with 
that of this nation gives a definite idea of 
their magnitude. Geographically, these 
republics occupy the northern, western and 
southern portions of South America, and 
are contiguous. The aggregate exports and 
imports of South America, according to the 
last available data, were $529,300,000; 
those of Brazil, $168,930,000 ; of the nine 
republics, $360,360,000. 

These resolutions will bring out volumi- 
nous correspondence, but we have given the 
reader sufficient to reach a fair understand- 
ing of the subject. Whatever of scandal 
may be connected with it, like the Star 
Route cases, it should await official in- 
vestigation and condemnation. Last of all 
should history condemn any one in ad>. 
vance of official inquiry. None of the 
governments invited to the Congress had 
accepted formally, and in view of obstacles 
thrown in the way by the present adminis- 
tration, it is not probable they will. 

Accepting the proposition of Mr. Blaine 
as stated in his letter to President Arthur, 
as conveying his true desire and meaning, 
it is due to the truth to say that it compre- 
hends more than the Monroe doctrine, the 
text of which is given in President Mon- 
roe's own words in this volume. While he 
contended against foreign intervention with 
the Ilepublics on this Hemisjdiere, he ne- 
ver asserted the right of our government to 
j)articipate in or seek the control either of 
the internal, commercial or foreign policy 
of any of the Republics of America, by ar- 



THE STAR ROUTE SCANDAL, 



277 



bitnition or otlicrwisc. 80 that Mr. Blaine 
irt tlic autlior ot'an advanco iqxm llic jMoii- 
ri)0 (loftriuc, and wliat seems at this time 
a radical advance. What it may he when 
the United States seeks to "spread itstlf" 
by an aggressive foreign poliey, and hy 
aggrandizement of new uvennes of trade, 
jvtssilily new acquisitions of territory, is 
anotlier question. It is a policy brilliant 
lu'vond any examples in our history, and 
a new (le[iarture from the teac-liings of 
Washington, who advised absolute non-in- 
tervention in foreitrn affairs. The new 
doctrine might thrive and acquire great 
popularity under an administration friendly 
to it; but President Arthur has already 
intimated his hostility, and it is now be- 
yond enforcement during his administra- 
tion. The views of Congress also seem to 
be adverse as far as the debates have gone 
into the question, though it has some warm 
friends who may revive it under more favo- 
rable auspices. 



The Star Ronte ScAndal. 

Directly after Mr. James assumed the 
position of Postmaster-General in the 
Cabinet of President Garfield, he disco- 
vered a great amount of extravagance and 
probably fraud in the conduct of the mail 
service known as the Star Routes, author- 
ized by act of Congress to further extend 
the mail facilities and promote the more 
rapid carriage of the mails. These routes 
proved to be very popular in the West and 
South-Avest, and the growing demand for 
mail facilities in these sections would even 
in a legitimate way, if not closely watched, 
lead to unusual cost and extravagance ; but 
it is alleged that a ring was formed headed 
by General Brady, one of the Assistant 
Postmaster-Generals under General Key, 
by which routes were established with the 
sole view of defrauding the Government — 
that false bonds were given and enormous 
and fraudulent sums paid for little or no 
service. This scandal was at its height at 
the time of the assassination of President 
Garfield, at which time Postmaster-General 
James, Attorney-General MacVeagh and 
other officials were rapidly preparing for 
the prosecution of all charged with the 
fraud. Upon the succession of President 
Arthur he openly insisted upon the fullest 
prosecution, and declined to receive the 
r&signation of Mr. MacVeagh from the 
Cabinet because of a stated fear that the 
prosecution would suffer by his withdrawal. 
Mr. MacVea,gh, however, withdrew from 
the Cabinet, believing that the new Presi- 
dent should not by anv circumstance be 
prevented from the official association of 
friends of his own selection ; and at this 
Writing Attorney-General Brewster is push- 
ing the prosecutions. 

On the 24th of March, 1882, the Grand 



[Jury sitting at Washinpfton proHcnted in- 
I dictmentd lor consjjiracy in connection with 
the St;ir Itoute mail service against tlie fol- 
1 lowing named persons: Tiiomas J. Bradv, 
t J. W. Dor^ey, Henry I\I. Vail, .John W. 
l)or-;ev, .John U. Miner, .loliti .\I. Peck, M. 
I". lUrdell, .1. L. Sanderson, \Vm. 11. Tur- 
ner. Also against Alvin < ). Buck, Wm.S. 
Barringcr and .AHxTt K. Itoonc, and airainst 
Kate M. Armstrong lor perjury. 'Jhe in- 
dictment against Brady, I)or-ey and others, 
which is very voluminous, rcciii-s the ex- 
istence, on starch 10, l.ST'.t, of the Post Of- 
fice i)ei>artment, Postma.ster-(ieneral an(i 
three assistants, and aSixth Auditor's office 
and Contract office and division. 
I "To the latter was subject," the indict- 
ment continues, " the arrangement of the 
I mail service of the United States and the 
letting out of the same on contract." It 
then describes the duties of the inspecting 
division. On March 10, 1879, the grand 
jurors represent, Thomas J. Brady was the 
lawful Second Assistant Postma.s"ter-(iene- 
ral engaged in the performance of the du- 
ties of that office. \Villiam H. Turner was 
a clerk in the Second Assistant Postmaster- 
General's office, and attended to the busi- 
ness of the contract division relating to tlie 
mail service over several post routes in Ca- 
lifornia, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska, and 
the Territories. On the 16th of March, 
1879, the indictment represents Thomas J, 
Brady as having made eight contracts with 
John W. Dorsev to carrv the mails from 
July 1. 1878, to'June 80,' 1882, from Ver- 
million, in Dakota Territory, to Sioux Falls 
and back, on a fourteen hour time schedule, 
for $398 each year ; on route from Whito 
River to Rawlins, Colorado, once a week 
of 108 hours' time, for 81,700 a year; on 
route from Garland, Colorado, to Parrott 
City, once a week, on a schedule of 1G3 
hours' time, for $2,743; on route from Ou- 
ray, Colorado, to Los Pinos, once a week, in 
12 hours' time, for $348; on route from Sil- 
verton, Colorado, to Parrott City, twice a 
week, on 3(3 hours' time, for $1,488; on 
route from Mineral Park, in Arizona Ter- 
ritory, to Pioche and back, once a week, in 
84 hours' time, $2,982 ; on route from Trea 
Almos to Clifton and back, once a week, of 
84 hours' time, for $1.5(;8. 

It further sets forth that the Second As- 
sistant Postmastor-General entered into 
five contracts with John R. Miner on June 
13, 1878, on routes in Dakota Territory and 
Colorado, and on March 1"), 1879, with John 
M. Peck, over eight post routes. In the 
space of sixty days after the making of 
tnese contracts thevwere in full force. On 
March 10, 1879, John W. Dorsey, John R. 
^liner, and John M. Peck, with Stophm 
W. Dorsey and Henry M. Vaile, M. G. 
Rerdell and J, L. Sanderson, mutually in- 
terested in these contracts and money, to 
be paid by the United States to the three 



278 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



parties above named, did unlawfully and 
maliciously combine and conspire to I'raud- 
ulently write, sign, and cause to be written 
and signei], a large number of fraudulent 
letters and communications and false and 
fraudulent petitions and applications to the 
Postmaster-General for additional service 
and increase of expenditure on the routes, 
Avliich were purported to be signed by the 
people and inhabitants in the neighborhood 
of the routes, which were filed with the 
papers in the office of the Second Assistant 
Postmaster-General. Further that these 
parties swore falsely in describing the num- 
ber of men and animals required to perform 
the mail service over the routes and States 
as greater than was necessary. 

These false oaths were placed on file in 
the Second Assistant Postmaster-General's 
office; and by means of Wm. H. Turner 
falsely making and writing and endorsing 
these papers, with brief and untrue state- 
meiits as to their contents, and by Turner 
preparing fraudulent written orders for al- 
lowances to be made to these contractors 
and signed by Thomas J. Brady fraudu- 
lently, and for the benefit and gain of all 
the parties named in this bill, the service 
was increased over these routes ; and that 
Brady knew it was not lawfully needed and 
required. That he caused the order for in- 
creasing to be certified to and filed in the 
Sixth Auditor's oflice for fraudulent addi- 
tional compensation. That Mr. Brady gave 
orders to extend the service so as to include 
other and difierent stations than those men- 
tioned in the contract, that he and others 
might have the benefits and profits of it : 
that he refused to impose fines on these 
contracts for failures and delinquencies, but 
allowed them additional pay for the ser- 
vice over these routes. During the conti- 
nuance of these contracts the parties ac- 
quired unto themselves several large and 
excessive sums of money, the property of 
the United States, fraudulently and un- 
lawfully ordered to be paid them by Mr. 
Brndy. 

Tlicse are certainly formidable indict- 
ments. OLhers are pending against persons 
in riuladelphia and other cities, who are 
chaTfred with complicity in these Star Route 
I'rauds, in giving straw bonds, &c. The 
Star Iloute service still continues, the Post 
Oificc Department under the law having 
Ecnt out several thousand notifications this 
year to cfintractors, informing them of the 
official acceptance of their proposals, and 
some of these contractors are the same 
nyiTicd above as under indictment. This 
well ex'iinplifies the maxim of the law re- 
lative to innocence until guilt be shown. 



The Comlnp; States. 

Bills arc pending before Congress for the 
admission of Dakota, Wyoming, New 



Mexico and Washington Territories. The 
Bill for the admission of Dakota divides 
the old Territory, and provides that the 
new State shall consist of the territory in- 
cluded within the following boundaries : 
Commencing at a ])oint on the west line 
of the State of Minnesota where the forty- 
sixth degree of north latitude intersects the 
same; thence south along the west boun- 
dary lines of the States of Minnesota and 
Iowa to the point of intersection with the 
northern boundary line of the State of 
Nebraska ; thence westwardly along the 
northern botmdary line of the State of 
Nebraska to the twenty-seventh meridi.'in 
of longitude west from Washington ; thence 
north along the said twenty-seventh degree 
of longitude to the forty-sixth degree of 
north latitude ; to the place of beginning. 
The bill provides for a convention of one 
hundred and twenty delegates, to be chos-en 
by the legal voters, who shall adoj^t the 
United States Constitution and then pro- 
ceed to form a State Constitution and gov- 
ernment. Until the next census the State 
shall be entitled to one representative, who, 
with the Governor and other ofiicials, shall 
be elected ui)on a day named by the Con- 
stitutional Convention. The report tets 
apart lands for school jmriioses, and gives 
the State five per centum of the proceeds 
of all sales of pviblie lands within its limits 
subsequent to its admission as a State, ex- 
cluding all mineral lands from being thus 
set apart for school purposes*. It provides 
that portion of the the Territory not in- 
cluded in the pro])oscd new State thall 
continue as a Territory under the name of 
the Territory of North Dak(,ta. 

The proposition to divide comes from 
Senator McMillan, and if Congress sus- 
tains the division, the portion admitted 
would contain 100,000 inhabitants, the en- 
tire estimated population being 175,000 — a 
number in excess of twenty of the present 
States when admitted, exclusive i,{ the 
original thirteen ; while the division, which 
shows 100,000 inhabitants, is still in excess 
of sixteen States when admitted. 

Nevada, with less than Gr;,000 popula- 
tion, was admitted before the close Presi- 
dential election of 1876, and it may be said 
that her majority of 1,075, in a total poll 
of 19,091 voks, decided the Presidential 
result in favor of Hayes, and these votes 
counteracted the plurality of nenrly 300,000 
received by Mr. Tilden elsewhere. This 
fact well illustrates the power of States, as 
States, and however small, in controlling 
the afl'airs of the country. It also accounts 
for the jealousy with whii'h closely balanced 
political parties watch the incoming States. 

Population is but one of the considera- 
tions entering into the question of admit- 
ting territories. State sovereignty does not 
rest upon population, iis in the make-up 
of the U. S. Senate neither population, 



TUE STAR ROUTE SCANDAL. 



279 



size, nor resources arc takon into account. 
Rliodc IsIjhkI, the sniallfst of all the 
8tiite.H, and New York, the j,^reat Enijjire 
State, with over r),(l()(),()0O of iniiabitunts, 
stiind ui)OU an equality in the conservative 
hraneh of the Government. It is in the 
House of Renreseiitatives tliat the popula- 
ti'in is considered. Such is the jealousy 
of the hirger States of their rei)resentation 
in the U. S. Senate, that few new ones 
w>)u!d be admitted without long and con- 
tinuous knocking if it were not for partisan 
interest-;, and yet where a fair number of 
pe )])le demand State (lovernment there is 
no ju-it c;iuse for denial. Yet all questions 
of population, natural divibion, area and 
resources should be given their proper 
weight. 

The area of the combined territories — 
Utah, Wasliington, New Mexico, Dakota, 
Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and 
Indian is about 1)00,000 square miles. We 
exclude Alaska, whicii has uot been sur- 
veyed. 

Indian Territory and Utah are for some 
years to come excluded from admission — 
the one being reserved to the occupancy 
of tlie Indians, while the other is by her 
peculiar institution of polygamy, generally 
thrown out of all calculation. And yet it 
may be ibmul that polygamy can best be 
made amenable to the laws by the corapul- 
Bory admission of Utah as a State — an idea 
entertained by not a few who have given 
consideration to the question. Alaska may 
also be counted out for many years to come. 
There are but 30,000 inhabitants, few of 
these permanent, and Congress is now con- 
sidering a ])etition for the establishment of 
a territorial government there. 

Next t ) Dakota, New Mexico justly 
claims admission. The lands comprised 
within its original area were acquired from 
Mexico, at the conclusion of the war with 
that country, by the treaty of Guadalu{)e 
Hidalgo in 1848, and by act of September 
9, ISoO, a Territorial government was or- 
ganized. By treaty of December 30, 1853, 
the region south of the Gila river — the 
Gadsden purch:vse, so called — was ceded by 
Mexico, and by act of August 4, 1854, 
added to the Territory, which at that time 
included within its limits the present Ter- 
ritory of Arizona. Its prayer for ailmis- 
siou was brought to the serious attention 
of Congress in 1874. The bill was pre- 
sented in an able speech by Mr. Elkins, 
then delegate from the Territory, and had 
the warm support of many membei's. A 
Viill to admit was also introduced in the 
Senate, and passed that body February 25, 
1875, by a vote of thirty -two to eleven, two 
of the present members of that body, 
Messrs. Ingalls and Windom, being among 
its supporters. The matter of admission 
came up for final action in the House at 
the same session, just prior to adjournment, 



and a motion to suspend the rules, in order 
to j)Ut it upon its limil passage, was lost by 
a vote of one hundred and lilty-four to 
eighty-seven, and the earnest clforts to hc- 
curo the admission of New Mexico were 
thus defeated. A bill for its julmissiou is 
now a^ain before Congress, and it is a mat- 
ter of interest to note the represcntatioiiH 
as to the condition of the Territory then 
made, ami the facts jis tlicy now exist. It 
has, according to tiic census of 1880, a 
I)opulation of 119,5(>5. It had in 1870 a 
population of 91,874. It was claimed by 
the more moderate advocates of the bill 
that its population then numbered ].'}5,000 
(15,435 more than at present), while others 
placed it as high as 145,000. Of this pop- 
ulation, 45,000 were said to be of American 
and European descent. It was stated by 
Senator Hoar, one of the opponents of the 
bill, that, out of an illiterate population of 
52,220, by far the larger part were native 
inhabitants of Mexican or Spanish origin, 
who could not speak the English language. 
Tliis statement seems to be in large degree 
confirmed by the census of 1880, which 
shows a total native white population of 
108,721, of whom, as nearly as can be as- 
certained, upward of 80 per cent, are not 
only illiterates of Mexican and Spanish 
extraction, but as in 1870, speaking a for- 
eign language. The vote for Mr. Elkins, 
Territorial Delegate in 1875, was rei)orted 
as being about 17,000. The total vote in 
1878 was 18,806, and in 1880, 20,397, show- 
ing a comparatively insignificant increase 
from 1875 to 1880. 

The Territory of Washington was con- 
stituted out of Oregon, and organized as a 
Territory by act of March 2, 1853. Its 
population by the census of 1880 was 75,- 
116, an increase from 23,055 in 1870. Of 
this total, 59,313 are of native and 15,803 
of foreign nativity. Its total white popu- 
lation in the census year was 67,119; Chi- 
nese, 3,186; Indian, 4,105; colored, 326, 
and its total present population is probably 
not far from 95,000. Its yield of precious 
metals in 1880, and for the entire period 
since its development, while showing re- 
sources full of promise, has been much less 
than thatof any other of the organized Ter- 
ritories. Its total vote for Territorial Dele- 
gate in 1880, Avhile exceeding that of the 
Territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Wyo- 
ming, was but 15,823. 

The Territory of Arizona, organi.-'.ed out 
of a portion of New Mexico, and provided 
with a territcH'ial government in 18(13, con- 
tains al)out 5,000,000 acres less than the 
Territory of New Mexico, or an acreage 
exceeded by that of only five States and 
Territories. Its total population in 1870 
was 9,(558, and in 1880, 40,440, 351,60 of 
whom wore whites. Of its total population 
in the census year, 24,391 were of native 
and 16,049 of foreign birth, the number of 



280 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



Indians, Chinese, and colored being 
6,000. 

Idaho was originally a part of Oregon, 
from which it was separated and provided 
with a territorial government by the act of 
March 3, 1863. It embraces in its area a 
little more than 55,000,000 acres, and had 
in 1880 a total population of 32,610, being 
an increase from 14,999 in 1870. Of this 
population, 22,636 are of native and 9,974 
of foreign birth ; 29,013 of the total inhabi- 
tants are white, 3,379 Chinese and 218 In- 
dians and colored. 

The Territory of Montana, organized by 
act of May 26, 1864, contains an acreage 
larger than that of any other Territory save 
Dakota. While it seems to be inferior in 
cereal producing capacity, in its area of 
valuable grazing lands it equals, if it does 
not excel, Idaho. The chief prosperity of 
the Territory, and that which promises for 
it a future of growing importance, lies in 
its extraordinarj'- mineral wealth, the pro- 
ductions of its mines in the year 1880 hav- 
ing been nearly twice that of any other 
Territory, with a corresponding excess in 
its total production, which had reached, 
on June 30, 1880, the enormous total of 
over $53,000,000. Its mining industries 
represent in the aggregate very large in- 
vested capital, and the increasing products, 
•with the development of new mines, are 
attracting constant additions to its popula- 
tion, which in 1880 showed an increase, as 
compared with 1870, of over 90 per cent. 
For particulars see census tables in tabu- 
lated history. 

Wyoming was constituted out of the 
Territory of Dakota, and provided with 
territorial government July 25, 1868. Ly- 
ing between Colorado and Jilontana, and 
adjoining Dakota and Nebraska on the 
east, it partakes of the natural characteris- 
tics of these States and Territories, having 
a fair portion of land suitable for cultiva- 
tion, a large area suitable for grazing pur- 
poses, and a wealth in mineral resources 
whose development, although of recent be- 
ginning, has already resulted in an en- 
couraging yield in precious metals. It is 
the fifth in area. 

Henry Randall Waite, in an able article 
in the March number of the International 
Review (1882,) closes with these interest- 
ing paragraphs: 

'It will be thus seen that eleven States 
organized from Territories, when author- 
ized to form State governments, and the 
same number when admitted to the Union, 
had fi-ee populations of less than 60,000, 
and that of the slave States included in 
this number, seven in all, not one had the 
required number of free inhabitants, either 
when authorized to take the first steps to- 
W!ird admission or when finally admitted ; 
and that both of these stejia were taken by 
two of the latter States with a total popu- 



lation, free and slave, below the required 
number. Why so many States have been 
authorized to form State governments, and 
have been subsequently admitted to the 
Union with populations so far below the 
requirements of the ordinance of 1787, and 
the accepted rules for subsequent ac- 
tion may be briefly explained as follows; 
1st, by the ground for the use of a wide 
discretion atlbrded in the provisions of the 
ordinance of 1787, for the admission of 
States, when deemed expedient, before 
their population should equal the required 
number; and 2d, by the equally wide dis- 
cretion given by the Constitution in the 
words, 'New States may be admitted by 
Congress into this Union,' the only provi- 
sion of the Constitution bearing specifical- 
ly upon this subject. Eflbrts have been 
made at various times to secure the strict 
enforcement of the original rules, with the 
modification resulting from the increase 
in the population of the Union, which pro- 
vided that the number of free inhabitants 
in a Territory seeking admission should 
equal the number established as the basis 
of representation in the apportionment of 
Representatives in Congress, as determined 
by the preceding census. How little suc- 
cess the efforts made in this direction have 
met, may be seen by a comparison of the 
number of inhabitants forming the basis of 
representation, as established by the dif- 
ferent censuses, and the free population of 
the Territories admitted at corresponding 
periods. 

"At this late date, it is hardly to be ex- 
pected that rules so long disregarded will be 
made applicable to the admission of the 
States to be organized from the existing 
Territories. There is, nevertheless, a 
growing disposition on the part of Con- 
gress to look with disfavor upon the forma- 
tion of States whose population, and the 
development of whose resources, render 
the expediency of their admission ques- 
tionable; and an increasing doubt as to 
the propriety of so dividing the existing 
Territories as to multiply to an unneces- 
sary extent the number of States, with the 
attendant increase in the number of Repre- 
sentatives in the National Legislature. 

"To recapitulate the facts as to the pre- 
sent condition of the Territories with re- 
ference to their admission as States, it may 
be said that only Dakota, Utah, New 
Mexico and Washington are in possession 
of the necessary pojmlation according to 
the rule requiring 60,000 ; that only the 
three first named conform to the rule de- 
manding a population equal to the present 
basis of representation ; that only Dakota, 
Utah and Washington give evidence of 
that intelligence on the part of their in- 
hiibitants which is essential to the proper 
exenise, under favorable conditions, of the 
extended rights of citizenship, and of that 



THE CHINESE QUESTION, 



281 



prog;rP9S in the development of their re- 
sources \vhieh makes srlf-irovoruniciit cs- 
Hoiiti;(l, sale, or in any way desirable; and 
tliat only Dakota can be said, urnnK-stion- 
ably, to possess all of the requirements 
wbieh, by the dictates of a sound poliey, 
should be demanded of a Territory at this 
tiine seekinjj: admission to the rnion. 

" Whatever the re.spon-^e to the Terri- 
torial me^sengei-s now waiting at the doors 
of Con<;ress, a few years, at most, will 
bring an an-^wer to their prayers. The 
stars of a dozen proud and prosperous 
States will soon be added to those already 
blazoned upon the blue tield of the Union, 
and the term Territory, save as aj^plied to 
the frozen regions of Alaska, will disappear 
frum lb'.' map of the United States." 



TIic Clilncsc Q,nrstton. 

Since 1S77 the agitation of the prohibi- 
tion of Chinese immigration in California 
and other States and Territories on tlie 
Pacific slope has been very great. This led 
to many scenes of violence and in some 
iu'^tances bloodshed, when one Dennis 
Kearney ledthe Workitigmen'sparty in San 
Francisco. On this issue an agitator and 
preacher named Kalloch w;is elected 
Mayor. The issue was carried to the Leg- 
islatui'e, and in the vote on a constitu- 
tional amendment it was found that not 
onlv the labor but nearly all classes in 
California were opposed to the Chinese. 
The constitutional amendment did not 
meet the sanction of the higher courts. A 
bill wa-! introduced into Congress restrict- 
ing Chin-'se immigrants to fifteen on each 
vessel. This passed both branches, but was 
vetoed by President Hayes on the ground 
that it was in violation of the spirit of 
treaty stipulations. At the sessions of 
1881-82 a new and more radical measure 
was introduced. This prohibits immigra- 
tion to Chinese or Coolie laborers for twen- 
ty years. The discussion in the U. S. 
Senate began on the 28th of February, 
1882, in a speech of unusual strength by 
Senator John F. Miller, the author of the 
Bill. From this we freely quote, not alone 
to show the later views entertained by the 
people of the Pacific slope, but to give 
from the lips of one who knows the lead- 
ing facts in the history of the agitation. 



Abstracts from the Text of Senator 
Miller's Speecli. 

On hUi Bill to Prohibil Chinese Immigrniinn, 

In the Senate, Feb. 2Sth, 1882, Mr. 
Miller said : 

" This measure is not a surprise to the 
Senate, nor a new revelation to the 
country'. It has been before Congrcs.s 
more than once, if not in the precise form 



in which it is now presented, in .substance 
the same, and it has passed the ordeal of 
analytical debate an<l received the atlirma- 
tive vote of both Houses. Kxcept Ibr the 
Executive veto it would have been long 
ago the law of the land. It is again pre- 
seiiteil, not oidy un<hT circumstances u.s 
imperative in their demands for its enact- 
ment, but with every objeetion of the veto 
ri'niove(l and every argument madeagain-!t 
its approval swept away. It isan interest- 
ing fact in the history of this mea-ure, that 
tlie ai tion which has cleared its way of the 
impediments which were made the reasons 
for the veto, was inaugurated and consum- 
mated with splendid pcrsistancc and en- 
ergy by the same administration wdiose ex- 
ecutive interposed the veto against it. 
Without stof)ping to inquire into the mo- 
tive of the Hayes administration in this 
proceeding, whether its action was in obe- 
dience to a conviction that the measure 
was in itself right and expedient, or to a 
public sentiment, so strong and universal 
as to demand the utmost vigor in the di- 
plomacy necessary for the removal of all 
impediments to its progress, it must be ap- 
parent that the result of this diplomatic 
action has been to add a new phase to the 
question in respect of the adoption of the 
measure itself. 

" In order to fully appreciate this fact it 
may be proper to indulge in historical 
reminiscence for a moment. For many 
years complaints had been made against 
the introduction into the United States of 
the peculiar people who come from China, 
and the Congress, after careful considera- 
tion of the subject, so far appreciated the 
evil complained of as to pass a bill to in- 
terdict it. 

" The Executive Department had, prior 
to that action, with diplomatic finesse, ap- 
proached the imperial throne of China, 
with intent, as was said, to ascertain 
whether such an interdiction of cor)lie im- 
portation, or immigration so called, into 
the United States would be regarded as a 
breach of friendly relations with China, 
and had been informed by the dijdomat, to 
whom the delicate task had been com- 
mitted, that such interdiction would not be 
favorably regarded by the Chinese (rovern- 
ment. Hence, when Congress, with sur- 
prising audacity, passed the bill of inter- 
diction the Executive, believing in the 
truth of the information given him, thought 
it prudent and expedient to veto the bill, 
but immediately, in pursuance of authority 
granted by Congress, he appointed three 
commissioners to negotiate a treaty by 
which the con.sent of China should be 
given to the interdiction proposed by 
Congress. The.sc commissioners appeared 
before the Government of China upon tliis 
spcci:il mission, and presented the request 
of the Government of the United States 



282 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



afBrmativcly, positively, and auihorita- 
tively inade, aud after the usual diplomatic 
cereiuonies, representations, misrepresenta- 
tions, avowals, and concealments, the 
treaty was made, the concession granted, 
and the interdiction agreed u])on. This 
treaty was presented here and ratified hy ■ 
the Senate, with what unanimity Senators 
know, and which the rules ol' the Senate 
forbid me to describe. 

"The new phase of this question, which 
we may as well consider in the outset, sug- 
gests the spectacle which this nation should 
present if Congress were to vole this or a 
similar measure down. A great nation 
cannot afford inconsistency in action, nor 
betray a vacillating, staggering, incon- 
stant policy in its intercourse with other 
nations. No really great people will pre- 
sent themselves before the world through 
their government as a nation irresolute, 
fickle, feeble, or petulant; one day eagerly 
demamling of its neighbor an agreement 
or concession, which on the next it ner- 
vously repudiates or casts aside. Can we 
make a solemn request of China, through 
the pomp of an extraordinary embassy and 
the ceremony of diplomatic negotiation, 
and with prudent dispatch exchange ratifi- 
cations of the treaty granting our request, 
and within less than half a year af;er such 
exchange is made cast aside the concession 
and, with childish irresolution, ignore the 
whole proceeding? Can we afford to make 
such a confession of American imbecility 
to any oriental power? The adoption of 
this or some such measure becomes neces- 
sary, it seems to me, to the intelligent and 
consistent execution of a policy adopted by 
this Government under the sanction of a 
treaty w'th another great nation. 

" If the Executive department, the Sen- 
ate, and the House of Representatives 
have all understood and appreciated their 
own action in respect of this measure ; if 
in the negotiation and ratification of the 
new treaty with China, the Executive and 
the Senate did not act without thought, in 
blind, imonsiderate recklessness — and we 
knew thc}'^ did not — if the Congress of the 
United Spates in the passage of the fifteen 
p.assengcr bill had the faintest conception 
of what it was doing — and we know it had 
— then the policy of this Government in 
respect of so-called Chinese iuimigration 
has been authoritatively settled. 

"This pro])osition is submitted with the 
greater confidence because the action I 
have described was in obedience to, and in 
harmony with, a public sentiment which 
seems to have permeated the whole coun- 
try. For the evidence of the existence of 
such a sentiment, it is only necessary to 
produce the declarat'ons upon this subject 
of the two great historical )iarties of the 
country, deliberately made bv the'r na- 
tional conventions of 1880. One of these 



(the Democratic convention) declared that 
there shall be— 

" ' No more Chinese immigration except 
for travel, education, and foreign com- 
merce, and therein carefully guarded.' 

"The other (the Eepublican) convention 
declared that — 

" ' Since the authority to regulate immi- 
gration and intercourse between the United 
States and foreign nations rests with Con- 
gress, or with the United States and its 
treaty-making power, the Eejiublican 
party, regarding the unrestricted immi- 
gration of the Chinese as an evil of great 
magnitude, invokes the exercise of these 
powers to restrain and limit the immigra- 
tion by the enactment of such just, hu- 
mane, and reasonable provisions as will 
I>ri ducc that result.' 

" These are the declarations of the two 
groat political parties, in whose rimks are 
enrolled nearly all the voters of the United 
States ; and whriever voted at the last 
Presidential election voted for the adop- 
tion of the principles and policy expressed 
by those declarations, whether he voted 
with the one or the other of the two great 
])arties. Both candidates for the Presidency 
were pledged to the adoption and execu- 
tion of the policy of restriction thus de- 
clared by their respective parties, and the 
candidate who Avas successful at the polls, 
in his letter of acceptance, not only gave 
expression to the sentiment of his party 
and the country, but with a clearness and 
conciseness which distinguished all his ut- 
terances upou great public questions, gave 
the reasons for that public sentiment." He 
said : 

" ' The recent movement of the Chinese 
to our Pacific Coast partakes but little of 
the qualities of an immigration, either in 
its purposes or results. It is too much 
like an importation to be welcomed with- 
out restriction ; too much like an invasion 
to be looked upon without solicitude. We 
cannot consent to allow any form of servile 
labor to be introduced among us under the 
guise of immigration.' 

" In this connection it is proper also to 
consider the probable eflect of a failure or 
refusal of Congress to pass this bill, upon the 
introduction of Chinese coolies into the 
United States in the future. An adverse 
vote upon such a measure, is an invitation 
to the Chinese to come, It would be in- 
terpreted to mean that the Government of 
the United States had reversed its policy, 
and is now in favor of the unrestricted im- 
])ortation of Chinese; that it looks with 
favor upon the Chinese invasion now in 
lirogress. It is a fact well known that the 
iiostility to the infiux of Chinese upon the 
Pacific coast disj)layed by the people of 
California has oj)erated as a restriction, 
aud has discouraged the importation of 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



283 



Chinese to such a degree that it is prohabU' I 
tliat there are not a tentli pari tlie number I 
of Chinese in the country tliere would ' 
have been had this detirinined hostility 
never boeu shown. Despite tiie inliospi- 
talitv, not to say resistance, of the Cali- 
fornia j)eople to the Chinese, sometimes 
while waiti:\>;; for the action of the General 
G )vernnu'nt diiiicult to restrain within the 
bounds of pi'aceable Jissertion, they have 
poured through the Golden Gate in con- 
stantly iiicri-ased nuiubers during tlie j)ast 
year, tiie total uuiuber *)f arrivals at .San 
Francise:) alone during 1881 being 18,r)Gl. 
Nearly t\v > ntontlis have elaj)scd since the 
1st of Jaiuiary, uiul tlicre have arrived, as 
the n,jw;paners show, about four th(nisand 
more. 

"The defeat of this measure now is a 
shout of welcome across the Pacific Ocean 
to a myriad host of these strange people to 
come and occupy the land, and it is a re- 
buke to the American citizens, who have 
so 1 )ng stiod guard upon the western shore 
of this continent, and who, seeing the dan- 
ger, h ive with a fortitude and forbearance 
most admirable, raised and maintained the 
only barrier agiinst a stealthy, strategic, 
but peaeef il invasion as destructive in its 
results and more potent for evil, than an 
invasion by an army with banners. An 
adverse vote now, is to commission under 
the broad seal of the United States, all the 
speculators in hum in labor, all the im- 
porters of human muscle, all the traffickers 
in liumau llesh, to j)ly their infamous trade 
with')ut impediment under the protection 
of the Americ.in Hag, and em])ty the teem- 
ing, seething slave pens of China upon the 
soil of Calilbrnia! I forbear further spec- 
ulation upon the results likely to How from 
such a vot \ for it ])resents pictures to the 
mind which one would not willingly con- 
template. 

"These couslderation3 which I have 
presented ou^ht to be. it seems to me, de- 
cisive of the action of the Senate upon this 
mevsure; and I should regard the argu- 
ment as close! did 1 not know, that there 
still remain those v/ho do not consider the 

Question as settled, and who insist upon 
urthor in [u;ry into the reasons f )ra policy 
of restriction, as applied to the Chinese. I 
am n')t one of th).se who would place the 
consi.leration of consistency or mere ap- 
pearances above consideration of right or 
justice ; but since no change has taken 
place in our relations with China, nor in 
our domestic concerns wdiich renders a re- 
versal of the action of the government 
proper or necessary, I insist that if the 
measure of re friction was right and good 
policy whei Congress passed the fifteenth 
passenger bill, and when the late treaty 
with China was negotiated and ratified, it 
is ri'zht and expedient now. 

"This measure had its origin in Cali- 



fornia. It has been |)ress('d witli (^reat 
vigor by the Kepresentativi-s of the I'acilio 
coast in Congress, for many yeai"s. It had 
not been urged with wild vehement decla- 
mation by tliouglitless men, at the behest 
of an ignorant untliinking, prejudiced con- 
stituency. It has been supported by in- 
controvertible fact and passionless rea.son- 
ing and enforced by the hjgic of events. 
Behind these Ki'presentatives was an in- 
telligent, conscientious public sentiment — 
universal in a constituency as hom-st, gen- 
erous, intelligent, courageous, and humane 
as any in the llepnblic. 

'■ It had been said that the atlvocatc.s of 
Chinese restriction were to be found only 
among the vicious, unlettered foreign ele- 
ment of California society. To show the 
fact in respect of this contention, the Leg- 
islature of California in 1878 provided for 
a vote of the people ui)on the question of 
Chinese immigration (so called) to be had 
at the general election of 1879. The vote 
was legally taken, without excitement, and 
the resp(mse wa;< general. When the bal- 
lots were counted, there were ibund to be 
8S;{ votes for Chinese immigration and 
ir)4,6:58 against it. A similar vote w.'ls tak- 
en in Nevada and resulted as follows: 183 
votes for Chinese immigration and 17,259 
votes against. It has been said that a 
count of noses is an ineffectual and illusory 
method of settling great que-tions, but this 
vote of these two States settled the conten- 
tion intended to be settled; and demon- 
strated that the peojile of all others in the 
United States who know most of the 
Chinese evil, and who are most competent 
to judge of the necessity for restriction are 
jiractically unanimous in the support of 
this measure. 

" It is to be supposed that this vote of 
California was the eflect of an hysterical 
spasm, which had suddenly seized the 
minds of 154,000 voters, representing the 
sentiment of 800,000 people. For nearly 
thirty years this people had witnessed the 
ellect of coolie importation. For more than 
a quarter of a century these voters had 
met face to face, considered, weighed, and 
discussed the great question upon which 
they were at last called ujjon, in the most 
solemn and deliberate manner, to express 
an opinion. I do not cite this extraordinary 
vote aa a conclusive argument in favor of 
Chinese restriction ; but 1 pre-ent it as an 
important fact sugge.stive of argument. It 
may be that the people who liave been 
brought face to face with the Chinese in- 
vasion are all wrong, and that those who 
liave seen nothing of it, who have but 
heard something of it, are more competent 
(being disinterested) to judge of its pos- 
sible, probable, and actual etlects, than 
those who have had twenty or thirty years 
of actual continuous experience and con- 
tact with the Chinese colony in America; 



284 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



and it may be that the Chinese question is 
to be settled upon considerations other 
than those practical common sense reasons 
and principles which form the basis of po- 
litical science. 

" It has sometimes happened in dealing 
with great questions of governmental 
policy tiiat sentiment, or a sort of emotional 
inspiration, has seized the minds of those 
engaged in the solution of great problems, 
by which they have been lilted up into the 
ethereal height-^ of moral abstraction. I 
trust that while we attempt the path of in- 
quiry in this instance wo shall keep our 
feet firmly upon the earth. This question 
relates to this planet and the temporal 
government of some of its inhabitants; it 
is of the carih earthly; it involves prin- 
ciples of economic, social, and political 
science, rather than a question of morals ; 
it is a question of national policy, and 
should be subjected to philosophical analy- 
sis. Moreover, the question is of to-day. 
The conditions of the world of mankind at 
the present moment are those with which 
we have to deal. If mankind existed now 
in one grand co-operative society, in one 
universal union, under one system of laws, 
in a vast homogeneous brotherhood, 
serenely beatified, innocent of all selfish 
aims and unholy desires, with one visible 
temporal ruler, whose judgments should 
be justice and whose sway should be eter- 
nal, then there would be no propriety in 
this measure. 

" But the millennium has not yet begun, 
and man exists now, as he has existed 
always — in the economy of Providence — 
in societies called nations, separated by 
the peculiarities if not the antipathies of 
race. In truth the history of mankind is 
for the most part descriptive of racial con- 
flicts and the struggles between nations for 
existence. By a perfectly natural process 
these nations have evolved distinct civ- 
ilizations, as diverse in their characteristics 
as the races of men from which they have 
sprung. These may be properly grouped 
into two grand divisions, the civilization 
of the East and the civilization of the 
West. These two great and diverse civiliza- 
tions have finally met on the American 
shore of the Pacific Ocean. 

" During the late depression in busi- 
ness affairs, which existed for three or four 
years in California, while thousands of 
white men and women were walking the 
streets, begging and pleading for an oppor- 
tunity to give their honest labor for any 
wages, the great steamers made their regu- 
lar arrivals from China, and discharged 
at the wharves of San Francisco their ac- 
customed cargoes of Chinese who were 
conveyed through the city to the distribu- 
ting dens of the Six Companies, and with- 
in three or fi')ur days after arrival every 
Chioamaa was in his place at work, and 



the white people unemployed still went 
about the streets. This continued until 
the white laboring men rose in their des- 
peration and threatened the existence of 
the Chinese colony when the infiux was 
temporarily checked ; but now since busi- 
ness has revived, and the pressure is re- 
moved, the Chinese come in vastly in- 
creased numbers, the excess of arrivals over 
departures averaging about one tlu usand 
per month at San Francisco alone. The 
importers of Chinese had no difficulty in 
securing openings for their cargoes now, 
and when transportation from California 
to the Eastern States is cheapened, as it 
soon will be, they will extend iheir opera- 
tions into the Middle and Eastern States, 
unle-s prevented by law, for wherever 
there is a white man or woman at work 
for wages, whether at the shoe bench, in 
the factory, or on the farm, there is an 
opening for a Chinaman. No n;atter how 
low the wages may be, the Chin::njan can 
afford to work for still lower wages, and if 
the competition is free, he will ti.ke the 
white man's place. 

" At this point we are met by the query 
from a certain class of political econo- 
mists, 'What of it? Suppose the Chinese 
work for lower wages than white men, is 
it not advantageous to the country to em- 
ploy them ? ' The first answer to such 
question is, that by this process white men 
are supplanted by Chinese. It is a sub- 
stitution of Chinese and their civilization 
for white men and Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
tion. This involves considerations higher 
than mere economic theories. If the Chi- 
nese are as desirable as citizens, if they 
are in all the essential elements of man- 
hood the peers or the superiors of the Cau- 
casian ; if they will protect American in- 
terests, foster American .institutions, and 
become the patriotic defenders of republi- 
can government ; if their civilization does 
not antagonize ours nor contaminate it; if 
they are free, independent men, fit for 
liberty anel self-government as European 
immigrants generally are, then we may 
begin argument upon thequestion whether 
it is better or worse, wise or unwise, to 
permit white men, American citizens, or 
men of kindred races to be supplanted 
and the Chinese to be substittited in their 
places. Until all this and more can be 
shown the advocates of Chinese importa- 
tion or immigration have no base upon 
which to even begin to build argument. 

"The statistics of the manufacture of 
cigars in San Fiancisco are still more sug- 
gestive. This business was formerly car- 
ried on exclusively by white people, many 
hundreds finding steady and lucrative em- 
ployment in that trade. I have here the 
certified statement fiom the office of the 
collector of internal revonue at San Fran- 
cisco, showing the number of white people 



THE ClIINKSE QUESTION. 



285 



and Chinese, relatively, employed on the 
Ist of" November last in the uianufaeture 
of cigars. The statement ia as I'ollowa : 

Number of white men emj)loye(l 41).'} 

Number ot white women employed. 17U 

Total whites iW.] 

Number of Chinese employed 5 l^ii 

" The f;uts of this statement were eare- 
fully ascertained by three deputy eollee- 
tors. The Han Francisco Assembly of 
Trades certify that there are 8,2G') Cliinoe 
employed in iaumlries. It is a well-known 
fact that white women who formerly did 
tliis work have been quite driven out of 
that employment. The same authority 
certifies that the number of Chinese now 
employed in the manufacture of clothing 
in San Francisco, is 7,510, and the num- 
ber of wliites so employed is 1,000. In 
many industries the Chinese have entirely 
supplanted the white laborers, and thou- 
sands of our white people have quit Cali- 
fornia and soui^ht immunity from this 
grindiui^ C'Mupetition in other and better- 
favored regions." 

"If you would 'secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity,' 
there must be some place reserved in 
wliicli, and upon which, posterity can exist. 
Whar will the blessings, of liberty be worth 
to posterity if you give up the country to 
the Chinese? If China is to be the breed- 
ing-ground for peopling this country, what 
chanco of American posterity? We of 
this age hold tliis land in trust for our race 
and kindred. We hold republican govern- 
ment and free institutions in trust for 
American posterity. That trust ought not 
to be betraved. If the Chinese should in- 
vade the Pacific coast with arms in their 
hands, whit a magnificent spectacle of 
martial resistance would be presented to a 
startled world ! The mere intimation of 
an attempt to make conquest of our west- 
ern shore by force would rouse the nation 
to a frenzy of enthusiasm in its defense. 
For years a peaceful, sly, strategic con- 
quest has been in progress, and American 
statesmanship has been almost silent, until 
the people have demanded action. 

" The land which is being overrun by 
the orient'il invader is the fairest portion 
of our heritage. It is the land of the vine 
and the fig tree; the home of the ornnze, 
the olive, and the pomegranate. Its winter 
is a perpetu il sprinsr, and its summer is a 
golden harvest. There the northern jnne 
peacefully swavs against the southern palm ; 
the tender azalea and the hardy rose min- 
gle their sweet perfume, and the tropic 
vine encircles the sturdy oak. Its valleys 
are rich and glorious with luscious fruits 
and waving grain, and its lofty 



MuiintiilDH like t;lnnt9 8tnn>t, 
Tu B<,-utiiiul tbu vuciiuuuxl l.tnd 

" I would see its fertile j)lains, iu so- 
(juestered vales, its vine-clad hiiis, its deep 
blue canons, its furrowed mountain-sides, 
dotted all over with American honjew — 
the h(nnes of a free, happy people, reso- 
nant with the sweet voices of fiaxcn-haired 
eiiildren, and ringing with the joyous 
laughter of maiden fair — 

.Soft o-i lior cliiiio, auJ sunny lu lior Bklea — 

like the homes of New Enghmd ; vet 
lirigliter and better far shall be the hon'jes 
which are to Ite builded in tiiat wonih-r- 
land by tlie sunset sea, the homes of a race 
from which shall spring 

The (iDWor of mon, 
To serve as modfl fir tlict mighty world, 
Auii be the fair bi'ginuiiig uf u timo." 



Reply of Senator Geo. F. Hoar. 

Senat(jr Hoar, of Massachusetts, replied 
to Senator Miller, and presented the sup- 
posed view of the Eastern States in a mas- 
terly manner. The ftj)eech covered twenty- 
eight {)amphlet pages, and w;us referred to 
by the newspaper as an efll'ort equal to 
some of the best by Charles Sumner. We 
make liberal extracts from-the text, as fol- 
lows : 

" Mr. President : A hundred years 
ago the American people founded a nation 
upon the moral law. They overthrew by 
force the authority of their sovereign, and 
separated themselves from the country 
which had planted them, alleging as their 
justification to mankind certain j)roposi- 
tions which they held to be self-evident. 

" They declared — and that declaration 
is the one foremost action of human his- 
tory — that all men equally derive from 
their Creator the right to the pursuit of 
happiness; that equality in the right to 
that pursuit is the fundamental rule of the 
divine justice in its application to man- 
kind ; that its security is the end for which 
governments are formed, and its destruc- 
tion good cause why governments should 
be overthrown. For a hundred years this 
principle has been held in honor. Under 
its beneficent ojioratinn we have grown al- 
most twenty-fold. Thirteen States have 
become thirty-eight; three million have 
become fifty million ; wealth and comfort 
and education and art have flonrisjied 
in still larger proportion. Every twenty 
vears there is added to the valutition of 
this country a wealth enonirh to buv the 
whole German Empire, with its buildings 
and its ships and its invested property. 
This has been the magnet that has drawn 
immigration hither. The human stream, 
hemmed in by banks invisible but impassa- 
ble, does not turn toward Mexico, which 
can feed and clothe a world, or South 
America^ which can feed and clothe a hun- 



2SG 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



dred worlds, but seeks only that belt of 
States where it finds tliis law in operation. 
The marvels of comfort and happiness it 
has wrought for us scarcely surpass what 
it has done for other countries. The im- 
migrant sends back the message to those 
he has left behind. There is scarcely a 
nation in Eurojjc west of Russia which has 
not felt the force of our example and whose 
institutions are not more or less slowly ap- 
proximating to our own. 

" Every new State as it takes its place in 
the great family binds this declaration as a 
frontlet upon its forehead. Twenty-four of 
the States, including California herself, 
declare it in the very opening sentence of 
their constitutions. The insertion of the 
phrase ' the pursuit of happiness,' in the 
enumeration of the natural rights for secur- 
ing which government is ordained, and the 
denial of which constitutes just cause for 
its overthrow, was intended as an explicit 
affirmation that the right of every human 
being who obeys the equal laws to go 
everywhere on the surface of the earth 
that his welfare may require is beyond the 
rightful control of government. It is a 
birthright derived immediately from him 
who ' made of one blood all nations of 
men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and hath determined the times be- 
fore appointed and the bounds of their habi- 
tation.' He made, so our fathers held, of 
one blood all the nations of men. He gave 
them the whole face of the earth whereon 
to dwell. He reserved for himself by his 
agents heat and cold, and climate, and 
soil, and water, and land to determine the 
bounds of their habitation. It has long 
been the fashion in some quarters, when 
honor, justice, good faith, human rights 
are appealed to, and especially when the 
truths declared in the opening sentences of 
the Declaration of Independence are in- 
voked as guides in legislation to stigmatize 
those who make the appeal as sentimenta- 
lists, incapable of dealing with practical 
affiiirs. It would be easy to demonstrate 
the falsehood of this notion. The men who 
erected the structure of tliis Government 
were good, practical builders and knew 
well the quality of the corner-stone when 
they laid it. When they put forth for 
the consideration of their contemporaries 
and of posterity the declaration which they 
thought a decent respect for the opinions 
of mankind required of them, they weighed 
carefully the fundamental proposition on 
which their immortal argument rested. 
Lord Chatham's famous sentence will bear 
repeating again : 

When your lordships look at the 
papers transmitted to us from America, 
when you consider their decency, firmness, 
and wisdom, you cannot but respect their 
cause and wish to make it your own. For 
myself I must declare and avow that in all 



my reading and observation — and it has 
been my favorite study, I have read 
Thucydides, and have studied and admired 
the master states of the world — that for 
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
wisdom of conclusion, under such a com- 
plication of difficult circumstances, no na- 
tion or body of men can stand in preference 
to the general Congress assembled at 
Philadelphia. 

The doctrine that the pursuit of happi- 
ness is an inalienable right with which men 
are endowed by their Creator, asserted by 
as religious a people as ever lived at the 
most religious period of their history, pro- 
pounded by as wise, practical, and far- 
sighted statesmen as ever lived as the vin- 
dication for the most momentous public 
act of their generation, was intended to 
commit the American people in the most 
solemn manner to the assertion that the 
right to change their homes at their plea- 
sure is a natural right of all men. The doc- 
trine that free institutions are a monopoly 
of the favored races, the doctrine that op- 
pressed people may sever their old alle- 
giance at will, but have no right to find a 
new one, that the bird may fly but may 
never light, is of quite recent origin. 

California herself owing her place in our 
Union to the first victory of freedom in the 
great contest with African slavery, is 
pledged to repudiate this modern heresy, 
not only by her baptismal vows, but by 
her share in the enactment of the statute 
of 1868. Her constitution read thus until 
she took Dennis Kearney for her law- 
giver : 

We, the people of California, grateful to 
Almighty God for our freedom, in order to 
secure its blessings, do establish this con- 
stitution. 

PECLARATION OF EIGHTS. 

Section 1. All men are by nature free 
and independent, and have certain inalien- 
able rights, among which are those of enjoy- 
ing and defending life and liberty, acquir- 
ing, possessing, and defending property, 
and pursuing and obtaining safety and 
happiness. 

* -X- * * * * * 

Sec, 17. Foreigners who are or who 
may hereafter become bona fide residents 
of this State, shall enjoy the same rights in 
respect to the possession, enjoyment, and 
inheritance of property, as native born 
citizens. 

In the Revised Statutes, section 1999, 
Congress in the most solemn manner de- 
clare that the right of expatriation is be- 
yond the lawful control of government: 

Sec. 1999. Whereas the right of expa- 
triation is a natural and inherent right of 
all people, indispensable to the enjoyment 
of the rights of life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness; and 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



287 



Whereas in the rocognitinn nf thN prin- 
ci[)le this Ctoveriiinent has freely received 
eiiiigriiiits from all nations, and invcsteil 
them with the rights of eiti/enshii). 

This is a re-enaetment, in part, of the 
statute of l><t)S, of whieh Mr. Conncss, 
then a California Senator, of Irish binh, 
wa.s, if not the author, the ehief advocate. 

The Calif)rnia Senator called up the 
bill ilay after day. The bill originally 
provided that the President might order 
the arrest and detention in custody ol 
" any subject or citi/x'n of such foreign 
government" as should arrest and detain 
any naturalized citizen of the United 
States under the claim that he still re- 
mxiried subject to his allegiance to his na- 
tive sovereign. This g.ave rise to debate. 

But there was no controversy about the 
part of the bill which I have read. The 
preainble is a.s follows: 

WlieretLs the right of expatriation i.s a 
nituril and inherent right of all people, 
indispensable to the enjoyment of the 
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, for the protecfion of which the 
CTi)vern;nent of the United States was es- 
tablished ; and whereas in the recogni- 
tion of this principle this Government has 
freely received emigrants from all nations 
and veste 1 them with the rights of citizen- 
ship, &\ 

Mr. Howard declares that — 

The absolute right of expatriation is the 
great leading American principle. 

Mr. Morton says: 

That a man's right to withdraw from his 
native country and make his home in an- 
other, and thus cut himself oft from all 
connection with his native country, is a 
part of his natural liberty, and without 
that his liberty is defective. We claim 
that the right to liberty is a natural, in- 
herent, God-given right, and his liberty is 
iaiperfect unless it carries with it the right 
of expatriation. 

The bill containing the preamble above 
recited passed the Senate by a vote of 3'.) 
to 5. 

The United States of America and the 
Emperor of China cordially recognize the 
inherent and inalienable right of man to 
change his home and allegiance, and also 
the mutual advantage of the free migra- 
tion and emigration of their citizens and 
subjects respectively from the one country 
to the other f )r purposes of curiosity, of 
trade, or a- permanent residents. 

"The bill which passed Congrcf^s two 
years ago and was vetoed bv President 
Hayes, the tr -ity of 18S1, and the bill now 
before th ■ Senate, have the same origin 
and arc p.arts of the same measure. Two 
years agi it was proposed to exclude C'hi- 
nose laborers from our border-;, in exrross 
disregard of our solemn trenty obliga'i ms. 
This measure was arrested by Pre side at 



Hayes. The treaty of ISSl cxtorteil from 
unwilling China her consent th:it we might 
regul.ite, limit, or suspend the coming of 
Chinese laborers into this ((»untrv a ron- 
.seiit of whiih it is proposed by tiiis bill to 
take advantage. This is entitled " A bill 
to enforce treaty stipulations with Chi- 
na." 

" It .«eem3 necessary in diseussing the 
statute briefly to review the hist<<ry of the 
treaty. First let me say that the title of 
this bill is deceptive. There is no stipu- 
lation of the treaty which the bill enforces. 
The bill where it is not inconsistent with 
the compact only avails it.<elf of a orivi- 
lege whieh that concedes. China only re- 
laxed the liurlingame treaty .so liir a.s to 
permit us to ' regulate, limit, or suspend 
the coming or residence' of Chinese la- 
borers, 'but not absolutely to prohibit it.' 
The treaty expressly declares 'such limi- 
tation or suspension shall be reasonable.' 
iJut here is proposed a statute whieh for 
twenty years, under the severest penalties, 
absolutely inhibits the coming of Chinese 
laborers to tiiis country. The treaty j>ledge3 
us not ab.solutely to prohibit it. The bill 
is intended absolutely to prohibit it. 

" The second article of the treaty is this : 

" Chinese .subjects, whether procecling to 
the United States as traders, students, or 
merchants, or from curiosity, together with 
their body and hou-jehold servants, and 
Chinese laborers, who are now in tlie Uni- 
ted States, shall be allowed to go and come 
of their own free will and accord, and 
shall be accorded all the rights, privileges, 
immunities, and exemptions which are ac- 
corded to the citizens and subjects of the 
most favored nations. 

" Yet it is difficult to believe that the com- 
plex and cumbrous pa.ssport system pro- 
vided in the last twelve sections of the bill 
was not intended a.s an evasion of this 
agreement. Upon what other nation, fa- 
vored or not, is such a burden imposed? 
This is the execution of a promise that 
thev may come and go 'of their own free 
will.' 

" What has happened within thirteen 
years that the great Rejiublic should strike 
its flag? What change has come over us 
that we should eat the bravest and th(> tru- 
est words we ever spoke? From L^oSto 
1880 there was added to the population of 
the country 42,000 Chinese. 

" I give "a table from the census of 18S0 
.showing the Chinese population of each 
State : 

Sfnfrrjienf nhnwiixfj the Chinese population 
in each Sfafr, and Territori/, accord itifj to 
the United Stata censuses of 1870 and of 
1880. 

.\labama 1 

Alaska 

Arizona 20 1,630 



288 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Arkansas 98 134 

Calilornia 49,310 75,025 

Colorado 7 (JlO 

Connecticut 2 124 

Dakota 238 

Delaware 1 

District of Culunibia 3 13 

Florida 18 

Georgia 1 17 

Idaho 4,274 3,378 

Illinois 1 210 

Indiana 33 

Iowa 3 47 

Kansas 19 

Kentucky 1 10 

Louisiana 71 481 

Maine 1 9 

ilaryland 2 5 

Massachusetts 97 237 

Michigan 2 27 

Minnesota o3 

Misssissippi It) 52 

Missouri 3 94 

Montana 1,949 1,764 

Nebraska 18 

Nevada 3,152 5,420 

New Hamp.'-hirc 14 

New Jersey 15 176 

NewMexico 65 

New York 29 924 

North Carolina 

Ohio 1 114 

Oregon 3,330 9,513 

Pennsylvania 14 160 

Rhode Island 27 

South Carolina 1 9 

Tennessee 26 

Texas 25 141 

Utah 445 501 

Vermont 

Virginia 4 6 

Washington 234 3,182 

West Virginia 14 

Wisconsin 16 

Wyoming 143 914 

Total 63,254 105,463 

" By the census of 1880 the number of 
Chinese in this country was 105,000 — one 
five-hundredth part of the whole popula- 
tion. The Chinese are the most easily 
governed race in the world. Yet every 
Chinaman in America has four hundred 
and ninety-nine Americans to control him. 

The immigration was also constantly de- 
creasing for the last half of the decade. 
The Bureau of Statistics gives the num- 
bers as follows, (for the first eight years the 
figures are those of the entire Asiatic im- 
migration :) 

The number of immigrants from Asia, 
as reported by the United States Bureau 
of Statistics is as follow.s, namely: 

1871 7.236 

1872 7,825 

1873 20,326 



1874 13,857 

1875 16,498 

1^76 22,943 

1877 10,640 

1878 9,014 

Total 108,339 

And from China for the year ended 
June 30 — 

1879 9,604 

1680 5,802 

Total 15,406 

Grand Total 123,745 

" See also, Mr. President, how this class 
of immigrants, diminishing in itself, di- 
minishes still more in its proportion to the 
rapidly increasing numbers who come 
from other lands. Against 22,943 Asiatic 
immigrants in 1876, there are but 5,802 in 
1880. In 1878 there were 9,014 from Asia, 
in a total of 153,207, or one in seventeen 
of the entire immigration ; and this in- 
cludes all persons who entered the port of 
San Francisco to go to any South American 
country. In 1879 there were 9,G04 from 
China in a total of 250,565, or one in 
twenty-six. In 1880 there were 5,802 from 
China in a total immigration of 593,359, or 
one in one hundred and two. The whole 
Chinese population, then, when the cen- 
sus of 1880 was taken, was but one in five 
hvuidred of our people. The whole Chinese 
immigration was but one in one hundred 
and two of the total immigration ; while 
the total annual immigration quadrupled 
from 1878 to 1880, the Chinese was in 
1880 little more than one-half what it was 
in 1878, and one-fourth what it was in 1876. 

" The number of immigrants of all 
nations was 720,045 in 1881. Of these 
20,711 were Chinese. There is no record 
in the Bureau of Statistics of the number 
who departed within the year. But a very 
high anti-Chinese authority places it above 
10,000. Perhaps the expection that the 
hostile legislation under the tret:ty would 
not affect persons who entered before it 
took effect stimulated sonuwhr.t their 
coming. But the addition to the Chinese 
population was less than one seventy- 
second of the whole immigration. All 
the Chinese in the country do not exceed 
tlie population of its sixteenth city. All 
the Chinese in California hardly turpasa 
the number which is easily governed in 
Shanghai by a police of one hundred men. 
There are as many pure blooded Gypsies 
wandering about the country as there are 
Chinese in California. What an ins-ult to 
American intelligence to ask leave of 
China to keep out her people, because 
this little handful of almond-eyed Asiatica 
threaten to destroy our boasted civiliza- 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



289 



tion. Wc go boasting of our democracy, 
arid our siiporir)rity, and our strciij^th. Tlio 
flag bears the stars of liopo to all nations. 
A hundiXHl tliousiind t'liinose land in 
California and cverythini;; is cliani:;o(l. (iod 
has not nia<le of one blood all the nations 
any longer. Tiio self-evident truth be- 
comes a self-evident lie. The golden rule 
does not a;)j)ly to the natives of the con- 
tinent where it w;is first uttered. The 
Unitctl i^t ites surrender to China, the He- 
publie to the despot, America to Asia, Jesus 
to Joss. 

" There is another most remarkable ex- 
ample of this prejudice of race which has 
happily almost died out here, which has 
come down from the dark ages and which 
survives with unabated ferocity in Eastern 
Europe. I mean the hatred of the Jew. 
The persecution of the Hel)rew hii-s never, 
80 far as I know, taken the form of an 
affront to labor. In every other particular 
the reproaches which for ten centuries 
have been leveled at him are roprodui-ed 
to do service against the Chinese. The 
Hebrew, so it was said, was not a Chris- 
tian. He did not affiliate or assimilate 
into the nations where he dwelt. lie was 
an unclean thin^, a dog, to whom the 
crime of the crucihxion of his Siviour was 
never to be forgiven. The Chinese quar- 
ter of San Francisco had its type in every 
city of Europe. If the Jew ventured from 
his hiding-place he was stoned. His 
wealth made him the prey of the rapacity 
of the noble, and his poverty and weakness 
the victim of the rabble. Yet how has this 
Oriental conquered Christendom by the 
sublimity of his patience? Tlie great poet 
of New Enecland, who sits by every Ameri- 
can fireside a beloved and perpetual gues*:, 
in that masterpiece of his art, the Jewish 
Cemetery at Newport, has described the 
degradation! and the triumph of these per- 
secuted children of God. 

How came they here? What burst of Christian hate, 

What persecutiou, merciless and Mind, 
Druve o'er the sea — tliat desert desolate — 

Those Ishinaels and llagars of mankind ? 
They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure, 

Ghi^lto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire; 
Tangiit in the schoul of patience to endino 

The life of anguish and the death uf fire. 

Anathema maranatha! was the cry 

That rung from town to town, from street to street; 
At erery pate the ai-cnrs'^d Mordi-cai 

Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet. 

Pride and humiliation hand in hand 

Walked with them through the world where'er they 
went ; 
Trampled and beaten were they as the sand, 

And yet unshaken as the coutineDU 

Forty years ago — 
Says Lord Bcaconsfield, that great Jew 
who held England in the hollow of his 
hand, and who phiyed on her aristoeraey 
as on an organ, who made himself the 
master of an alien nation, ita ruler, its 

19 



Oracle, and through it, and in de.spite of it, 

for a time the master of Europe^ 

Forty years ago — not a longer period 
thiin the children of Jyr.'i<.'l were wamlering 
in the desert — the two most (lislionored 
races in I'ilnrope were the Attie and the He- 
brew. The world has probably by thi.s. 
discovered that it is iinposiible to destroy 
the Jews. The attenij)t to extirj'ate theut 
has been made under the most favorable- 
auspices and on the largest S'ule ; the most 
considerable means that man could com- 
mand have been pcrtin.iciously ai){)lied to 
this object for the longest period of re- 
corded time. Egy})tian Pharaohs, Asfiyri.ia 
kings, Roman emj)erors, Scandinavian 
crusaders, Cothic princes, and holy iiKjui- 
sitors, have alike devoted their energies to- 
the fulfillment of this common j)urj)0:ie. 
Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation, 
torture on the mo-st ingenious and massa- 
cre on the most extensive scale, a curiou.* 
sy.stem of degrading customs and debasing- 
laws which would have broken the heart 
of any other people, have been tried, and 
in vain. 

" Lord Beaconsfield admits that the Jews, 
contribute more than their proportion to 
the aggregate of the vile; that the lowest 
class of Jews are obdurate, malignant, 
odious, and revolting. And yet this race- 
of dogs, as it has been often termed in 
scorn, furnishes Europe to-day its masters 
in finance and oratory and statesmanship- 
and art and music, llachel, Mozart, Men- 
delssohn, Disraeli, Rothschild, Benjamin, 
Heine, are but samples of the intellectual 
power of a race which to-day controls the^ 
finance and the press of Europe. 

" I do not controvert the evidenee which 
is relied upon to show that there are groat 
abuses, great dangers, great offenses, which 
have grown out of the coming of this ]>co- 
ple. Much of the evil I believe might be 
cured by State and municipal authority. 
Congress may rightfully be called upon to 
go to the limit of the just exercise of the 
powers of government in rendering its aid. 

*' We should have capable and vigilant 
consular officers in the Asiatic ports from 
which these immigrants come, without 
whose certificate they should not be re- 
ceived on board ship, and who should see 
to it that no person excejit those of good 
character and no person whose labor is not 
his own property be allowed to come over. 
Especiallv should the trade in human 
labor under all disguises be suppressed. 
Filthy habits of living niu-t surely be with- 
in the control of municipal reeulati(m. 
Every State may by legislation or by muni- 
cipal onlinance in its towns and cities pre- 
.seribc the dimension of dwellings and limit 
the number who may occupy the same 
t.'iiemcnt. 

"But it is urcred — and this in my judg- 
ment is the greatest argument for the bill— 



290 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



that the introduction of the labor of the 
Chinese reduces the wages of the American 
hiborer. ' We are ruined by Chinese cheaj) 
labor " is a cry not limited to the class to 
whose representative the brilliant humor- 
ist of California first ascribed it. I am not 
in favor of lowering any where the wages 
of any American labor, skilled or unskilled. 
On the contrary, I believe the maintenance 
and the increase of the purchasing power 
of the wages of the American working man 
should be the one principal object of our 
legislation. The share in the product of 
agriculture or manufacture which goes to 
hibor should, and I believe will, steadily 
increase. For that, and for that only, ex- 
ists our protective system. The acquisition 
of wealth, national or individual, is to be 
desired only for that. The statement of 
the accomi)lished Senator from California 
on this point meets my heartiest concur- 
rence. I have no sympathy with any men, 
if such there be, who favor high protection 
and cheap labor. 

" But I believe that the Chinese, to whom 
the terms of the California Senator attri- 
bute skill enough to displace the American 
in every field requiring intellectual vigor, 
will learn very soon to insist on his full 
share of the product of his work. But whe- 
ther that be true or not, the wealth he cre- 
ates will make better and not worse the con- 
dition of every higher class of labor. There 
may be trouble or failure in adjusting new 
relations. But sooner or later every new 
class of industrious and productive labor- 
ers elevates the class it displaces. The 
dread of an injury to our labor from the 
Chinese rests on the same fallacy that op- 
posed the introduction of labor-saving ma- 
chinery, and which opposed the coming of 
the Irishman and the German and the 
Swede. Within my memory in New Eng- 
land all the lower places in factories, all 
places of domestic service, were filled by 
the sons and daughters of American farm- 
ers. The Irishmen came over to take their 
places; but the American farmer's son and 
daughter did not suffer ; they were only 
elevated to a higher plane. In the in- 
creased wealth of the community their 
share is much greater. The Irishman rose 
from the bog or the hovel of his native land 
to the comibrt of a New England home, 
and placed his children in a New England 
school. The Yankee rises from the loom 
and the spinning-jenny to be the teacher, 
the skilled laborer in the machine shop, the 
inventor, the merchant, or the opulent 
landholder and farmer of the West. 



A letter from F. A. Bee, Chinese Con- 
sul, approving the management of the es- 
tate, accompanied the report of the re- 
feree : 

"Mr. President, I will not detain the 



Senate by reading the abundant testimony, 
of which this is but the sample, of the pos- 
session by the people of this race or the 
possibility of a development of every qua- 
lity of intellect, art, character, which fits 
them for citizenship, for republicanism, for 
Christianity. 

" Humanity, capable of infinite depths 
of degradation, is capable also of infinite 
heights of excellence. The Chinese, like 
all other races, has given us its examples 
of both. To rescue humanity from this 
degradation is, we are taught to believe, the 
great object of God's moral government on 
earth. It is not by injustice, exclusion, 
caste, but by reverence for the individual 
soul that we can aid in this consummation. 
It is not by Chinese policies that China is 
to be civilized. I believe that the immor- 
tal truths of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence came from the same source with the 
Golden Rule and the Sermon on tha 
Mount. W^e can trust Him who promul- 
gated these laws to keep the country safe 
that obeys them. The laws of the universe 
have their own sanction. They will not 
fail. The power that causes the compass 
to point to the north, that dismisses the 
star on its pathway through the skies, pro- 
mising that in a thousand years it shall re- 
turn again true to its hour and keep His 
word, will vindicate His own moral law. 
As surely ns the path on which our fathers 
entered a hundred years ago led to safety, 
to strength, to glory, so surely will the 
path on which we now propose to enter 
bring us to shame, to weakness, and to 
peril." 

On the 3d of March the debate was re- 
newed. Senator Farley protested that un- 
less Chinese immigration is prohibited it 
will be impossible to protect the Chinese 
on the Pacific coast. The feeling against 
them now is such that restraint is difficult, 
as the people, forced out of employment by 
them, and irritated by their constantly in- 
creasing numbers, are not in a condition to 
submit to the deprivations they sufl'er by 
the presence of a Chinese population im- 
ported as slaves and absorbing to their own 
benefit the labor of the country. A remark 
of Mr. Farley about the Chinese led Mr. 
Hoar to ask if they were not the inventors 
of the printing press and of gunpowder. 
To this question Mr. Jones, of Nevada, 
made a brief speech, which was considered 
remarkable, princiiially because it was one 
of the very few speeches of any length that 
he has made since he became a Senator. 
Instead of agreeing with Mr. Hoar that the 
Chinese had inv-ented the printing press 
and gunpowder, he said that information 
he had received led him to believe that the 
Chinese were not entitled to the credit of 
either of these inventions. On the con- 
trary, they had stolen them from Aryans or 
Caucasians who wandered into the king- 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



291 



dom, Mr. Iloar smiled incredulously and 
made a remark to the cH'uct thai he had 
never heard of those Aryans or Caucasians 
before. 

C'ontinulng his remarks, Mr. Farley ex- 
pressed his belief that should the Mongo- 
lian population increase and the Chinese 
come in contact with the Africans, the con- 
tact would result in tlenioralization and 
bloodshed which the laws could not pre- 
vent, rig-tailed Chinamen would take tiie 
place every where of the working girl unless 
Congress extend(Hl its])rotcctiou to C!alili)r- 
nia and her white people, who had by their 
votes demaiuk'd a ]jrohibition of Chinese 
immigration. i\Ir. Maxiy, interpreting the 
Constitution in such a way as to bring out 
of it an argument against Chinese immi- 
gration, said he found nothing in it to jus- 
tify the conclusion that the framera of it 
intended to bring into this country all na- 
tions and races. The only people the 
fathers had in view as citizens were those 
of the Caucasian race, and they contempla- 
ted naturalization only for such, for they 
had distinctly set forth that the heritage of 
freedom was to be for their posterity. No- 
body would pretend to express the o[>inion 
that it was"expected that the American peo- 
ple should become mixed up with all sorts 
of races and call the result " our posterity." 
While the American people had, in conse- 
quence of their Anglo-Saxon origin, been 
ible to withstand the contact with the Af- 
rican, the Africans would never stand be- 
fore the Chinese. Mr. Maxey opposed the 
Chinese because they do not come here to 
be citizens, because the lower classes of 
Chinese alone are immigrants, and because 
by contact they poison the minds of the less 
intelligent. 

Mr. Saulsbury had something to say in 
favor of the bill, and ]\Ir. Garland, who vo- 
ted against the last bill because the treaty 
had not been modified, expressed his belief 
that the Government could exercise proper- 
ly all the powers proposed to be bestowed 
bv this bill. Some time was consumed by 
Mr. Ingalls in advocacy of an amendment 
offered by him, proposing to limit the sus- 
pension of immigration to 10 instead of 
20 years. Mr. Miller and Mr. Bayard op- 
posed the amendment, Mr. Bayard taking 
the ground that Congress ought not to dis- 
regard the substantially unanimous wish of 
the people of California, as expressed at 
the polls, fir absolute prohibition. The 
debate wa.s interrupted by a motion for an 
executive session, and the bill went over un- 
til Monday, to be taken up then as the un- 
finished business. 

On March Gth a vote was ordered on 
Senator Ingalls' amendment. It was de- 
feated on a tie vote — yeas 23, nays 23. 

The vote in detail is as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Cockrell, Conger, Davis of Illinois, 



Dawes, Ivlmunds, Frj'e, Harris, Hoar, In- 
galls, Jackson^ Laphain, McDill, McMil- 
lan, Mitchell, Morrell, Saunders, Sewcll, 
Sherman and Teller — 23. 

Nays— Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Came- 
ron of Wisconsin, Coke, Fair, Farlcv, Gar- 
land, CJeorge, Hale, Hampton, Hill of 
('olora<lo, Jonas, .Jones of Nevada, Mc- 
riiersoii, ^larcy, Jlillerof California. Mil- 
ler of New York, Morgan, liansom, Slater, 
Vest and Walker— 23. 

I'airs were announced between Davis, of 
West Virginia, Saulsbury, Butler, .John- 
son, Kellogg, .Jones, of Floriila, and Grover, 
against the amendment, and Messrs. Win- 
dom. Ferry, Hawley, Blatt, I'ugh, Rollins 
ami Van \Vyck in the allirmative. !Mr 
Camden was also paired. 

Mr. Edmunds, partially in reply to Mr. 
Hoar argued that the right U) decide what 
constitutes the moral law was one inherent 
in the Crovernment, and by analogy the 
right to regulate the character of the peo- 
jile who shall come into it belonged to a 
Government. Thisdepended uj)on nation.al 
polity and the fact as to most of the ancient 
republics that they did not possess homo- 
geneity was the cause of their fall. As to 
the Swiss Republic, it was untrue that it 
was not homogeneous. The ditlerence 
there was not one of race but of dillerent 
varieties of the same race, all of Avhich are 
analogous and consistent with each other. 
Jt would not be contended that it is an 
advantage to a republic that its citizens 
should be made of diverse races, with di- 
verse views and diverse obligations as to 
what the common prosperity of all required. 
Therefore there was no foundation lor the 
charge of a violation of moral and public 
law in our making a distinction as to the 
foreigners we a<lmit. He challenged !Mr. 
Hoar to jiroduce an authority on national 
law which denied the right of one nation 
to declare what people of other nations 
should come among them. John Hancock 
and Samuel Adams, not unworthy citizens 
of Massachusetts, joined in asserting in the 
Declaration of Independence the right of 
the colonies to establish for themselves, 
not for other peoples, a Government of 
their own, not the Government of some- 
body else. The declaration asserted the 
family or consolidated rigiit of a peoply 
within any Territory to determine the con- 
ditions upon which they would go on, an I 
this included the matter of receiving the 
people from other shores into their family. 
This idea was followed in the Constitution 
by requiring naturalization. The China- 
man mav be with us, but he is not of us. 
One of the conditions of his naturalization 
is that he must be friendly to the institu- 
tions and intrinsic polity of our Govern- 
ment. Upon the theory of the Massachu- 
setts Senators, that there is a universal 
oneness of one human being with every 



292 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



other human "being on the globe, this tra- 
ditional and fundamental principle was 
entirely ignored. Such a theory as applied 
to Government was contrary to all human 
experience, to all discussion, and to every 
step of the founders of our Government. 
lie said that Mr. Sumner, the predecessor 
of Mr. Hoar, was the author of the law on 
the coolie trafEc, which imposes tines and 

{penalties more severe than those in this 
)ill upon any master of an American ves- 
'sel carrying a Chinaman who is a servant. 
The present bill followed that legislation. 
Mr. Edmunds added that he would vote 
against the bill if the twenty-year clause 
was retained, but would maintain the 
soundness of principle he had enunciated. 
Mr. Hoar argued in reply that the right 
of expatriation carried with it the right to 
a home for the citizen in the country to 
which he comes, and that the bill violated 
not only this but the principles of the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments 
which made citizenship the birthright of 
every one born on our soil, and prohibited 
an abridgement of the sutirage because of 
race, color, etc. 

Mr. Ingalls moved an amendment post- 
poning the time at which the act shall take 
eiiect until sixty days after information 
of its passage has been communicated to 
China. 

After remarks by Messrs. Dawes, Teller 
and Bayard, at the suggestion of Mr. Brown 
Mr. Ingalls modified his amendment by 
providing that the act shall not go into 
effect until ninety days after its passage, 
and the amendment was adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Bayard, amendments 
•were adopted making the second section 
read as follows : " That any master of any 
vessel of whatever nationality, who shall 
knowingly on such vessel bring within the 
jurisdiction of the United States and per- 
mit to be landed any Chinese laborer, " &c. 

Mr. Hoar moved to amend by add- 
ing the following: "Provided, that this 
bill shall not apply to any skilled laborer 
who shall establish that he comes to this 
country without any contract beyond which 
his labor is the property of any person be- 
sides himself " 

Mr. Farley suggested that all the Chinese 
would claim to be skilled laborors. 

Mr. Hoar replied that it would test 
whether the bill struck at coolies or at 
skilled labor. 

The amendment was rejected — ^Yeas, 17 ; 
nays, 27. 

Mr. Call moved to strike out the section 
which forfeits the vessel for the oflense of 
the master. Lost. 

Mr. Hoar moved to amend by inserting: 
" Provided that any laborer who shall re- 
ceive a certificate from the U. 8. Consul at 
the port where he shall embark that he is 
an artisan coming to this country at his 



own expense and of his own will, shall not 
be affected by this bill." Lost — yeas 19, 
nays 24. 

On motion of Mr. Miller, of California, 
the provision directing the removal of any 
Chinese unlawfully found in a Customs 
Collection district by the Collector, was 
amended to direct that he shall be removed 
to the place from whence he came. 

On motion of Mr. Brown an amendment 
was adopted providing tliat the mark of a 
Chinese immigrant, di^y attested by a 
witness, may be taken as his signature 
upon the certificate of resignation or regis- 
tration issued to him. 

The question then recurred on the 
amendment offered by Mr. Farley that 
hereafter no State Court or United States 
Court shall admit Chinese to citizenship. 
Mr. Hawley, of Conn., on the following 
day spoke against what he denounced as 
" a bill of iniquities." 

On the 9th of March what proved a long 
and interesting debate was closed, the 
leading speech being made by Senator 
Jones (Rep.) of Nevada, in favor of the 
bil'. After showing the disastrous effects 
of the influx of the Chinese upon the Pa- 
cific coast and answering some of the argu- 
ments of the opponents of restriction, Mr. 
Jones said that he had noticed that most 
of those favoring Chinese immigration 
were advocates of a high tariff to protect 
American labor. But, judging from indi- 
cations, it is not the American laborer, but 
the lordly manufacturing capitalist who is 
to be protected as against the European 
capitalist, and who is to sell everything he 
has to sell in an American market, one in 
which other capitalists cannot compete 
with him, while he buys that which he has 
to buy — the labor of men — in the most 
open market. He demands for the latter 
free trade in its broadest sense, and would 
have not only free trade in bringing in la- 
borers of our own race, but the Chinese, 
the most skilful and cunning laborers of 
the world. The laborer, however, is to 
buy from his capitalist master in a protec- 
tive market, but that Avhich he himself has 
to sell, his labor, and which he must sell 
every day (for he cannot wait, like the 
capitalist, for better times or travel here 
and there to dispose of it), he must sell in 
the openest market of the world. When 
the artisans of this country shall be made 
to understand that the market in which 
they sell the only thing they have to sell 
is an open one they will demand, as one of 
the conditions of their existence, that they 
shall have an open market in which to buy 
what they want. As the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Dawes) said he wanted 
the people to know that the bill Mas a blow 
struck at labor, Mr. Jones said he reitera- 
ted the assertion with the qualifK atioa 
that it was not a blow at our own, but at 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



293 



unflcrpaid pauper labor. That cheap Labor 
j)r()Jui;es national wealth is a fallaey, a-t 
shown by the home eoiiditioa ol' the 350,- 
UUO.OOO of Chinamen. 

" Was the hrinj^inj^ of the little brown 
man a sort of eounler hahiiiee to the trades 
unions of this country? If he may l)e 
liroii'^ht here, whv may not the products 
of his toil cime in? Now, when the la- 
borer is allowed to get that share from his 
labor that civilization h;us decided he shall 
have, the little brown man is introduced. 
He (Mr. Jones) believed in protection, 
and had no prejudice against the capital- 
ist, but he would have capital and labor 
equally protected. Eidarj^ing upon the 
consideration that the intelligence or crea- 
tive genius of a country in overcoming ob- 
stacles, not itvS material resources, consti- 
tutes its wealth, and that the low wages of 
the Chinese, while benefiting individual 
employers, would ultimately impoverish 
the country by removing the stimulant to 
create labor-saving machinery and like in- 
ventions. Mr. Jones spoke of what he 
called the dearth of intellectual activity iu 
the South in every dej^artment but one, 
that of politics. 

" This was because of the presence of a 
servile race there. The absence of South- 
ern names in the Patent Office is an illus- 
tration. We would not welcome the 
Africans here. Their ijresence was not a 
ble-ssing to us, but an imi)edimcnt in our 
way. The relations of the white and 
colored races of the South were now no 
nearer adjustment than they were years 
ago. He would prophesy that the African 
race would never be permitted to dominate 
any State of the South. The experiment 
to that end had been a dismal failure, and 
a failure not because we have not tried to ; 
make it succeed, but because laws away 
above human laws have placed the one 
race superior to and far above the other. 
The votes of the ignorant class might pre- 
ponderate, but intellect, not numbers, is 
the superior force in this world. "We 
clothed the African in the Union blue and 
the belief that he was one da}' to be free 
was the candle-light in his soul, but it is 
one thing to aspire to be free and another 
thing to have the intelligence anil sti'rli:ig 
qualities of character that can maintain 
free government. Mr. Jones here ex- 
pressed bis belief that, if left alone to main- 
tain a government, tiie negro would gradu- 
ally retrograde and g > back to tlie me*^!! ods 
of his ancest )rs. This, he added, may be 
here-;y, but I believe it to be the truth. If, 
^Yhen the first shipload of African slaves 
came to this cainrry the belief had spread 
that they would be the cau-^c of political 
agitation, a civil war, and the future had 
been fore-een, would they have been al- 
lowed to land? 

How much of this country would now 



' be worth preserving if tlie North had been 
coveretl by Africans as is South (Carolina 
I to-day, in vi«'W of tlieir non-a.ssiMnlative 
} cliaracter? The wisest policy would have 
been to exclude them at the outset. So 
we say of the Chinese to-day, he exclaim- 
ed, and for greater reason, becausr- tlieir 
skill makes them more formidable compe- 
titors than the negro. Subtle ami adeiit 
in manipulation, the Ciiinaman can oe 
jiut into almost any kind of a factory. His 
race is as obnoxious to us and as impossi- 
ble lor us to assimilate with as was tiie 
' negro race. His race has outlived every 
I other because it is homogeneous, and for 
that reason alone. It has imj)osed its re- 
ligion and peculiarities upon its conqucr- 
, orsandstill lived. If the immigration is 
not checked now, when it is within man- 
ageable limits, it will be too late to check 
it. What do we find in the condition of 
the Indian or the African to induce us to 
admit another race into our midst? It is 
because the Pacific coast favor our own 
civilization, not that of another race, that 
they discourage the coming of these pco- 
i i)le. They believe in the homogeneity of 
j our race, and that upon this depends the 
progress of our institutions and everything 
on which we build our hopes. 

]\Ir. Morrill, (Rep.) of Vt., said he ap- 
jireciated the necessity of restricting Chi- 
nese immigration, but desired that the bill 
should strictly conform to treaty require- 
ments and be po perfected that questions 
arising under it might enable it to pass 
the ordeal of judicial scrutiny. 

Mr. Sherman, (Rep.) of Ohio, referring 
to the passport S3'stem, said the Idil adopt- 
ed some of the most offensive features of 
European despotism. He was aven-e to 
hot haste in applying a policy foreign to 
the habits of our peojde, and regarded the 
measure as too sweeping in many of its 
]>rovisions and as reversing our immigra- 
tion p(dicy. 

After remarks by Messrs. Ingalls, Far- 
ley, Maxey, Brown and Teller, the amend- 
ment of Mr. Farley, wdiich provides that 
hereafter no court shall admit Chinese to 
cit'zcnship, was adopted — yeas 25, nays 22. 

The following is the vote : 

Yeas — ^Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Cam- 
eron of Wisconsin, Cockrell, Coke, Fair, 
Farley, Garland, George. Gorman, Harris, I 
Jackson, Jonas, Jones of Nevada, Maxey, 
Morgan, Pugh, Ransom, Slater, Teller, 
Vance, Vest, Voorhees and AValker — 25. 

Nays — Messrs. Aldrich, Allison. Blair, 
Brown, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawes, 
Edmunds, Frye, Hale, Hill of Colorado, 
Hoar. Ingalls', Lapham, McDill. McMil- 
lan, Miller of New York, Mitchell, ."Mor- 
rill, Plumb, Saundere and Sawyer — 22. 

'Mr. (Jrover's amendment construing the 
words " Chinese laborei-s," wherever used 
in the act, to mean both skilled and un- 



294 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



skilled laborers and Chinese employed in 
mining prevailed by the same vote — yeas 
25, nays 22. 

Mr. Brown, (Dem.) of Ga., moved to 
strike out the requirement for the produc- 
tion of passports by the permitted classes 
whenever demanded by the United States 
authorities. Carried on a viva voce vote, 
the Chair (INIr. Davis, of Illinois) creating 
no little merriment by announcing, "The 
nays are loud but there are not many of 
them." 

MR. INGALLS' AMENDMENT. 

Upon the bill being reported to the Sen- 
ate from the Committee of the Whole Mr. 
Ingalls again moved to limit the suspen- 
sion of the coming of Chinese laborers to 
ten years. 

Mr. Jones, of Nevada, said this limit 
would hardly have the effect of allaying 
agitation on the subject as the discussion 
would be resumed in two or three years, 
and ten years, he feared, would not even 
be a long enough period to enable Congress 
intelligently to base upon it any future 
policy. 

Mr. Miller, of California, also urged 
that the shorter period would not measura- 
bly relieve the business interest of the 
Pacific slope, inasmuch as the white immi- 
grants, who were so much desired, would 
not come there if they believed the Chi- 
nese were to be again admitted in ten 
years. Being interrupted by Mr. Hoar, 
he asserted that that Senator and other 
republican leaders, as also the last repub- 
lican nominee for President, had hereto- 
fore given the people of the Pacific slope 
good reason to believe that they would se- 
cure to them the relief they sought by the 
bill. 

Mr. Hoar, (Eep.) of Mass., briefly re- 
plied. 

The amendment was lost — yeas 20, 
nays 21. 

The vote is as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Bi'own, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawos, 
J^dmunds, Frye, Hale, Hoar, Ingalls, Lnp- 
ham, McDill, McMillan, Mahone, Morrill, 
Plumb, Sawyer and Teller — 20. 

Nays — Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Cam- 
eron of Wisconsin, Coke, Fair, Farley, 
Garland, George, Gorman, Jackson, Jonas, 
Jones of Nevada, Miller of California, 
Miller of New York, Morgan, Ransom, 
Slater, Vance, Voorhces and Walker — 21. 

Messrs. Butler, Camden, IMcPberson, 
Johnston, Davis of West Virginia, Pendle- 
ton and Ransom were {paired with Messrs. 
Hawlcy, Anthony, Sewell, Piatt, Van 
Wyck, Windom and Sherman. 

Messrs. Hampton, Pugb, Vest, Rollins 
and Jones of Florida were paired with 
absentees. 



PASSAGE OF THE BILL. 

The question recurred on the final pas- 
sage of the bill, and Mr. Edmunds closed 
the debate. He would vote against the 
bill as it now stoud, because he believed it 
to be an infraction of good faith as pledged 
by the last treaty ; because he believed it 
injurious to the welfare of the people of 
the United States, and particularly the 
people on the Pacific coast, by preventing 
the development of our great trade with 
China. 

The vote was then taken and the bill 
was passed — yeas 29, nays 15. 

The following is the vote in detail : — 

Yeas — Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Cam- 
eron of Wisconsin, Cockrell, Coke, Fair, 
Farley, Garland, George, Gorman, Hale, 
Harris, Hill of Colorado, Jackson, Jonas, 
Jones of Nevada, Miller of California, 
Miller of New York, Morgan, Pugh, Ran- 
som, Sawyer, Teller, Vance, Vest, Voor- 
hees and Walker — 29. 

Nays — Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawes, 
Edmunds, Frve, Hoar, Ingalls, Lapham, 
McDill, McMillan and Morrill— 15. 

Pairs were announced of Messrs. Cam- 
den, Davis of AVest Virginia, Grovcr, 
Hampton, Butler, McPherson, Johnston, 
Jones of Florida and Pendleton in favor 
of the bill, with Messrs. Anthony, Win- 
dom, Van Wyck, Mitchell, Hawley, Sewell, 
Piatt, Rollins and Sherman against it. 

Mr. Frye, (Rep.) of Me., in casting his 
vote, stated that he was paired with Mr. 
Hill, of Georgia, on all political questions, 
but that he did not consider this a politi- 
cal question, and besides, had express per- 
mission from Senator Hill to vote upon it. 

Mr. Mitchell, (Rep.) of Pa., in an- 
nouncing his pair with Mr. Hampton 
stated that had it not been for that fact he 
would vote against the bill, regarding it as 
un-American and inconsistent with the 
principles which had obtained in the gov- 
ernment. 

The title of the bill was amended so as 
to read, " An act to execute certain treaty 
stipulations relating to Chinese," though 
Mr. Hoar suggested that " execute " ought 
to be stricken out and " violate " inserted. 

The Senate then, at twenty minutes to 
six, adjourned until to-morrow, 

provisions of the bill. 
The Chinese Immigration bill as passed 
provides that from and after the ex]iirution 
of ninety days after the passage of this act 
and until the expiration of tAventy years 
after its ]iassage the coming of Chinese la- 
borers to the United States shall be sus- 
jjended, and prescribes a penalty of im- 
j)risonment not exceeding one year and a 
fine of not more than $500 against the 
master of any vessel Avho brings any Chi- 
nese laborer to this country during that 



THE CHINESE QUESTION. 



295 



period. It further provides that tlio chis-tes 
of Chinese excepted hy the treaty from 
Bucli [)rohibition — .such asmercliaiits, teaeii- 
er8, stu(k'iits, travek-rs, diplomatic aj^eiUs 
and Cliiuese laborers who were in tlie L'ni- 
teil States on the 17th of November, 18S0 
— shall be recpiired, as a condition for their 
admission, to procure ]);Lss[>()rts from the 
iXovernmeiit of China personally identify- 
in:^ them and showinp; that liiey individ- 
ually beloni; to one of the permitted classes, 
which passports must have been indorsed 
liy the diplomatic representative of the 
United States in China or by the United 
States Consul at the port of departure. It 
also provides elaborate nuichinery for car- 
rying out the purposes of the act, and ad- 
ditional sections prohibit the admission of 
Chinese to citizenship by any United States 
or State court and construes the words 
"Chinese laborers" to mean both skilled 
and unskilled laborers and Chinese em- 
ploved in mining. 

The sentiment in favor of the passage of 
this bill has certainly greatly increased 
since the control of the issue has passed to 
abler hands than those of Kearney and 
KaUoch, wdiose conduct intensified the 
opposition of the East to the measure, 
which in 1879 was denounced as " violat- 
ing the conscience of the nation.'' Mr. 
Blaine's advocacy of the first bill limiting 
emigrants to fifteen on each vessel, at the 
time excited much criticism in the Eastern 
states, and w;i.s there a potent weapon 
against him in the nominating struggle for 
the Presidency in 1880 ; but on the other 
hand it is believed that it gave him 
strength in the Pacific States, 

Chinese immigration and the attempt to 
restrict it present-s a question of the gra- 
vest importance, and was treated as such 
in the Senate del)ate. The friends of the 
bill, under the leadership of Senators Mil- 
ler and Jones, certainly stood in a better 
and stronger attitude than ever before. 

The anti-Chinese bill passed the House 
just Its it came from the Senate, after a 
somewhat exonded debate, on the 23d of 
March, 1882. Yeas 167, nays G5, (party 
lines not being drawn) as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Aikin, Aldrich, Armfield, 
Atkin-^, Bayne, I'elford, Belmont, Berry, 
Bingham, Blackburn, Blanchard, Bliss, 
Blount, Brewer, Brumm, Buckner, Burrows, 
of Miss'Hiri; l'>utterworth. Cabell, Cald- 
well, Calkins, Campbell, Cannon, Casser- 
lev, Caswell, Chalmers, Chaoman, Clark, 
Clements, Cobb, Converse, Cook, Cornell, 
Cox, of New York ; Cox, of North Caro- 
lina; Covington, Cravens, Culbertson, Cur- 
tin, Darrell, Davidson; Davis, of Illinois; 
Davis, of Missouri ; Demotte, Deuster, 
Dezendorf, Dibble, DibroU, Dowd, Dugro, 
Ermentrout, Errett, Farwell, of Illinois; 
Finley, Flowers, Ford, Forn'>y, Fulkerson, 
Garrison, Geddes, George, Gibson, Guen- 



thcr, Guntor, Hammond, of Georgia ; Har- 
dy, llarmir, Harris, of New .Jersey ; Ilascl- 
line, llatcli, Jlazelton, Jleilman, Jlerndon, 
Hewitt, of New York; Hill, Jliscock, 
Hoblitzell, Hoge, HoUmaii, Horr, Houlc, 
House, lluhbell, Hulibs, Hutchins, .Jones, 
of TexiLs ; .Jones, of Arkansas; .iorgenson, 
Kenna, King, Elotz, Ivnott, Ladd, Lei'- 
ilom, Lewis, Marsh, Martin, Matsoii, Mc- 
Clure, Mc('ook,MeKenzie, McKinley, Mc- 
Lane, McMillan, Miller, Mills, of Texas ; 
Money, Morey, Moulton, Munh, Mulchler, 
O'Neill, Pacheco, Page, Paul, Payson, 
Pealse, Phelps, Phister, Pound, Kaiidall, 
Reagan, Jlicc of Missouri, llichardson, 
Robertson, Robinson, Rosecrans, Scran- 
ton, Shallcnbcrger, Sherwin, Simonton, 
Singleton, of Mississippi, Smith of Penn- 
sylvania, Smith of Illinois, Smith of New 
York, Sparks, Spaulding, Spear, Springer, 
Stockslager, Strait, Talbott, Thomas, 
Thompson of Kentucky, Tillman, Town- 
send of Ohio, Townsend of Illinois, Tucker, 
Turner of Georgia, Turner of Kentucky, 
Updegrafi', of Ohio, Upson, Valentine, 
Vance, Van Horn, Warner, Washburne, 
Webber, Welborn, Whitthorne, Williams 
of Alabama, Willis, Willctts. Wilson, Wise 
of Pennsylvania, Wise of Virginia, and W. 
A. Wood of New York— 167. 

The nays were Messrs. Anderson, Barr, 
Bragg, Briggs, Brown, Buck, Camp, Cand- 
ler, Carpenter, Chase, Crapo,Cuilen, Dawes, 
Deoring, Dingley, Dunnell, Dwight, Far- 
well of Iowa, Grant, Hall, Hammond, of 
New York, Hardenburgh, Harris, of Mas- 
sachusetts, Haskell, Hawk, Henderson, 
Hepburn, Hooker, Humphrey, .Jacobs, 
Jones of New Jersey, .foyce, Kasson, 
Ketchum, Lord, McCoid, Morse, Norcross, 
Orth, Parker, Ramsey, Rice of Ohio, Rico 
of Massachusetts, Rich, Richardson of New 
York, Ritchie, Robinson of Massachusetts, 
Russel, Ryan, Sluiltz, Skinner, Scooncr, 
Stone, Taylor, Thompson of Iowa, Tyler, 
Updegraff of Iowa, Urner, ^Vadsworth, 
Wait, Walker, Ward, Watson, White and 
Williams of Wisconsin — (!5. 

In the House the debate was partici- 
pated in by Messrs. Richardson, of South 
Carolina; Wise and Brumm, of Pennsylva- 
nia; Joyce, of Vermont; Dunnell, of 3I;n- 
ncsota; Orth, of Indiana; Sherwin, of Illi- 
nois ; Hazclton, of AVisuonsin ; I'acheco, of 
California, and Townsend, of Illinois, and 
others. An anumdment olfercd by Mr. 
Butterworth, of Ohio, reducing the period 
of suspension to fifteen years, was rejected. 
Messrs. Robinson, of Massachusetts; Cur- 
tin, of Pennsylvania, and Cannon, of Illi- 
nois, spoke ui)on the bill, the two latter sup- 
porting it. The speech of Ex-Governor 
Curtin was strong and attracted much at- 
tention. Mr. Page closed the debato in 
favor of the measure. An ame'idmcnt r>f- 
fered by Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, re'iucing tiio 
time of suspension to ten ycai-s, was re- 



29G 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



jectecl — yeas 100, nays 131 — and the bill 
was passed exactly as it came from the 
Senate by a vote o:' lo7 to G5. The House 
theu adjourned. 



Oiir Mercliant Marine. 

An important current issue is the increase 
of the Navy and the improvement of the 
merchant Marine, and to these questions 
the National Administration has latterly 
given attention. The New York Herald 
has given much editorial ability and re- 
search to the advocacy of an immediate 
change for the better in these respects, and 
in its issue of March 10th, 1882, gave the 
proceedings of an important meeting of the 
members of the United States Naval Insti- 
tute held at Annapolis the day before, on 
which occasion a prize essay on the subject 
— " Our Merchant Marine ; the Cause of its 
Decline and the Means to be Taken for its 
Kevival," was read. The subject was cho- 
sen nearly a year ago, because it was the 
belief of the members of the institute that 
a navy cannot exist without a merchant 
marine. The naval institute was organized 
in 1873 for the advancement of profession- 
al and scientific knowledge in the navy. It 
has on its roll 500 members, principally 
naval officers, and its proceedings are pub- 
lished quarterly. Rear Admiral C. R. P. 
Rodgers is president ; Captain J. M. Ram- 
say, vice president ; Lieutenant Command- 
er C, ]M. Thomas, secretary ; Lieutenant 
Murdock, corresponding secretary, and 
Paymaster R. W. Allen, treasurer. There 
were eleven competitors for the prize, which 
is of $100, and a gold medal valued at $50. 
The judges were Messrs, Hamilton Fish, 
A. A. Low and J. D. Jones. They awarded 
the prize to Lieutenant J. D. J. Kelley, U, 
S. N., whose motto was " Nil Clarius 
./Equore," and designated Master C, T, Cal- 
kins, U. S. N., whose motto was " Mais il 
faut cultiver notre jardin " as next in the 
order of merit, and further mentioned the 
essays of Lieutenant R. Wainwright, Uni- 
ted States Navy, whose motto was " Causa 
latet, vis est notissima," and Lieutenant 
Commander J. E. Chadwick, United States 
Navy, whose motto was " Spes Meliora," 
as worthy of honorable mention, without 
being entirely agreed as to their compara- 
tive merits. 

STRIKIXG PASSAGES FROM THE PRIZE 
ESSAY. 

From Lieut. Kelley's prize essay many 
valuable facts can be gathered, and such of 
these as contain information of permanent 
value we quote : 

"So far as commerce influences this 
countrv" has a vital interest in the canying 
trade, let theorists befog the cool air as they 
may. Every dollar paid for freight im- 
ported or exported in American vessels ac- 



crues to American labor and capital, and 
the enterprise is as much a productive in- 
dustry as the raising of wheat, the spinning 
of fibre or the smelting of ore. Had the 
acquired, the ' full ' trade of 1860 been 
maintained without increase $80,000,000 
would have been added last year to the na- 
tional wealth, and the loss from diverted 
shipbuilding would have swelled the sum 
to a total of $100,000,000. 

" Our surplus products must find foreign 
markets, and to retain them ships controlled 
by and employed in exclusively American 
interests are essential instrumentalities. 
Whatever tends to stimulate competition 
and to prevent combination benefits the 
producer, and as the prices abroad estab- 
lish values here, the barter we obtain for 
the despised one-tenth of exports — $665,- 
000,000 in 1880— determines the profit or 
loss of the remainder in the home market. 
During the last fiscal year 11,500,000 gross 
tons of grain, oil, cotton, tobacco, precious 
metals, &c., were exported from the United 
States, and this exportation increases at the 
rate of 1,500,000 tons annually; 3,800,000 
tons of goods are imported, or in all about 
15,000,000 tons constitute the existing com- 
merce of this country. 

" If only one-half of the business of car- 
rying our enormous wealth of surplus pro- 
ducts could be secured for American ships, 
our tonnage would be instantly doubled, 
and we would have a greater fleet engaged 
in a foreign trade, legitimately our own, 
than Great Britain has to-day. The United 
States makes to the ocean carrying-trade 
its most valuable contribution, no other 
nation giving to commerce so many bulky 
tons of commodities to be transported those 
long voyages which in every age have 
been so eagerly coveted by marine peoples. 
Of the 17,000 ships which enter and clear 
at American ports every year, 4,600 seek a 
cargo empty and but 2,000 sail without ob- 
taining it. 

" Ships are profitable abroad and can be 
made profitable here, and in truth during 
the last thirty years no other branch of 
industry has made such progress as the 
carrying trade. To establish this there are 
four points of comparison — commerce, rail- 
ways, shipping tonnage and carrying power 
of the world, limited to the years between 
1850 and 1880 :— 

Inn'enfe 
Per 
CetU. 
1850. 18S0. 
Commraorco of all na- 
tions $4,280,000,000 S14,4<l5,O00,r00 240 

Railways (milc« open) 44,4<)0 '>'22,' (lO :W8 

Shipiiing tonnage 6.9(;5,000 1S,7J<V10() ITl 

Carrying tonnage 8,404,000 34,2t-U.0U0 304 

" In 1850, therefore, for every $5,000,000 
of internaticmal commerce there were filty- 
four miles of railway and a maritime car- 
rying power of 9,900 tons ; and in 1880 the 
respective ratios had risen to seventy-seven 



OUR MERCHANT MARINE. 



297 



miles and 12,000 tons'; this li.rs saved ono- 
■'I'ourlh Irc'ight and l)rouglit jiroducor and 
cimsumcrs into such contact that wo no 
longer hear " of the earth's prodiuts being 
wasted, of wheat rottinjc in La Manciia, 
wool being used to nientl wads and slieep 
being burned for fuel in the Argentine 
KepuMie." lOngland has mainly i)rotited by 
this enormous (levelojuncnt, the shipi)ing 
of the United Kingdom earning $iJOO,<)00,- 
000 yearly, and employing 2t>0,<>(i() seamen, 
whose industry is thercf )re eciuivalcnt to 
£.'>00 per man, as compared with £VJO for 
each of the factory operatives. The 
freight enrned by all flags for sea-borne 
merchandise is $.iOO,000,od, or about 8 per 
cent, of the value transported. Hence the 
toll whieli all nations pay to England for 
the carrying trade is equal to 4 per cent 
(nearly) ot the exported values of the 
earth's products and manufactures ; and 
pessimists who declare that ship owners 
are losing money or making small proiits 
must be wrong, for the merchant marine is 
expanding every year. 

"The maximuli tonnage of this country 
at any time registered in the foreign trade 
was in ISGl, and then amounted to 5,539,- 
813 tons ; Great Britain in the same year 
owning 5,895,3G0 tons, and all the other 
nations 5,800.707 tons. Between 1835 and 
18G0 over l,8u0,0U0 American tons in ex- 
cess of the country's needs were employed 
by foreigners in trades with which we had 
no legitimate connection save a.s carriers. 
In 1S51 our registi^red steamships had 
grown from the 16.000 tons of 1848 to G3,- 
1)20 tons — almost eijual to the 65,920 tons 
of England, and in 1835 this had increased 
to 115,000 tons and reached a maximum, 
for in 1862 we had 1,000 tons less. In 
1855 we built 388 vessels, in 1856 306 ves- 
sels and in 1880 26 vessels — all for the 
foreign trade. The total tonnage which 
entered our ports in 1856 from abroad 
amounted to 4,464,038, of which American 
built ships' coiLstituted 3,194,375 tons, and 
all others but 1.259,762 tons. In 1880 
there entered from abroad 15,240,534 tons, 
of which 3,128,374 tons were American and 
12,112,000 were foreign — that is, in a ratio 
of seventy-five to twenty-five, or actually 
65,901 tons less than when we were twenty- 
four years young9r as a nation. The grain 
fleet sailing last year from the port of New 
York numbered 2,897 vessels, of which 
1,822 were sailing vessels carrying 59,822,- 
033 bushels, and 1,075 were steamers laden 
with 42,426,533 bushels, and among all 
these there were but seventy-four Ameri- 
can sailing vessels and not one American 
steamer. 

" While this poison of decay has been 
eating into our vitals the possibilities of 
the country in nearly every other industry 
have reached a plane of development be- 
yond the dreams of the most enthusiaistic 



thcorizors. We liave spread out in every 
direction and the promise of tlie futuro 
beggars imaginations attuned even U) tho 
key of our |>rcsent and past development. 
We have a timber area of 560.000,000 acre^, 
and aiross our Canadian border tiicre aro 
'.iO(),(iUi»,UUO more acres; in coal and iron 
production wc arc approaching the <JlJ 
World. 

1842. 1879. 

Coal — 'Jnits. Tons, 

(ireat Britain... 35.()i)0,000 135,000,000 
United States... 2,000,000 60,000,000 

Iron — 

CJreat Britain... 2,250,000 0,300,000 
United States... 564,000 2,742,000 

During these thirty-seven years tlio 
relative increase h:i.s been in coal 300 
to 2,900 per cent., in iron 200 to 4^)0 per 
cent., and all in our favor. But this is 
not enough, for England, with a coal area 
less than either I'ennsylvaniaor Kentucky, 
ha.s coaling stations in every part of tho 
world and our steamers cannot reach our 
California ports without the consent of the 
English producers. Even if electricity 
takes the place of steam it must be many 
vears before the coal demand will cease, 
and to-day, of the 36,000,000 tons of coal 
required by the steamers of the world, 
three-fourths of it is obtained from 'Great 
Britain. 

" It is unnecessary to wire-draw statis- 
tics, but it may, as a last word, be interest- 
ing to show, with all our development, the 
nationality and increase of tonnage enter- 
ing our ports since 1856 : — 

Country. Increase. Decrease. 

England *. 6,977,163 — 

Germany 922,903 — 

Norway and Sweden. ..1,214,008 — 

Italv 596,907 — 

France 208,412 — 

Spain 164,683 — 

Austria 226,277 — 

Belgium 204,872 — 

Russia 104,009 — 

United States — 65,901 

" This," writes Lindsay, " is surely not 
decadence, but defeat in a far nobler con- 
flict than the wars for maritime supremacy 
between Rome and Carthage, C(msi8ting as 
it did in the struggle between the skill and 
industry of the people of two great na- 
tions." 

We have thus quoted the facts gathered 
from a source which has been endorsed by 
the higher naval authorities. Some reader 
will probably ask, " What relation have 
these facts to American politics?'' We 
answer that the remedies proposed consti- 
tute political questions on which the great 
parties are very apt to divide. They have 
thus divided in the past, and parties have 
turned " about face " on similar questions. 



298 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Just now the Democratic party inclines to 
"free ships" and hostility to subsidies — 
while the Republican party as a rule favors 
subsidies. Lieutenant Kelley summarized 
his proposed remedies in the two words: 
"free ships." 

Mr. Blaine would solve the problem by 
bounties, lor this purpose enacting a gene- 
ral law that should ignore individuals and 
enforce a policy. His scheme provides 
that any man or company of men who will 
build in an American yard, with American 
material, by American mechanics, a steam- 
ship of 3,000 tons and sail her from any 
port of the United States to any foreign 
port, he or they shall receive for a monthly 
line a mail allowance of $25 per mile per 
annum for the sailing distance between the 
two ports ; for a semi-monthly line $45 per 
mile, and for a weekly line $75 per mile. 
Should the steamer exceed three thousand 
tons, a small advance on these rates might 
be allowed ; if less, a corresponding reduc- 
tion, keeping three thousand as the average 
and standard. Other reformers propose a 
bounty to be given by the Government to 
the shipbuilder, so as to make the price of 
an American vessel the same as that of a 
foreign bought, equal, but presumably 
cheaper, ship. 

Mr. Blaine represents the growing Re- 
publican view, but the actual party views 
can only be ascertained when bills cover- 
ing the subject come up for considera- 
tion. 



Current Polltlca. 

We shall close this written history of the 
political parties of the United States by a 
brief statement of the present condition of 
affairs, as generally remarked by our own 
people, and by quoting the views of an in- 
teresting cotemporaneous English writer. 

President Arthur's administration has 
had many difficulties to contend with. The 
President himself is the legal successor of 
a beloved man, cruelly assassinated, whose 
well-rounded character and high abilities 
had won the respect even of those who de- 
famed him in the heat of controversy, while 
they excited the highest admiration of those 
who shared his political views and thoughts. 
Stricken down before he had time to for- 
mulate a policy, if it was ever his intention 
to do so, he yet showed a proper apprecia- 
tion of his high responsibilities, and had 
from the start won the kindly attention of 
the country. Gifted with the power of say- 
ing just the right thing at the right mo- 
ment, and saying it with all the grace and 
beauty of oratory, no Pri'sidcnt was better 
calculated to make friends as he moved 
along, than Garfield. The manifestations 
of factional feeling Avhich immediately 
preceded his assassination, l)ut which can- 
not for a moment be intelligently traced to 



that cause, made the path of his successor 
far more difficult than if he had been called 
to the succession by the operation of natu- 
ral causes. That he has met these difficul- 
ties with rare discretion, all admit, and 
at this writing partisan interest and dislike 
are content to "abide a' wee" before be- 
ginning an assault. He has sought no 
changes in the Cabinet, and thus through 
personal and political considerations seems 
for the time to have surrendered a Presi- 
dential prerogative freely admitted by all 
who understand the wisdom of permitting 
an executive officer to seek the advice of 
friends of his own selection. Mr. Blaine 
and Mr. MacVeagh, among the ablest of 
the late President's Cabinet, were among 
the most emphatic in insisting upon the 
earliest possible exercise of this preroga- 
tive — the latter upon its immediate exer- 
cise. Yet it has been withheld in several 
particulars, and the Arthur administration 
has sought to unite, wherever divided (and 
now divisions are rare), the party which 
called it into existence, while at the same 
time it has by careful management sought 
to check party strife at least for a time, and 
devoted its attention to the advancement 
of the material interests of the country. 
Appointments are fairly distributed among 
party friends, not divided as between fac- 
tions ; for such a division systematically 
made would disrupt any party. It would 
prove but an incentive to faction for the 
sake of a division of the spoils. No force 
of politics is or ought to be better under- 
stood in America than manufactured disa- 
greements with the view to profitable com- 
promises. Fitness, recognized ability, and 
adequate political service seem to consti- 
tute the reasons for Executive appointments 
at this time. 

The Democratic party, better equipped 
in the National Legisture than it has been 
for years — with men like Hill, Bayard, Pen- 
dleton, Brown, Voorhees, Lamar and Gar- 
land in the Senate — Stephens, Randall, 
Hewitt, Cox, Johnson in the House — with 
Tilden, Thurman, Wallace and Hancock 
in the background — is led with rare abi- 
lity, and has the advantage of escaping re- 
sponsibilities incident to a majority party. 
It has been observed that this party is pur- 
suing the traditional strategy of minorities 
in our Republic. It has partially refused 
a further test on the tariff" issue, and is 
seeking a place in advance of the Republi- 
cans on refunding questions — both popular 
measures, as shown in all recent elections. 
It claims the virtue of sympathy with the 
Mormons by questioning the i)ropriety of 
legal assaults upon the liberty of con- 
science, while not openly recording itself as 
a defender of the crime of polygamy. As 
a solid minority it has at least in the Se- 
nate yielded to the appeal of the States on 
the Pacific slope, and favored the abridg- 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



299 



ment of Chinese immigration. On tliis 
question, however, tlio Western llepuhli- 
can Senators ivs a rule wore equally aetive 
in support of the Miller IJill, so that what- 
rvcr the result, the issue can no longer he 
a politiial one in the Pacilic States. The 
respectable support whieh the measure has 
latterly receiveil iias cast out of the struj^- 
."^[q the Kearneys and Kalhuhs, and if 
l.here he demagnu;uory on either side, it 
comes in better dress than ever before. 

Doubtless the parties will contest iho'w 
claims to public support on their respective 
histories yet a while longer. Party history 
has served partisan purposes an average 
of twenty years, when with that liistory 
recollections of wars arc interwoven, and 
the hist war having been the greatest in 
our history, the presumption is allowable 
that it will be freely quoted so long as sec- 
tional or other forms of distrust are ob- 
servable any where. When these recollec- 
tions fail, new issues will have to be sought 
or accepted. In the mere search for issues 
the minority ought always to i)e the most 
active; but their wise appropriation, after 
all, depends upon the wisdom and ability 
of leadership. It has ever been thus, and 
ever will be. This is about the only poli- 
tical prophecy the writer is willing to risk 
— and in risking this he but presents a 
view common to all Americans who claim 
to be "posted" in the politics of their 
country. 

What politii'ians abroad think of our 
"situation" is well told, though not always 
accurately, bv a distinguished writer in the 
January (1882) number of " 27ie Londi>n 
Quarterly liecieio.'" From this wc quote 
some very attractive paragraphs, and at 
the same time escape the necessity of de- 
scriptions and predictions generally be- 
lieved to be essential in rounding off a po- 
litical volume, but which are always dan- 
gerous in treating of current affairs. Speak- 
ing of the conduct of both parties on the 
question of Civil Service Reform, the writer 
says: 

" What have they done to overthrow the 
celebrated Jacksonian precept, * to the 
victors belongs the spoils ? ' What, in fact, 
is it passible for them to do under the 
present system? The political laborer 
nold-! that he is worthy of his hire, and if 
nothing is given to him, nothing will he 
give in return. There are tens of thou- 
sands of ofBces at the bestowal of every 
administration, and the persons who have 
helped to bring that administration into 
power expect to receive them. ' In Great 
Britain," once remarked the American 
paper which enjoys the largest circulation 
4n the country, ' the ruling classes have it 
all to themselves, and the poor man rarely 
or never gets a nibble at the public crib. 
Here we take our turn. W^e know that, 
if our political rivals have the opportunity 



to-day, we shall have it to-morrow. This 
is the philosojthy of the whole thing com- 
pressed into a nutshell.' If President 
Arthur were to begin to-day to distribute 
ulliees to men who were niost worthy to 
receive them, without reference in j>oliti- 
cal services, his own ])arty would rebel, 
and assunnlly his oath would not bo 
strewn with roses, lie was himself a vic- 
tim of a gross injustice perpetrated under 
the name of reform. He tilled the impor- 
tant post of Collector of the Port of New 
York, and filled it to the entire satisfaction 
of the mercantile community. President 
Hayes did not consider General Arthur 
sulliciently devoted to his intensts, and he 
removed him in favor of a conlirmed wire- 
puller and caucus-monger, and the admin- 
istration j):ipors had the address to repre- 
sent this as the outcome of an honest etibrt 
to reform the Civil Service. No one 
really supposed that the New York Cus- 
tom House was less a jiolitical engine than 
it had been before. The rule of General 
Arthur had been, in point of fact, singu- 
larly free from jobbery and corruption, and 
not a breath of suspicion was ever attached 
to his personal character. If he had been 
less faithful in the dischargeof his difficult 
duties, he would have made fewer enemies. 
He discovered several gross case> of fraud 
upon the revenue, and brought the perpe- 
trators to justice; but the culprits were not 
without influence in the press, and they 
contrived to make the worse appear the 
better cause. Their view was taken at 
second-hand by many of the English jour- 
nals, and even recently the public here 
were gravely assured that General Arthur 
represented all that was base in American 
politics, and moreover that he was an 
enemy of England, for he had been elected 
by the Irish vote. The authors of these 
foolish calumnies did not perceive that, if 
their statements had been correct. General 
Garfield, whom they so much honored, 
must also have been elected by the Irish 
vote ; for he came to power on the very 
same 'ticket.' In reality, the Irish vote 
may be able to accomplish many things in 
America, but we may safely predict that it 
will never elect a President. General 
Arthur had not been many weeks in power, 
before he was enabled to give a remarkable 
proof of the injustice that had been done 
to him in this particular respect. The 
salute of the English flag at Y'orktown is 
one of the most graceful incidents recorded 
in American history, and the order origi- 
nated solely with the President. A man 
with higher character or, it may be added, 
of greater accomplishments and fitness for 
his office, never sat in the Presidential 
chair. His first appointments are now ad- 
mitted to be better than those which were 
made by his predecessor for the same posts. 
Senator Frelinghuysen, the new Secretary 



300 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of Sta1>e, or Foreign Secretary, is a man of 
greiit ability, of most excellent judgment, 
and of the liighest personal character. He 
stands far beyond the reach of all un- 
worthy inlluences. Mr. Folgcr, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, possesses the confi- 
dence of the entire country, and the 
nomination of the new Attorney-General 
was received with universal satisfaction. 
All this little accords with the dark and 
forbidding dcscrijitions of President Arthur 
whicli were j)laced before the j)ublic here 
on his ac'.essidn to otlice. It is surely time 
that English writers became alive to the 
danger of accepting without question the 
distorted views Avhich they find ready to 
their hands in the most bigoted or most 
malicious of American journals. 

"Democrats and Republicans, then, alike 
profess to be in favor of a tV^orough reform 
in the Civil Service, and at the present 
Baoraent there is no other very prominent 
question which could be used as a test for 
the admission of members into either 
party. The old issue, which no one could 
possibly mistake, is gone. How much the 
public really care for the new one, it would 
be a difficult point to decide. A Civil Ser- 
vice system, such as that which we have in 
England, would scarcely be suited to the 
" poor man," who, as the New York paper 
says, thinks he has a right occasionally to 
' get a nibble at the public crib.' If a man 
has worked hard to bring his party into 
power, he is apt, in the United States, to 
think that he is entitled to some ' recogni- 
tion,' and neither he nor his friends would 
be well pleased if they were told that, be- 
fore anything could be done for liim, it 
would be necessary to examine him in 
modern languages and mathematics. More- 
over, a service such as that which exists in 
England requires to be worked with a sys- 
tem of pensions; and pensions, it is held 
in America, are opposed to the Republican 
idea.* If it were not for this objection, it 
may be presumed that some provision 
would have been made for more than one 
of the ex-Presidents, whose circumstances 
placed them or their families much in 
need of it. President Monroe spent his 
hist years in wretched circumstances, and 
died bankrupt. Mrs. Madison 'knew 
what it was to want bread.' A negro ser- 
vant, who had once been a slave in the 
family, used furtively to give her ' small 
Bums' — they must have been very small 
— out of his own pocket. Mr. Pierce was, 
we believe, not far removed from in- 

* Enormous gums are, howevor, given to BoMiers who 
were woumled (luring the war, or vlin prutend that they 
were— for johb'My on an unlieaid of scale is practised in 
connection wiUi lliese pensions. It is estimated that 
?r2(V (X),(iOO ('J4 (li)0,nfH)i.) will have to be paid dnrini: the 
present fiscal yar, for arrears of iiension, and the niim- 
Ler of claimauta ia constantly iticrca>in_', (The writer 
evidently got these "facta" from Bcusational bouiccb] 
— Am. I'vL ' 



digence ; and it has been stated that after 
Andrew Johnson left the White House, 
he was reduced to the necessity of follow- 
ing his old trade. General Grant was 
much more fortunate; and we have re- 
cently seen that the American i>eople have 
subscribed for Mrs, Garfield a sum nearly 
equal to £70,000. But a pensiim system 
for Civil Servants is not likely to be 
adopted. Permanence in office is another 
principle which has found no favor with 
the rank and file of either party in 
America, although it has sometimes been 
introduced into party platforms for the 
sakt: of producing a good etliect. The 
plan of 'quick rotation' is far more at- 
tractive to the popular sense. Divide the 
spoils, and divide them often. It is true 
that the public indignation is sometimes 
aroused, when too eager and rapacious a 
spirit is exhibited. Such a feeling was dis- 
played in 1873, in consequence of an Act 
passed by Congress increasing the pay of 
its own members and certain officers of the 
Government. Each member of Congress 
was to receive $7,500 a year, or £1,500. 
The sum paid before that date, down to 
1805, was $5000 a year, or £1000, and 
' mileage ' free added — that is to say, 
members were entitled to be paid twenty 
cents a mile for traveling exj)enses to and 
from Washington. This Bill soon became 
known as the 'Salary Grab' Act, and 
]'0}ular feeling against it was so greatthat 
it was repealed in the following Session, 
and the former pay was restored. As a 
general rule, however, the ' spoils ' system 
has not been heartily condemned by the 
nation ; if it had been so condemned, it 
must have fallen long ago. 

" President Arthur has been admonished 
by his English counsellors to take heed 
that he follows closely in the steps of his 
predecessor. General Garfield was not 
long enough in office to give any decided 
indications of the policy which he intend- 
ed to pursue ; but, so far as he had gone, 
impartial observers could detect very little 
difference between his course of conduct in 
regard to patronage and that of former 
Presidents. He simply preferred the 
friends of Mr. Blaine to the friends of Mr. 
Conkling ; but Mr. Blaine is a politician of 
precisely the same class as Mr. Conkling — 
both are men intimately versed in all the 
intricacies of ' primaries,' the ' caucus,' and 
the general working of the ' machine.' 
They are precisely the kind of men which 
American politics, as at present practised 
and understood, are adajjted to produce. 
Mr. Conkling, however, is of more impe- 
rious a disjiosition than Mr. Blaine ; the 
first disappointment or contradiction turns 
him from a friend into an enemy. Presi- 
dent Garfield removed the Collector of 
New York — the most lucrative and most 
coveted post in the entire Union — and in* 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



301 



gleaJ of nominatinj^ a friend of Mr. Conk- 
liiii^'s for the vucaiicy, lie iioiuiiiatcil a 
frioiitl of Mr. IMaiiic's. Now ISIr. Conk- 
liiii; luul doiii' niiuli to .secure Mew York 
Hlat'.' for tlii^ Uepublieiiiis, and thus gave 
tlieni till! vietDry; and lie tliou^lit hiuisdl' 
■entitled to better treatment than he re- 
eeived. But was it in the .spirit of true ru- 
finn to rem )ve the CoUeetor, again>t 
wh im no com|)hiint iiad been made, uuTely 
fur th.' purpose of creating a vacancy, and 
then of putting a friend of Mr. I5laine's 
int) it — a friend, moreover, wiio liad been 
hirgely instrumental in .securing CJeneral 
Garfield's own nomination at Chicago? ^' 
Is tliis all that is meant, wlien the Reform 
party talk of the great elianges which they 
desire to see carried out? Again, the new 
President has been fairly warned by his 
advisers in this country, th it he must 
abolish every abuse, new or old, connected 
with the distribution of jiatronage. If ho 
is to execute this commission, not one term 
of olfice, nor three terms, will be sufficient 
for him. Over every appointment there 
will inevitably arise a dis;)Ute; if a totally 
untried man is chosen, he will be suspected 
as a wolf coming in sheep's clothing; if a 
well known partizan is nominated, he will 
be denounced as a mere tool of the leaders, 
and there will be another outcry against 
'machine politics.' 'One party or other,' 
eaid an American journal not long ago, 
'must begin the work of administering 
the Government on business principles,' 
and the writer admitted that the work 
would ' cost salt tears to many a ])olitician.' 
The honor of making this beginning has 
not yet been sought for with remarkable 
eagerness by either party ; but seems to be 
deemed necessary to promise that some- 
thing shall be done, and the Democrats, 
being out of power, are naturally in the 
position to bid the highest. The reform 
will come, as we have intimated, when the 
people demand it; it cannot come before, 
for few, indeed, are the politicians in the 
United States who venture to trust them- 
selves far in advance of public opinion. 
And even of that few, there are some who 
have found out, by hard experience, that 
tliere is little honor or profit to be gained 
by undertaking to act as pioneers. 

" It is doubtless a step in advance, that 
both parties now admit the absolute ne- 
cessity of devising mea.sures to elevate the 
character of the public service, to check 
the progress of corruption, and to intro- 
duce a better class of men into the otHces 
which are held under the Government. 
The necessity of great reforms in these re- 
speets has been avowed over and over 
again by most of the leading journals and 
inlluential men in the country. The most 

* The unfleni:iWe facts of Um caso were as wo havn 
briefly iiidUareil above See. for example, a letter tu the 
'New' York Natiou,' Kuv. a, 18{il. 



radical of the Republicans, and the most 
conservative of tile Democrats, are of one 
mind on liiis i)oint. Mr. Wendell Phil- 
lips, an old abolitionist and lia<ii(al, onco 
pul)liely decl.ired th:it Kejiublieiin govern- 
ment in citie-t had been a comj>lete fuil- 
ure.* An eipi.dly good Radical, the late 
Mr. Horace (ireeley, nnide the following 
still more candid statement: — 'There are 
jirobably at no time less than twenty 
thousand men in this city [New York J 
who would readily commit a safe murder 
for a hundred dollars, break open a hou.so 
for twenty, and take a false oath for five. 
Most of these are of European birth, 
though we have also native miscreants 
who are ready fbrany crime that will nay.' f 
Strong testimony against the working of 
the suffrage — and it must have been most 
unwilling testimony — was given in 187o by 
a politician whose long familiarity with 
caucuses and ' wire-i)u!ling' in everv form 
renders him an undeniable autjiority. 
Let it be widely proclaimed,' he wrote, 
' that the ex]>ericnce and teachings of a 
republican form of government prove 
nothing so alarmingly suggestive ot and 
pregnant with danger as that cheap suf- 
frage involves and entails cheap represen- 
tation.']: Another Republican, of high 
character, has stated that ' the methods of 
politics have now become so repulsive, the 
corruption so open, the intrigues and per- 
sonal hostilities are so shameless, that it 
is very difficult to engage in them without 
a sense of humiliati'm.' " ^ 

Passing to another question, and one 
worthy of the most intelligent discussion, 
but which has never yet taken the shape 
of a political demand or issue in this 
country, this English writer says: 

"Although corruption has been suspect- 
ed at one time or other in almost every 
Department of the Government, the Pres- 
idential office has hitherto been kept free 
from its stain. And yet, by an anomaly of 
the Constitution, the President has some- 
times been exposed to suspicion, and still 
more frequently to injustice and misrepie- 
sentation, in con-equence of the practical 
irresponsibility of his Cabinet officers. 
They are his chief advisers in regard to the 
distribution of places, as well as in the 
higher affa'rs of State, and the discredit of 
any mismanagement on their part falls 
up >n him. It is true that he chooses them, 
and may dismiss them, with the concur- 
rence of the Senate ; but, when once ap- 
pointed, they are beyond reach of all effec- 
tive criticism — for newspaper attacks are 
easily explained by ihesnggi^stion of party 
malice. They cannv)t bo questioned in 



* Sppoili ill N"ew York, March 7 I«SI. 
t 'N.-H York Tril.iiiiV Kch :.. IhTii 
I teller ill New V..rk i«»;iT>i, Feb. J", iC'i. 
J Mr. George \> illiam ^.'urtia, in ' Uarjier'a Mogazln*,* 
1870. 



302 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Congress, for they are absolutely pro- 
hibited from sitting in either House. 
For months together it is quite possible 
fur the Cabinet to pursue a course which is 
in direct opposition to the wishes of the 
people. This was seen, among other oc- 
casions, in 1873-4, when Mr. Richardson 
was Secretary of the Treasury, and at a 
time when his management of the finances 
caused great dissatislactiou. At last a par- 
ticularly gross case of negligence, to use 
no harsher word, known as the ' Sanborn 
contracts,' caused his retirement ; that is 
to say, the demand ior his withdrawal be- 
came so persistent and co general, that the 
President could no longer refuse to listen 
to it. His objectionable policy might have 
been pursued till the end of the Presiden- 
tial term, but for the accidental discovery 
of a scandal, which exhausted the patience 
of his friends as well as his enemies. Now 
had Mr. Richardson been a member of 
either House, and liable to be subjected to 
a rigorous cross-questioning as to his pro- 
ceedings, the mismanagement of which he 
was accused, and which was carried on in 
the dark, never could have occurred. Why 
the founders of the Constitution should 
have thrown this protection round the per- 
sons who happen to fill the chief offices of 
State, is difficult to conjecture, but the 
clause is clear : — ' No person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a 
member of either House during his con- 
tinuance in office.'* Mr. Justice Story de- 
clares that this provision ' has been vindi- 
cated upon the highest grounds of public 
authority,' but he also admits that, as ap- 
plied to the heads of departments, it leads 
to many evils. He adds a warning which 
many events of our own time have shown 
to be not unnecessary : — ' if corruption 
ever eats its way silently into the vitals of 
this Republic, it will be because the peo- 
ple are unable to bring responsibility home 
to the Executive through his chosen Min- 
isters. They will be betrayed when their 
suspicions are most lulled by the Execu- 
tive, under the guise of an obedience to 
the will of Congress.'t The inconveniences 
occasioned to the public service under the 
present system are very great. There is no 
official personage in either House to ex- 
plain the provisions of any Bill, or to give 
information on pressing matters of public 
business. Cabinet officers are only brought 
into communication with the nation when 
they send in their annual reports, or when 
a special report is called for by some un- 
usual emergency. Sometimes the Presi- 
dent himself goes down to the Capitol to 
talk over the merits of a Bill with mem- 
bers. The Department which haj)pens to 
be interested in any particular measure 



• Article T. Bf ct. vi. 2. 

•j- ' ComnicntarieB, 'I., book iii. sect. 869; 



puts it under the charge of some friend of 
the Administration, and if a member par- 
ticularly desires any further information 
respecting it he may, if he thinks proper, 
go to the Department and ask for it. But 
Congress and Ministers are never brought 
face to fr.ce. It is possible that American 
'Secretaries' may escape some of the in-' 
convenience which English Ministers are 
at times called upon to undergo ; but the ' 
most capable and honest of them forfeit | 
many advantages, not the least of which is 
the opportunity of making the exact na- 
ture of their work known to their country- 
men, and of meeting party misrepresenta- 
tions and calumnies in the most effectual 
way. In like manner, the incapable mem- 
bers of the Cabinet would not be able, 
under a different system, to shift the bur- 
den of responsibility for their blunders up- 
on the President. No President suffered 
more in reputation for the faults of others 
than General Grant. It is true that he did 
not always choose his Secretaries with suf- 
ficient care or discrimination, but he was 
made to bear more than a just proportion 
of the censure which was provoked by 
their mistakes. And it was not in Gen- 
eral Grant's disposition to defend himself. 
In ordinary intercourse he was sparing of 
his words, and could never be induced to 
talk about himself, or to make a single 
speech in defense of any portion of his 
conduct. The consequence was, that his 
second term of office was far from being 
worthy of the man who enjoyed a popu- 
larity, just after the war, which Washing- 
ton himself might have envied, and who 
is still, and very justly, regarded with re- 
spect and gratitude for his memorable ser- 
vices in the field. 

" The same sentiment, to which we have 
referred as specially characteristic of the 
American people — hostility to all changes 
in their method of government which are 
not absolutely essential — will keep the 
Cabinet surrounded by irre>iponsible, and 
sometimes incapable, advisers. Contrary 
to general supposition, there is no nation 
in the world so little disposed to look favor- 
ably on Radicalism and a restless desire for 
change, as the Americans. The Constitu- 
tion itself can only be altered by a long 
and tedious process, and after every State 
in the Union has been asked its opinion on 
the question. There is no hesitation in 
enforcing the law in case of disorder, as 
the railroad rioters in Pennsylvania found 
out a few years ago. The state of affairs, 
which the English Government has per- 
mitted to exist in Ireland for upwards of a 
year, would not have been tolerated twenty- 
four hours in the United States. The 
maintenance of the law first, the discussion 
of grievances afterwards ; such is, and al- 
ways has been, the policy of every Ameri- 
can Government, until the evil day of 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



303 



James Buchanan. The governor of every ' 
State i.s a real ruler, ami not a mere nrna- i 
ment, undjthe President wieMs a liuiulnd- 
fold more power than has been left to the 
Sovereign of (treat Ikitain. Both parties 
as a rule, eombino to uphold hia authority, ' 
and, in the event of any dispute with a [ 
foreign Power, all party distinctions disaj)- 

Eear as if by magic. Tliere are no longer 
►emocrats and Republicans, but only • 
Americans. The species of politician, who 
endeavors to gain a reputation for himself 
by destroying the reputation of his country i 
was not taken over to America in the ' May- 
flower,' and it would be more diiruult than 
ever to establish it on American ground ' 
to-day. A man may hold any opinions ' 
that may strike his fancy on other subjects, I 
but in reference to the Government, he is 
expected, while he lives under it, to give it 
his hearty support, especially as against 
foreign nations. There was once a faction 
called the ' Know Nothings,' the guiding 
principle of which was inveterate hostility 
to foreigners ; but a party based upon the 
opposite principle, of hostility to one's own 
country, has not yet ventured to lift up its 
head acrosj the Atlantic. That is an in- 
vention in politics which England has 
introduced, and of which she is allowed to 
enjoy the undisputed monopoly, * * * 
" Display and ceremonial were by no 
means absent from the Government in the 
beginning of its history. President Wash- 
ington never went to Congress on public 
business except in a State coach, drawn by 
six cream-colored horses. The coach was 
an object which would excite the admira- 
tion of the throng even now in the streets 
of London. It was built in the shape of 
a hemisphere, and its panels were adorned 
with cupids, surrounded with flowers 
worthy of Florida, and of fruit not to be 
equalled out of California. The coachman 
and postillions were arrayed in gorgeous 
liveries of white and scarlet. The Phila- 
delphia 'Gazette,' a Government organ, 
regularly gave a supply of Court news for 
the edification of the citizens. From that 
the people were allo\^M^d to learn as much 
as it was deemed proper for thorn to know 
about the President's movements,^and a fair 
amouRt of space^was also devoted to Mrs. 
"Washington — who was not referred to as 
Mrs. Washington, but as ' the amiable con- 
sort of our beloved President. ' When the 
President made his appearance at a ball or 
public reception, a dais was erected for him 
upon which he might stand apart from the 
vulgar throng, and the guests or visitors 
bowed to him in solemn silence. ' Repub- 
lican simplicity' has only come in later 
times. In our day, the hack-driver who 
takes a visitor to a public reception at the 
White House, is quite free to get off his 
box, walk i'.^side by side with his fare, and I 
shake hands with the President with as 



much familiarity as anybody cNc. Very 
few persons presumed to offer to shake 
hands with General Washington. One of 
his friends, Gouverneur Morris, ntshly 
undertook, for a foolish wager, to go up to 
him and slap him on the shoulder, .saying, 
' My dear General, I am hajijiy to see' you 
look so well.' The monient lixed ii\Kin 
arrived, and Mr. Morris, alrea<ly half- 
repenting of his wager, went U[) to tiic 
President, placed his hand upon his .-boul- 
der, and uttered the pre-ieribe<l words. 
' Washington,' .as an eye-witness described 
the scene, ' withdrew his hand, stoiiped 
suddenly back, fixed his eye on Morris j'or 
several minutes with an angrv iVown, until 
the latter retreated abasheJ, ami sought 
refuge in the crowd.' No one else ever 
tried a similar experiment. It is recorded 
of Washington, that he wished the official 
title of the President to be ' High Mighti- 
ness,' * and at one time it was jjroposed to 
engrave his portrait upon the national 
coinage. No royal levees wore more punc- 
tiliously arranged and ordered than those 
of the First President. It was Jefferson, 
the founder of the Democratic party, who 
introduced Democratic manners into the 
Republic. He refused to hold weekly re- 
ceptions, and when he went to Congress to 
read his Address, he rode up unattended, 
tied his horse to a post, and came away 
with the same disregard for outward show. 
After his in.auguration, he did not even 
take the trouble to go to Congress with his 
Message, but sent it by the hands of hia 
Secretary — a custom which has been found 
so convenient that it has been followed 
ever since. A clerk now mumbles through 
the President's ^Message, while members 
sit at their desks writing letters, or reading 
the Message itself, if they do not happen 
to have made themselves masters of its 
contents beforehand." 

The writer, after discussing monopolies 
and tariffs, closes with hopes and predic- 
tions so moderately and sensibly stated that 
any one will be safe in adoi)ting them as 
his own. 

"The controversies which have yet to be 
fought out on these is-sues [the tariff and 
corporate powerj may sometimes become 
formidable, but we"* may hope that the 
really dangerous questions that once con- 
fronted the American people are set at rest 
for ever. The States once more stand in 
their proper relation to the Union, and any 
interference with their self-government is 
never again likely to be attempted, for the 
feeling of the whole people would condenjn 
it. It was a highly Conservative system 
which the framers of the Constitution 
adopted, when they decided that each State 
should be entitled to make its own laws, 

•[Three nrc more tmditinns tinned with the npirit of 
Bome of the attitaiilta inndo in th« " pood old diiy»" cT«n 
agaioat bo UlualriouH a man m WasbiDStou.~.lin. Pol.] 



304 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



to regulate its own franchise, to raise its 
own taxes, and settle everything in connec- 
tion with its own affairs in its own way. The 
general government has no riglit whatever 
to send a single soldier into any State, even 
to preserve order, until it has been called 
upon to act by the Governor of that State. 
The Federal Government, as it has been 
said by the Supreme Court, is one of enu- 
merated powers ; ' and if it has ever acted 
in excess of those powers, it was only when 
olHcers in States broke the compact which 
existed, and took up arms for its destruc- 
tion. They abandoned their place in the 
Union, and were held to have thereby for- 
feited their rights as States. In ordinary 
times there is ample security against the 
abiije of power in any direction. If a 
State government exceeds its authority, the 
people can at the next election expel the 
parties who have been guilty of the offense ; 
if Congress trespasses upon the functions 
of the States, there is the remedy of an ap- 
peal to the Supreme Court, the ' final in- 
terpreter of the Constitution ; ' if usurpa- 
tion should be attempted in spite of these 
safeguards, there is the final remedy of an 
appeal to the whole nation under the form 
of a Constitutional Amendment, which 
may at any time be adopted with the con- 
sent of three-fourths of the States. Only, 
therefore, as Mr. Justice Story has pointed 
out, when three-fourths of the States have 
combined to practice usurpation, is the case 
' irremediable under any known forms of 
the Constitution.' It would be difficult to 
conceive of any circumstances under which 
such a combination as this could arise. No 
form of government ever yet devised has 
proved to be faultless in its opei'ation ; but 
that of the United States is well adapted 
to the genius and character of the people, 
and the very dangers which it has passed 
through render it more precious in their 



j eyes than it was before it had been tried in 
the fire. It assures freedom to all who live 
[ under it ; and it provides for the rigid ob- 
j servance of law, and the due protection of 
' every man in his rights. There is much in 
the events which are now taking place 
I around us to suggest serious doubts, 
whether these great and indispensable ad- 
vantages are afforded by some of the older 
European systems of government which 
we have been accustomed to look upon as 
better and wiser than the American Con- 
stitution." 

A final word as to a remaining great is- 
sue — that of the tariff. It must ever be a 
political issue, one which parties cannot 
wholly avoid. The Democratic party as a 
mass, yet leans to Free Trade ; the Repub- 
lican party, as a mass, favors Tariflf's and 
high ones, at least plainly protective. 
Within a year, two great National Conven- 
tions were held, one at Chicago and one 
j at New York, both in former times, Free 
Trade centres, and in these Congress was 
petitioned either to maintain or imjrrove the 
existing tariff. As a re-jult we see i)resented 
and advocated at the current session the 
Tariff Commission Bill, decisive action 
upon which has not been taken at the 
time we close these pages. The effect of 
the conventions was to cause the Demo- 
cratic Congressional caucus to reject the 
effort of Proctor Knott, to place it in its 
old attitude of hostility to protection. 
Many of the members sought and for the 
time secured an avoidance of the is^ue. 
Their ability to maintain this attitude in 
the fiice of Mr. Watterson's* declaration 
that the Democratic party must stand or 
fall on that issue, remains to be seen. 

* Mr. Watterson, furni'^rly a distinguished member of 
ConffresB, is the author of tlie '■ tariff for revenue only " 
plank in the Pemocratic National I'lutform of I8S0, a'ld 
is now, as he has been fur yeux^, the chief editor of the 
LouisiUU Courier Journai. 



POLITICAL OHAE"GES IE" 1882. 



With a view to carry this work through 
the year 1882 and into part of 1883, very 
plain reference siiould be made to the 
campaign of 1882, which in several im- 
l)ortaiit States was fully as disastrous to 
the Republican party as any State elec- 
tions since the advent <;f that party to 
national supremacy and jiower. In 1863 
and 1874 the Republican reverses were 
almost if not quite as general, but in the 
more important States the adverse majori- 
ties were not near so sweeping. Political 
"tidal waves" had been freely talked of 
as descriptive of the situation in the earlier 



years named, but the result of 1882 has 
been pertinently described by Horatio 
Seymour as the "groundswell," and such 
it seemed, both to the active participants 
in, and lookers-on, at the struggle. 

Political discontent seems to be periodi- 
cal under all governments, and the periods 
are probably quite as frequent though less 
violent under republican as other forms. 
Certain it is that no political party in our 
history has long enjoyed uninterrupted 
success. The National success of the Re- 
publicans cannot truthfully be said to 
have been uninterrupted since the first 



REPUBLICANS — DK MO CR ATS. 



305 



election of Ijincoln, as at tiinoa one or tlic [ 
otlior of the two Housos of Congri-sa have | 
been in the hands of the Deinoi;rulic party, 
whik' since the set-ond (Jrant ailininistra- 
tion there lias not been a safe workinj; 
majority of Jtepnhlieans in eitlier Jlnnse. l 
Coinbiuatioiis witli ( Jreenbaeivers, iiead- 
justers, and oceasionally witli dissentiiii; 
Denioerats liave had to be employed to 
preserve majorities in behalf of important 
measures, and these have not always sue- 
i!t'eded, though the general tendeiu-y of 
Kide-parties has been to support the majo- 
rity, for the very plain reason that majori- 
ties can reward with power upon commit- 
tees and with patronage. 

Efforts were made by the Democrats in 
the first session of the 47th Congress to 
reduce existing tarifls, and to repeal the 
internal revenue taxes. The Repub- 
licans met the first movement by establish- 
ing a TarifT Commission, which was ap- 
pointed by President Arthur, and com- 
posed mainly of gentlemen favorable to 
protective duties. In the year previous 
(1881) the income from internal taxes was 
i=13o,2()4., 385.51, and the cost of collecting 
$4,3:27,7y3.24, or 3.20 per cent. The cus- 
toms revenues amounted to $198,159,676.02, 
the cost of collecting the same $6,383,288. 
10, or 3.22 per cent. There was no gene- 
ral complaint as to the cost of collecting 
these immense revenues, for this cost was 
greatly less than in former years, but the 
surplus on internal taxes (about $146,000, 
OUO) was so large that it could not be 
profitably employed even in the payment 
of the public debt, and as a natural result 
all interests called upon to pay the tax 
(save where there was a monopoly in the 
product or the manufacture) complained 
of the burden as wholly unnecessary, and 
large interests and very many people de- 
manded immediate and absolute repeal. 
The Republicans sought to meet this de- 
maml half way by a bill repealing all the 
taxes, save those on spirits and tobacco, 
but the Democrats obstructed and defeated 
every atteni[>t irt partial repeal. The 
Republicans thought that the moral senti- 
ment of the country would favor the re- 
tention of the internal taxes upon spirits 
and tobacco (the latter having been pre- 
viously reduced) but if there was any such 
sentiment it did not manifest itself in the 
fall elections. On the contrary, every 
form of discontent, encouraged by these 
great causes, took shape. While the 
TaritTCommiHsion, by active and very in- 
telligent work, held out continued hope to 
the more confident industries, those which 
had l)een threatened or injured by the 
failure of the crops in 1881, and by the 
assassination of President Garfield, saw 
only prolonged injury in the probable 
work of the CommissioD, for to meet the 
20 



close Democratic sei'timent and to unite 
that wliich it was hopeil would be gene- 
rally friendly, moderate tariff rates had to 
be fixed; notably upon iron, steel, and 
many clas-ses of manufactured goods. 
Manufacturers of the cheaper gradea of 
cotton gooils were li-eling the pressure of 
competition from the iSi,uth--wncre gooda 
could be made from a natural product 
close at hand — while tlwrse of the North 
found about the same time tha; tuc tastes 
of their customers had imjiroveii, and 
henc« their cheaper grades were no longer 
in such general demand. There wasover- 
I)roduction, as a conse(|uence grave depres- 
sion, and not all in the business could at 
once realize the cause of the trouble. 
Doubt anil distrust prevailed, atid early in 
the summer of 1882, and indeed until late 
in the fall, the country seemed upon the- 
verge of a business panic. At the same 
time the leading journals of the country 
seemed to have joined in a crusade against 
all existing political methods, and against 
all statutory and political abuses. The 
cry of " Down with Boss liulc ! " was heard 
in many States, and this rallied to the 
swelling ranks of discontent all who are 
naturally fond of pulling down leaders — 
and the United States Senatorial election* 
of 1883 quickly showed that the blow was 
aimed at all leaders, whether they were- 
alleged Bosses or not. Then, too, the 
forms of discontent which could not take 
practical shape in the great Presidential 
contest between Garfield and Hancock^ 
came to the front with cumulative force 
after the assassination. There is little use 
in philosophizing and searching for sufl5- 
cient reasons leading to a fact, when the 
fact itself must be confessed and when its 
force has been felt. It is a jilain fact that 
many votes in the fall of 1882 were deter- 
mined by the nominating struggle for the 
Presidency in 1880, by the quarrels which 
followed Garfield's inauguration, and by 
the assassination. Indeed, the nation had 
not recovered from the shock, and numy 
very good people looked with very grave 
suspicion upon every act of President 
Arthur after he had succeeded to the 
chair. The best informed, broadest and 
most liberal political minds saw in his 
course an honest effort to heal existing 
differences in the Rei)ublican i)arty, but 
many acts of recommendation and ai)iioint- 
ment directed to this end were discounted 
by the few which coulil not thus be traced, 
and suspicion and discontent swelled the 
chorus of other injuries. The result was 
the great jiolitical changes ot 1882. It be- 
gan in Ohio, the only important and de- 
batable October State remaining at this 
time. The causes enumerated above (save 
the assassination and the conflict between 
the friends of Grant and Blaine) operated 



306 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



with less force in Ohio than any otlier sec- 
tion — for here leaders had not been held up 
as " Bosses ;" civil service reform had many 
advocates among them; the people were 
not by interest specially wedded to high 
tariff duties, nor were they large payers of 
internal revenue taxes. But the liquor 
issue had sprung up in the Legislature the 
previous winter, the Republicans attempt- 
ing to levy and collect a tax from all who 
sold, and to prevent the sale on Sundays. 
These brief facts make strange reading to 
the people of other States, where tlie sale 
of liquor has generally been licensed, and 
forbidden on Sundays. Ohio had previ- 
ously passed a prohibitory constitutional 
amendment, in itself defective, and as no 
legislation had been enacted to enforce it, 
those who wished began to sell as though 
the right were natural, and in this way be- 
came strong enough to resist taxation or 
license. The Legislature of 1882, the ma- 
jority controlled by the Republicans, at- 
tempted to pass the Pond liquor tax act, 
and its issue was joined. The liquor in- 
terests organized, secured control of the 
Democratic State Convention, nominated 
a ticket pledged to their interests, made 
a platform which pointed to unrestricted 
sale, and by active work and the free 
use of funds, carried the election and 
reversed the usual majority. Governor 
Foster, the boldest of the Republican lead- 
ers, accepted the issue as presented, and 
stumped in favor of license and the sanc- 
tity of the Sabbath ; but the counsels of 
the Republican leaders were divided, Ex- 
Secretary Sherman and others enacting the 
role of ' confession and avoidance." The 
result carried with it a train of Republi- 
can di.-iasters. Congressional candidates 
whom the issue could not legimately touch, 
fell before it, probably on the principle 
that " that which strikes the head injures 
the entire body." The Democratic State 
and Legislative tickets succeeded, and the 
German element, which of all others is 
most fevorable to freedom in the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath, transferred its vote 
almost as an entirety from the Rei)ublican 
to the DeiTiOcratic party. 

Ohio emboldened the liquor interests, 
and in their Conventions and Societies in 
other States they agreed as a rule to check 
and, if possible, defeat the advance of the 
prohibitory amendment idea. This started 
in Kansas in 1880, under the lead of Gov. 
St. John, an eloquent temperance advo- 
cate. It was passed by an immense 
majority, and it was hardly in force be- 
fore conflicting accounts were scattered 
throughout the country as to its effect. 
Some of the friends of temperance con- 
tended that it improved the public con- 
dition ; its enemies all asserted that in 
the larger towns and cities it produced 



free and irresponsible instead of licensed 
sale. The latter seem to have had the 
best of the argument, if the election re- 
sult is a truthful witness. Gov. St. John 
was again the nominee of the Repub- 
licans, but while all of the remainder of 
the State-ticket was elected, he fell under 
a majority which must have been j)ro- 
duced by a change of forty thousand votes. 
Iowa next took up the prohibitory amend- 
ment idea, secured its adoption, but the 
result was injurious to the Republicans in 
the Fall elections, where the discontent 
struck at Congre»-8men, as well as State 
and Legislative officers. 

The same amendment had been pro- 
posed in Pennsylvania, a Republican 
House in 1881 having passed it by almost 
a solid vote (Democrats freely joining iu 
its support), but a Republican Senate de- 
feated, after it had been loaded down 
with amendments. New York was co- 
quetting with the same measure, and as a 
result the liquor interests — well-organized 
and with an abundance of money, as a 
rule struck at the Republican party in 
both New York and Pennsylvania, and 
thus largely aided the groundswell. The 
same interests aided the election of Genl. 
B. F. Butler of Massachusetts, but from a 
different reason. He had, in one of his 
earlier canvasses, freely advocated the 
right of the poor to sell equally with those 
who could pay heavy license fees, and had 
thus won the major sympathy of the 
interest. Singularly enough, Massachu- 
setts alone of all the Republican States 
meeting with defeat in 1882, fails to show 
in her result reasons which harmonize 
with those enumerated as making up the 
elements of discontent. Her people most 
do favor high tariffs, taxes on liquors and 
luxuries, civil service reforms, and were 
supposed to be more free from legal and 
political abuses than any other. Massa- 
chusetts had, theretofore, been considered 
to be the most advanced of all the States— 
in notions, in habit, and in law — yet 
Butler's victory was relatively more pro- 
nounced than that of any Democratic 
candidate, not excepting that of Cleve- 
land over Folger in New York, the 
Democratic majority here approaching 
two hundred thousand. How are we to 
explain the Massachusetts' result? Gov. 
Bishop was a high-toned and able gentle- 
man, the type of every reform contended 
for. There is but one explanation. 
Massachusetts had had too much of re- 
form ; it had come in larger and faster 
doses than even her progressive people 
could stand — and an inconsistent discon- 
tent took new shape there — that of very 
plain reaction. This view is confirmed by 
the subsequent attempt of Gov. Butler to 
defeat the re-election of Geo. F. Hoar to 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



307 



the U. S. Senate, by a combination of 
Democrats with dissatislioJ Republicans. 
The movement failed, but it c;iine very 
near to success, and lor ilays the result 
was in doubt. Hoar hail been a Senator 
of advanced views, of broad and com- 
jireheiisive statesnuuK-hip, but that com- 
munistic sentiment which occasionally 
crops out in our politics and strikes at all 
leailers, merely from the pleasure of ns-ierl- 
inii; the right to tear down, assailed him 
with a vigor almost cipial to that which 
struck Windom of ^linnesota, a statesman 
of twenty-lour years' honorable, able and 
sometimes brilliant service. To prejudice 
the people of his State against him, a 
photograph of his Wasiiiugton residence 
liad been scattered broadcast. The print 
in the photograph intended to prejudice 
being a coach with a liveried lackey It 
might have been the coach and lackey of 
a visitor, but the elfect was the same where 
disconteut had run into a fever. 

Political discontent gave unmistakable 
manifestations of its existence in Ohio, 
Massachusetts, New York (where Ex- 
Governor Cornell's nomination had been 
defeated by a forged telegram), Michigan, 
Nebra.ska, Kansas, Iowa, Connecticut, 
California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and 
Indiana. The Republican position was 
well maintained in New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Illinois, 
and Wisconsin. It was greatly improved 
in Virginia, where Mahone's Republican 
Readjuster ticket carried the State by 
nearly ten thousand, and where a United 
States' Senator and Congressman-at-large 
were gained, as well as some of the District 
Congressmen. The Republicans also im- 
proved the situation in North Carolina 
and Tennessee, though they failed to 
carry either. They also gained Congress- 
men in Mississippi and Louisiana, but 
the Congressional result throughout the 
country was a sweeping Democratic vic- 
tory, the 48th Congress, beginning Marcli 
4, 1883, showing a Democratic majority of 
71 in a total membership of 325. 

In Pennsylvania alone of all the 
Northern States, were the Republican 
elements of discontent organized, and 
here they were as well organized as pos- 
sible under the circumstances. Charles S. 
Wolfe had the year j)revious proclaimed 
what he called his "independence of the 
Bosses," by declaring himself a candidate 
for State Treasurer, " nominated in a con- 
vention of one." He secured 49,984 votes, 
and this force was used as the nucleus for 
the better organized Independent Repub- 
lican movement of 1882. Through this a 
State Convention was called which placed 
a full ticket in the field, and which in 
many districts nominated separate legisla- 
tive candidates. 



The complaints of the Independent 
Rei)ublicans of Pennsylvania were very 
much like those of dissatisfied ReifUb- 
licans in other Northern Stalt-ft^where no 
adverse organizations were set up, and 
these can best be understood by giving the 
ollicial [lapers and corre-snondence con- 
nected with the revolt, and tiie uttetnnts 
to conciliate and suppress it by the regulur 
<trganization. The writer feels a delicacy 
in appending this dat:i, inasmuch a-> he 
was one of the principals in the negotia- 
tions, but formulated complaints, methods 
and principh'S i)eculiar to the time can be 
better understood as presented by organ- 
ized and oflicial bodies, than where mere 
oinnions of cotemporaneous writers and 
speakers must otherwi.-e be given. A very 
careful summary has been made by Col. 
A. K. McClure, in the Philadelphia Times 
Alinannc, and from this we (juote the data 
connected with the — 

The Indcpenclciit RrpiiT>Ilcau Revolt In 
Pennsylvania. 

The following call was issued by Chair- 
man McKee, of the committee which con- 
ducted the Wolfe campaign in 1881 : 

Headquarters State Committee, 
Citizens' Republicaii As.sociatio.\', 
Giraud House, 

Philadelphia, December IG, 1881. 
To the Independent Eepublieana of Pcnn- 

si/h'ania : 

You are earnestly requested to send re- 
presentatives from each county to a State 
conference, to be held at Philadelphia. 
Thursday, January 12th, 1882, at 10 o'clock 
A. M., to take into consideration the wis- 
dom of placing in nomination proper per- 
sons for the offices of Governor, Lieuten- 
ant Governor, Secretary of Internal Atfaii-s 
and Supreme Court Judge, and sucli other 
matters as may come before the confer- 
ence, looking to the overthrow of " boss 
rule," and the elimination of the pernicious 
" spoils system," and its kindred evils, from 
the administration of public affairs. It in 
of the utmost importance that those fifty 
thousand unshackled voters who supported 
the independent candidacv of Hon. Charles 
S. Wolfe for the office of State Treasurer 
as a solemn protest against rin<r domina- 
tion, together with the scores of thousands 
of liberty-loving citizens who are ready to 
join in the next revolt against " hos-ism." 
sliall be worthily represented at this con- 
ference. 

I. D. McKee, Chairman. 

Fraxk Willing Leach, Secretary. 

Pursuant to the above call, two hundred 
and thirteen delegates, representing thirtv- 
three of the sixty-six counties, met at the 
Assembly Building, January 12tb, 1832, 



308 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



and organized by the election of John J. 
Pinkertou as chairman, together with a 
suitable list of vice-presidents and secre- 
taries. After a general interchange of 
views, a resolution was adopted directing 
the holding of a State Convention for the 
nomination of a State ticket, May 24th. 
An executive committee, with power to 
arrange for the election of delegates from 
each Senatorial district, was also appointed, 
consisting of Messrs. I. D. McKee, of 
Philadelphia; AVharton Barker, of Mont- 
gomery; John J. Pinkerton, of Chester; 
F. M. Nichols, of Luzerne ; H. S. McNair, 
of York, and C. W. Miller, of Crawford. 
Mr. Nichols aftewards declining to act, 
George E. Majjes, of Venango, was sub- 
stituted in his place. Before the time 
arrived for the meeting of the convention 
of May 24th, several futile efforts were 
made to heal the breach between the two 
wings of the Republican party. At a con- 
ference of leading Independents held in 
Philadelphia, April 23d, at which Senator 
Mitchell was present, a committee was 
appointed for the purpose of conferring 
with a similar committee from the regular 
organization, upon the subject of the party 
differences. The members of the Peace 
Conference, on the part of the Indepen- 
dents, were Charles S. Wolfe, I. D. McKee, 
Francis B. Reeves, J. W. Lee, and Whar- 
ton Barker. The committee on the part 
of the Stalwarts were M. S. Quay, John F. 
Hartranft, C. L. Magee, Howard J. Reeder, 
and Thomas Cochran. A preliminary 
meeting waa held at the Continental 
Hotel, on the evening of April 29th, which 
adjourned to meet at the same place on 
the evening of May Ist; at which meeting 
the following peace propositions Avere 
agreed upon : 

Hesolved, That we recommend the adop- 
tion of the following principles and 
methods by the Republican State Conven- 
tion of May 10th. 

First. That we unequivocally condemn 
the use of patronage to promote personal 

Political ends, and require that all offices 
estowed within the party shall be upon 
the sole basis of fitness. 

Second. That competent and faithful 
oflicers should not be removed except for 
cause. 

Third. That the non-elective minor 
offices should be filled in accordance with 
rules established by law. 

Fourth. That the ascertained popular 
will shall be faithfully carried out in State 
and National Conventions, and by those 
holding office by the favor of the party. 

Fifth. That we condemn compulsory 
assessments for political purposes, and pro- 
scription for failure to respond either to 
such assessments or to requests for volun- 
tary coEtributious, and that any policy of 



political proscription is urjust, and calcu- 
lated to disturb party harmony. 

Sixth. That public office constitutes a 
high trust to be administered solely for the 
people, whose interests must be paramount 
to those of persons or parties, and that it 
should be invariably conducted with the 
same efficiency, economy, and integrity as 
are expected in the execution of private 
trusts. 

Seventh. That the State ticket should 
be such as by the impartiality of its con- 
stitution and the high character and ac- 
knowledged fitness of the nominees will 
justly commend itself to the support of the 
united Republican party. 

Resolved, That we also recommend the 
adoption of the following permanent rules 
for the holding of State Conventions, and 
the conduct of the party : 

Fi7-st. That delegates to State Conven- 
tions shall be chosen in the manner in 
which candidates for the General Assem- 
bly are nominated, except in Senatorial 
districts composed of more than one coun- 
ty, in which conferees for the selection of 
Senatorial delegates shall be chosen in the 
manner aforesaid, and the representation 
of each county shall be based upon its Re- 
publican vote cast at the Presidential elec- 
tion next preceding the convention. 

Second. Hereafter the State Convention 
of the Republican party shall be held on 
the second Wednesday of July, except in 
the year of the Presidential election, when 
it shall be held not more than thirty days 
previous to the day fixed for the National 
Convention, and at least sixty days' notice 
shall be given of the date of the State Con- 
vention. 

Third. That every person who voted 
the Republican electoral ticket at the last 
Presidential election next preceding any 
State Convention shall be permitted to 
participate in the election of delegates to 
State and National Conventions, and we 
recommend to the county organizations 
that in their rules they allow the largest 
freedom in the general participation in the 
primaries consistent with the preservation 
of the party organization. 

M. S. Quay, 
J. F. Hartranft, 
Thomas Cochran, 
Howard J. Reeder, 
C. L. Magee, 

On the part of theRepublican State Com- 
mittee, appointed by Chairman Cooper. 

Charles S. Wolfe, 
I. D. McKee, 
Francis B. Reeves, 
AVharton Barker, 
J. W. Lef.. 
On the part of Senator Mitchell's Inde- 
pendent Republican Committee. 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



309 



The following resolution was adopted by 
the joint conferL'noo : 

Rtsulved, That we disclaim any authority 
to speak or act lor other persons than our- 
selves, and simply maiic these sug^'estioiis 
as in our opinion are essential to the pro- 
motion of harmony and unity. 

In order, however, that there might be 
no laying ilown of arms on the part of the 
Independents, in the false belief that the 
peace propositit)ns had ended the contest, 
without regard to whether they were ac- 
cepted in good faith, and put in practice 
by the regular convention, the following 
call was issued by the Independent Execu- 
tive Committee : 

Executive Committee, 
CixizENS' Republican Association of 
Pennsylvania, Giuakd House. 

Philadelphia, May 3d, 1882. 
To the Independent Republicans of Pennsyl- 
vania: 

At a conference of Independent Repub- 
licans held in Philadelphia, on January 
12th, 1882, the following resolution was 
adopted, to wit: 

Resolved, That a convention be held on 
the 24th day of May, 1882, for the purpose 
of placing in nomination a full Indepen- 
dent Republican ticket for the offices to be 
filled at the general election next Novem- 
l)er. 

In pursuance and by the authority of the 
above resolution the undersigned, the State 
Executive Committee appointed at the said 
conference, request the Independent Re- 
publicans of each county of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania to send delegates 
to the Independent Convention of May 
24th, the basis of representation to be the 
same as that fixed for Senators and Repre- 
sentatives of the General Assembly of 
Pennsylvania. 

Should the convention of May 10th fail 
to nominate as its candidates men who in 
their character, antecedents and affiliations 
are embodiments of the principles of true 
Republicanism free from the iniquities of 
bossism, and of an honest administration 
of public affairs free from the evils of the 
spoils system, such nominations, or any 
such nomination, should be emphatically 
repudiated by the Independent Convention 
of May 24th, and by the Independent Re- 
publicans of Pennsylvania iu November 
next. 

The simple adoption by the Harrisburg 
Convention of ]\Iay 10th of resolutions of 
plausible platitudes, while confessing the 
existence of the evils which we have stren- 
uously opposed, and admitting the justice 
of our position in opposing them, will not 
satisfy the Independent Republicans of 
this Commonwealth. We are not battling 



for the construction of platforms, but for 
the overthrow of Wossi>-m, and the evils of 
the spoils system, wliiih animated a <lc- 
Hpicable aasiussin to deprive our loved I're«- 
idint Garfield of liis life, and our country 
of it-s friend and peacemaker. 

The nomination of slated can<lida)es bv 
machine methoils, thereby teinling to the 
perpetuation of boss dominicjii in our ( "om- 
monweaith, should never be ratified l)y the 
Independent Republieans in convention 
assembled or at the jxtlls. I'jjon tins vi'ry 
vital point there should be no mistake in 
the niiiul of any citizen of this State. The 
l)ath of duty in this emergency leads for- 
ward, and not backward, and forward we 
should go until bossism and niachineism 
and stalwartism — aye, and Cameron ism — 
are made to give way to pure Republican- 
ism. The people will not submit to tem- 
porizing or compromising. 

We appeal to the Indei)cndent Republi- 
cans of Pennsylvania to take immediate 
steps toward perfecting their organization 
in each county, and completing the selec- 
tion of delegates to the Independent State 
Convention. Use every exertion to secure 
the choice as delegates of representative, 
courageous men, who will not falter when 
the time arrives to act — who will not-^le- 
sert into the ranks of the enemy when the 
final time of testing comes. Especially see 
to it that there shall not be chosen as dele- 
gates any Pharisaical Independents, who 
preach reform, yet blindly follow boss 
leadership at the crack of the master's 
whip. Act quickly and act discreetly. 

A State Campaign Committee of' fifty, 
comprising one member from each Sena- 
torial district, has been formed, and any 
one desiring to co-operate with us in this 
movement against the enemies of the in- 
tegrity of our State, who shall communi- 
cate with us, will be immediately referred 
to the committeeman repre^entinsr the dis- 
trict in which he lives. We urgently invite 
a correspondence from the friends of politi- 
cal independence from all sections of the 
State. 

Again we say to the Independent Repub- 
licans of Pennsylvania in the interest of 
justice and the Commonwealth's honor, 
leave no stone unturned to vindicate the 
rights of the people. 

I. D. McKee, Chairman. 
Whauto.v Barker. 
John J. Pixkf.rton. 
Geo. E. Mape-s. 
H. S. MoNair. 
Charles W. Miller. 
Frank Willing Leach, Secretary. 

In pursuance of the above call, the In- 
dependent Convention met. May 24fh. la 
Philarlelphia, .ind decidinjr that the action 
of the regular Republican Convention, held 



310 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



at Harrisburg on May 10th, did not give 
the guarantee of reform demanded by the 
Independents, proceeded to nominate a 
ticket and adopt a platform setting forth 
their views. 

Altliougli the break between the two 
wings of tlie party was tlius made final to 
ail appearances, yet all ellbrts for a recon- 
ciliation were not entirely abandoned. 
Thos. M. Marshall having declined the 
nomination for Congressman at Large on 
the Rej>ublican ticket, the convention was 
reconvened June 21st, for the purpose of 
filling the vacancy, and while in session, 
instructed the State Central Committee to 
use all honorable means to secure harmony 
between the two sections of the party. 
Accordingly, the Republican State Com- 
mittee was called to meet in Philadelphia, 
July 13th. At this meeting the following 
proj^ositions were submitted to the Inde- 
pendents : 

Pursuant to the resolution passed by 
the Harrisburg Convention of June 21st, 
and authorizing the Republican State Com- 
mittee to use all honorable means to pro- 
mote harmony in the party, the said com- 
mittee, acting in conjunction with the Re- 
publican candidates on the State ticket, 
respectfully submit to the State Committee 
and candidates of the Independents the 
following propositions : 

First. The tickets headed by James A. 
Beaver and John Stewart, respectively, be 
submitted to a vote of the Republican 
electors of the State, at primaries, as here- 
inafter provided for. 

Second. The selection of candidates to 
be voted for by the Republican party in 
November to be submitted as aforesaid, 
every Republican elector, constitutionally 
and legally qualified, to be eligible to 
nomination. 

Tliird. A State Convention to be held, 
to be constituted as recommended by the 
Continental Hotel Conference, whereof 
Wharton Barker was chairman and Francis 
B. Reeves secretary, to select candidates 
to be voted for by the Republican party in 
November, its choice to be limited to the 
candidates now in nomination, or unlimit- 
ed, as the Independent State Committee 
may prefer. 

The primaries or convention referred to 
in the foregoing propositions to be held 
on or before the fourth Wednesday of 
August next, under regulations or ap- 
portionment to be made by Daniel Agnew, 
H:imi)ton L. Carson, and Francis B. 
Reeve-;, not in conflict, however, with the 
acts of Assembly regulating primary elec- 
tions, and tlu! candidates receiving the 
highest popular vote, or the votes of a 
majority of the members of the convention, 
to receive the united support of the party. 

Resolved, That in the opinion of the Re- 



publican State Committee the above pro- 
positions fully carry out, in letter and 
spirit, the resolution passed by the Harris- 
burg Convention, June 21st, and that we 
hereby pledge the State Committee to 
carry out in good faith any one of the 
foregoing propositions which may be ac- 
cepted. 

liraolved, That the chairman of the Re- 
publican State Committee be directed to 
forward an official copy of the proceedings 
of this meeting, together with the forego- 
ing propositions, to the Independent State 
Committee and candidates. 

Whereupon, General Reeder, of North- 
ampton, moved to amend by adding a 
further proposition, as follows. 

Fourth. A State Convention, to be con- 
stituted as ])rovided for by the new rules 
adopted by the late Republican State Con- 
vention, to select candidates to be voted 
for by the Republican party in November, 
provided, if such convention be agreed to, 
said convention shall be held not later 
than the fourth Wednesday in August. 
Which amendment was agreed to, and the 
preamble and resolutions as amended 
were agreed to. 

This communication was addressed to 
the chairman of the Independent State 
Committee, I. D. McKee, who called the 
Independent Committee to meet July 27th, 
to consider the propositions. In the 
meantime the Independent candidates 
held a conference on the night of July 
13th, and four of them addressed the fol- 
lowing propositions to the candidates of 
the Stalwart wing of the party : 

Philadelphia, July 13th, 1882. 

To General James A. Bearer, Hon. William 
T. Davies, Hon. John M. Oreer, William 
Henry llawle, Esq., and 3Iarriott Brosius, 
Esq. 

Gentlemen : By a communication re- 
ceived from the Hon. Thomas V. Cooper, 
addressed to us as candidates of the Inde- 
pendent Republicans, we are advised of 
the proceedings of the State Committee, 
which assembled in this city yesterday. 

Without awaiting the action of the In- 
dependent State Committee, to which we 
have referred the communication, and at- 
tempting no discussion of the existing 
differences, or the several methods pro- 
posed by which to secure party unity, we 
beg to say that we do not believe that any 
of the propositions, if accepted, would pro- 
duce harmony in the party, but on the 
contrary, Avould lead to wider divisions. 
We therefore suggest that the desired re- 
sult can be secured by the hearty co-op- 
eration of the respective candidates. We 
have no authority to speak for the great 
body of voters now giving their support to 
the Independent Republican ticket, nor 



CURRENT POLITICS. 



311 



can we include them by any action we 
n»ay take. Wo are perfectly free, however, 
to act in our indivuiual capacity, and de- 
sire to assure you tliat wc are not only 
williuj::, but anxious to co-operato with 
you in the endeavor to restore peace and 
liarniony to our i)arty. That this can be 
aeeoniplishod l)eyoiid all doubt we feel en- 
tirely assured, if ynu, gentlemen, are pre- 
jiared to yield, with us, all pt-rsonal con- 
siderations, and agree to the following 
pn)|)()sitii)iis : * 

Firxt. The v.-ith<lrawal of both tickets. 
Second. The several candidates of these 
tickets to pled;;e themselves not to accept 
any subsequent nominatiou by the pro- 
• posed convention. 

Under these conditions wc will unite 
with you in uri^ing upon our respective 
constituencies the adoption of the third 
proposition submitted by your committee, 
and concludo the whole controversy by 
our final wltlidrawal as candidates. Such 
withdrawal of both tickets would remove 
from the canvass all personal as well as 
political antaj^oiiisms, and leave the party 
united and unembtirnissed. 

AVe trust, gentlemen, that your judgment 
will approve the method we have suggest- 
ed, and that, a|)|)reciating the importance 
of concluding the matter with as little de- 
lay as possible, you will give us your re- 
ply within a week from this date. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
John Stewart, 
Levi Bird Duff. 
George W. Merrick. 
George Junkin. 
William McMichael, Independent can- 
didate for Congressman at Large, dissented 
from the proposition of his colleagues, and 
addressed the following communication to 
Chairman Cooper : 

Philadelphia, July 13th, 1882. 
Hon. Thomas V. Cooper, Chairman^ etc. 
Dear Sir: Your letter of July 12th is 
receiveil, addressed to the chairman of the 
State Committee of the Independent Re- 
publicans and their candidates, containing 
certain propositions of your committee. I 
decline those propositions, because they 
involve an abandonment of the cause of 
the liidepcndent Republicans. 

If a new convention, representing all 
Republicans, had nominated an entirely 
new ticket, worthy of popular support, and 
not containing the name of any candidate 
on either of the present tickets, and sin- 
cerely supporting the princii)le3 of the 
Independent Riipublicans, the necessity 
for a separate Independent Republicaii 
movement would not exist. Your propo- 
sition, however, practically proposes to 
re-nominate General Beaver, and reaflSrm 
the abuse which we oppose. 



The convention of Independent liepub- 
Means which met in 1'hiladt.lphia on May 
24th, announced prineii»ies in wiiich I 
believe. It nominated me fur ('i)ngres.s- 
nian at Large, and I accciilcd that nomi* 
nation, it declared boldly against boHS- 
ism, the spoils system, und all the cvil.s 
which impair Republiian usefulness, and 
in favor of jiopular rule, eipial rights of 
all, national unity, maintenance of |)ublic 
credit, j)rotection to labor, and all the 
great principles of true Republieanisin. 
No other ticKct now in the iiehl pn^sents 
those issues. The jjcojde of Pennsylvania 
can say at the polls, in Novendter, whether 
they approve of those j>rinciples, and will 
support the cause which represents them. 
I will not withdraw or retire unless events 
hereafter shall give assurance that ne- 
cessary reform in the civil service shall be 
adopted ; assessments made upon ofBce- 
holders returned, and not hereafter exact- 
ed ; boss, nuichine, and spoils methods 
forever abandoned; and all our public 
offices, from United States Senator to the 
mo* uuimi)ortant officials, shall be filled 
only by honest and capable men, who will 
represent the peoj)lc, and not attempt to 
dictate to or control them. 

I shall go on with the fight, asking the 
supportofall my fellow-citizens whobelievo 
in the principles of the Independent Re- 
publican Convention of May 24th. 
Yours truly, 

William JIcMiciiael. 

To these propositions General P>eaver 
and his colleagues replied in the following 
communication : 

Philadelphia, July 15th, 1882. 

lion. Thomas V. Cooper, (Viairman Rejnib- 
lican State Committee, Philadelphia, Fa. 

Sir : We have the honor to acknowledge 
the receipt through you of a communica- 
tion addressed to us by the Hon. John 
Stewart, Colonel Levi Bird Duff, Major G. 
W. Merrick, and George Junkin, Esq., in 
response to certain propositions submitted 
by the Republican SUite Committee, re- 
presenting the Republican party of Penn- 
sylvania, looking to an amicable and hon- 
orable adjustment of whatever ditferences 
there may be amonsr the various elements 
of the party. Without acceptino: any of 
the propositions submitted by your com- 
mittee, this communication a^ks us, nn a 
condition precedent to any recommenda- 
tion on the jiart of the writers thereof, to 
declare that in the event of the callintr of 
a new convention, we will severally forbid 
the Republicans of Pennsylvania to cill 
upon us for our services aa candidates for 
the various positions to be filled by tho 
people at the coming election. To say 



312 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



that in the effort to determine whether or 
not our nomination was the free and un- 
biased choice of the Republican party we 
must not be candidates, is simply to try 
the question at issue. We have no de- 
sire to discuss the question in any of its 
numerous bearings. We have placed our- 
selves unreservedly in the hands of the 
Hepublicans of Pennsylvania. We have 
pledged ourselves to act concurrently with 
your committee, and are bound by its ac- 
tion. AVe therefore respectfully suggest that 
we have no power or authority to act in- 
dependently of the committee, or makeany 
declaration at variance with the proposi- 
tions submitted in accordance with its ac- 
tion. There ought to be and can be no 
such thing as personal antagonism in this 
contest. We socially and emphatically 
disclaim even the remotest approach to a 
feeling of this kind toward any person. 
We fraternize with and are ready to sup- 
port any citizen who loves the cause of 
pure Republicanism, and with this decla- 
ration we submit the whole subject to your 
deliberate judgment and wise considera- 
tion. 

James A. Beaver. 

William Henry Rawle, 

Marriott Brosius. 

W. T. Davies. 

John M. Greer. 
At the meeting of the Independent State 
Committee, July 27th, the propositions of 
the Regular Committee were unanimously 
rejected, and a committee appointed to 
draft a reply, which was done in the fol- 
lowing terms : 

Thomas V. Cooper, Esq., Chairman Repub- 
lican State Committee. 
Dear Sir : I am instructed to advise you 
that the Independent Republican State 
Committee have considered the four sug- 
gestions contained in the minutes of the 
proceedings of your committee,forwarded 
to me by you on the 12th instant. 

I am directed to say that this committee 
find that none of the four are methods 
fitted to obtain a harmonious and honora- 
ble unity of the Republican voters of 
Pennsylvania. All of them areinadequate 
to that end, for the reason that thoy afford 
no guarantee that, being accepted, the 
principles upon which the Independent 
Republicans have taken their stand would 
be treated with respect or put into action. 
All of them contain the probability that 
an attempt to unite the Republicans of the 
State by their means would either result 
in reviving and strengthening the political 
dictatorship which we condemn or would 
permanently distract the Rei)ui)lican body, 
and insure the future and continued 
triumph of our common opponent, the 
Democratic party. 



Of the four suggestions, the first, second 
and fourth are so inadequate as to need no 
separate discussion: the third, which alone 
may demand attention, has the fatal defect 
of not including the withdrawal of that 
" slated ■' ticket which was made up many 
months ago, and long in advance of the 
Harrisburg Convention, to represent and 
to maintain the very evils of control and 
abuses of method to which we stand op- 
posed. This proposition, like the others, 
supposing it to have been sincerely put 
forward, clearly shows that you miscon- 
ceive the cause of the Independent Repub- 
lican movement, as well as its aims and 
purposes. You assume that we desire to 
measure the respective numbers of those 
who support the Harrisburg ticket and 
those who find their principles exj^ressed 
by the Philadelphia Convention. This is 
a complete and fatal misapprehension. We 
are organized to promote certain reforms, 
and not to abandon them in pursuit of 
votes. Our object is the overthrow of the 
" boss system " and of the " spoils system." 

In behalf of this we are willing and 
anxious to join hands with you whenever 
it is assured that the union will be honestly 
and earnestly for that purpose. But we 
cannot make alliances or agree to com- 
promises that in their face threaten the 
very object of the movement in which we 
have engaged. Whether your ticket has 
the support of many or few, of a majority 
or a minority of the Republican voters, 
does not affect in the smallest degree the 
duty of every citizen to record himself 
against the abuses which it represents. 
Had the gentlemen who compose it been 
willing to withdraw themselves from the 
field, as they were invited to join in doing, 
for the common good, by the Independent 
Republican candidates, this act would 
have encouraged the hope that a new con- 
vention, freely chosen by the people, and 
unembarrassed by claims of existing can- 
didates, might have brought forth the 
needed guarantee of party emancipation 
and public reform. 

This service, however, they have de- 
clined to render their party ; they not only 
claim and receive your repeated assurances 
of support, but they permit themselves to 
be put forward to secure the use of the In- 
dependent Republican votes at the same 
time that they represent the "bossism," 
the " sjjoils " methods, and the " machine " 
management which we are determined no 
longer to tolerate. The manner in which 
their candidacy was decreed, the means 
employed to give it convention formality, 
the obligations which they incur by it, the 
political methods with which it identifies 
them, and the political and personal plans 
for which their official influence would be 
required, all 'oin to make it the most im- 



CURRENT POLITICS 



313 



perativc public duty not to pivc thcni sup- 
port at this election uudeT uiiy circum- 
stances. 

In closing tliirf note, thin committee 
must express its regret, that, having con- 
sidered it desinible to make overtures to 
the Inde|)oiuleiit l{e[)ublicaii8, you should 
have so far misapprehended the facts of 
the situation. It is our desire to unite the 
lie])ublican ])arty on the sure ground of 
principle, in the coiifidence that we are 
thus serving it with the highest fiilelity, and 
preserving for the future service of the 
Commonwealth that vitality of Repub- 
licanism which has made the i)arty useful 
ill the l>ast, and which alone coiil'cra upon 
it now the riixlit of continued existence. 
The only method which promises this re- 
sult in the ajiproaehing election is that 
proposed by the ln<lei)endent Republican 
candidates in their letter of July 13th, 
1882, which was positively rejected by 
your committee. 

On behalf of the Independent Repub- 
lican State Committee of Pennsylvania, 

I. D. JIcKi:e, Chairman. 

With this communication ended all 
efforts at conciliation. 

The election followed, and the Demo- 
cratic ticket, headed by Robert E. Pattison 
of Philadelphia, received an average 

Slurality of 40, (JOG, and the Independent 
epubliean ticket received an average 
vot'3 of about 43,000 — showing that while 
Independence organized did not do as well 
in a gubernatorial as it had in a previous 
off-year, it yet had force enough to defeat 
the Republican State ticket headed by 
Gen. James A. Beaver. All of the three 
several State tickets were composed of 
able men, and the force of both of the 
Repablican tickets on the hustings excited 
great interest and excitement ; yet the 
Republican vote, owing to the division, 
Avas not out by nearly one hundred thou- 
sand, and fifty thousand more Republicans 
than Democrats remained at home, many 
of them purposely. In New York, where 
dissatisfaction had no rallying point, about 
two hundred thousand Republicans re- 
mained at home, some because of anger at 
the defeat of Gov. Cornell in the State 
nominating convention — some in protest 
against the National Administrations, 
which was accused of the desire for direct 
endorsement where it presenteil the name 
of Hon Chas. J. Folger, its Secretary of 
the Treasury, as the home gubernatorial 
candidate, — others because of some of the 
many reasons set forth in the bill of 
complaints which enumerates the causes 
of the dissatisfaction witliin the party. 

At this writing the work of Republican 
repair is going on. Both the Senate and 



IIou3o at Washington arc giving activo 
work to the pjussage of a tarill" hill, the re- 
peal of tiie revenue tuxes, and the jiassage 
of a two-cent leiter postage bill — mciwurcs 
anxiously hastened by the Rcpnhlieana in 
order to anticiiiate friendly and defeat un- 
friendly attempts on the part of the 
Democratic House, which comes in with 
the first session of the 4Slh Congress. 

In Pennsylvania, as we clo.se thi.<5 review 
of the struggle of 1.S82, the Regular ancl 
Iiidej)cndent Republican State Committees 
— at least the heads thereof — are devi.-ing 
a plan to jointly call a liepublican State 
Convention to nominate the State ticket 
to l)e voted for in November, 1883. Tho 
groundswell was so great that it had no 
sooner passed, than Republicans of all 
shades of opinion, felt the need of har- 
monious action, and the leaders every- 
where set themselves to the work of repair. 

The Republicans in the South differed 
from those of the North in the fact that 
their coin])laiuts weje all directed against 
a natural political enemy — the Bourbons — 
and wherever there was opportunity they 
favored and entered into movements with 
Independent and Rcadjuster Democrats, 
with the sole object of revolutionizing 
political affairs in the South. Their suc- 
cess in these combinations was only great 
in Virginia, but it proved to be promising 
in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisi- 
ana, and may take more definite and 
generalshape in the great campaign of 1884. 

The Democratic party was evidently 
surprised at its great victory in 1882, and 
has not yet formally resolved what it will 
do with it. The Congress beginning with 
December, 1883, will doubtless give some 
indication of the drill of Democratic 
events. 

The most notable law passed in the 
closing session of the 47th Congress, was 
the Civil Service Reform Bill, introduced 
by Senator Geo. H. Pendleton of Ohio, 
but prepared under the direction of the 
Senate Judiciary Committee. The Re- 
publicans, feeling that there was some 
public demand for the passage of a 
measure of the kind, eagerly rushed to its 
support, at a time when it was apparent 
that the spoils of office might slip from 
their hands. From ojiposite motives the 
Democrats, who had previously encour- 
aged, now ran away from it, but it i^assed 
both Houses with almost a solid Repub- 
lican vote, a few Democrats in each House 
voting with them. President Arthur 
signeil the bill, but at this writing the 
Commission which it creates hiis not been 
appointed, and of course none of the rules 
and constructions under the act have been 
formulated. Its basic principles are iixed 
tenure in minor places, competitive ex- 
aminations, and non-partisan sjclections. 



PART III. 
POLITICAL PLATrORMS. 

COMPARISONS AND DESCRIPTION OF ALL LEADING ISSUES. 
WITH TABLES FOR READY REFERENCE. 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



THE FIRST POLITICAL PLATFORM EXUXCIATED IN THE UNITED STATES TO 

COMMAND GENERAL ATTENTION WA3 DRAWN BY MR. MADISON IN 1798, WHOSE 

OBJECT WAS TO P1.0.V0U>"CE THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS UNCONSTITU- 
TIONAL, AND TO DEFINE THE RIGHTS OF THE STATES. 



Virginia Resolutions of 1798. 

Pronotinritig the Alii'n and Sedition Lawt to he ttnconnlitu- 
titmil, mid Definimj the rijUts of tlie StiUes. — Drawn hi) 
Mr. ilMlison, 

In the Virginia Hon-ie af DeUq'ites, 

Friday, Lee. 'll, 1798. 

Iie.svJvcd, That the General Assembly of 
Virginia doth unequivocally express a 
firm nvolution to maintain and defend 
the Constitution of the United States, and 
the constitution of this state, against every 
aggression t'^ lei jl reign or domestic; and 
that thoy ff' A support the government of 
the Unite*. States in all measures war- 
ranted by tlie furmer. 

That this Assembly most solemnly de- 
clares a warm attacliment to the Union of 
the states, to maintain which it pledges its 
powers ; and, that for this end, it is their 
duty to watch over and oppose every in- 
fraction of those principles which consti- 
tute the only basis of that Union, because 
a faithful ol)servance of them can alone 
secure its existence and the public happi- 
ness. 

That this Assembly doth explicitly and 
peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government, as re- 
sulting from the compact to which the 
states are parties, as limited by the plain 
sense and intention of the instrument con- 
stituting that compact, as no farther valid 
than they are authorized by the grants 
enumerated in that compact ; and that in 
case of a deliberate, palpable, and dan- 
gerous exercise of other powers, not granted 
by the said comp.act, the states, who are 
parties thereto, have the right, and are in 
duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the 



progress of the evil, and for maintaining 
within their respective limits the authori- 
ties, rights, and liberties appertaining to 
them. 

That the General Assembly doth also 
express its deep regret, that a spirit has, 
in sundry instances, been manifested by 
the fed^n-al government, to enlarge its 
powers by forced constructions of the con- 
stitutional charter which defines them ; 
and, that indications have appeared of a 
design to expound certain general phra-sea 
(which, having been copied front the very 
limited grant of powers in the former Ar- 
ticles of Confederation, were the less liable 
to be misconstrued) so as to destroy the 
meaning and eifect of the particular 
enumeration which necessarily explains, 
and limits the general phrases, and so as 
to consolidate the states by degrees into 
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and 
inevitable result of which would be, to 
transform the present republican system 
of the United States into an absolute, or at 
best, a mixed monarchy. 

That the General Assembly doth par- 
ticularly protest against the jialpable and 
alarming infractions of the Constitution, 
in the two late cases of the "Alien and 
Sedition Acts," pa.ssed at the last session 
of Congress; the first of which exercises a 
power nowhere delegated to the federal 
government, and which, by uniting legis- 
lative and judicial powers to those of 
executive, subverts the general jirineiplea 
of free government, as well as tlie particu- 
lar organization and positive provisions of 
the Federal Constitution; and the other 

3 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



of which acts exercises, in like manner, a 
power not delegated by the Con.stitution, 
but on the contrary, expressly and posi- 
tively forbidden by one of the amendments 
thereto ; a power which, more than any 
other, ought to produce universal alarm, 
because it is levelled against the right of 
freely examining public characters and 
measures, and of free communication 
among the people thereon, which has ever 
been justly deemed the only etliectual 
guardian of every other right. 

That this state having by its Conven- 
tion, which ratified the Federal Constitu- 
tion, expressly declared, that among other 
essential rights, " the liberty of conscience 
and the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, 
restrained, or modified by any authority 
of the United States," and* from its extreme 
anxiety to guard these rights from every 

{)ossible attack of sophistry and ambition, 
laving with other states recommended an 
amendment for that purpose, which amend- 
ment was, in due time, annexed to the 
Constitution, it would mark a reproachful 
inconsistency, and criminal degeneracy, if 
an indifference were now shown to the 
most palpable violation of one of the 
rights, thus declared and secured ; and to 
the establishment of a precedent which 
may be fiital to the other. 

That the good people of this common- 
wealth, having ever felt, and continuing to 
feel the most sincere affection for their 
brethren of the other states; the truest 
anxiety for establishing and perpetuating 
the Union of all : and the most scrupulous 
fidelity to that Constitution, which is the 
pledge of mutual friendship, and the in- 
strument of mutual happiness; the General 
Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like 
dispositions in the other tStates, in confi- 
dence that they will concur with this com- 
monwealth, in declarinjr, as it does hereby 
declare, that the acts aforesaid are uncon- 
stitutional ; and, that the necessary and 
proper measures will be taken by each for 
co-operating with this state, in maintain- 
ing unimpaired the authorities, rights, and 
iiberties, reserved to the states, respectively, 
or to the people. 

That the governor be desired to transmit 
a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the 
executive authority of each of the other 
states, with a request that the same may be 
communicated to the legislature thereof; 
and that a copy be furnished to each of the 
Senators and Representatives representing 
this state in the Congress of the United 
States. 

Attest, John Stewaht. 

1798. December 24th. Agreed to by the 
Senate. H. Brooke. 

A true copy from the original deposited 
in the office of the General Assembly. 
Joux Stewart, Keeper of Rolls. 



Extracts from the Address to the People, 
which accompanied the foregoing resolu- 
tions : — 

Fellow - Citizens : Unwilling to shrink 
from our representative responsibility, 
conscious of the purity of our motives, but 
acknowledging your right to supervise our 
conduct, we invite your serious attention 
to the emergency which dictated the sub- 
joined resolutions. Whilst we disdain to 
alarm you by ill-founded jealousies, wej 
recommend an investigation, guided by 
the coolness of wisdom, and a decision bot- 
tomed, on firmness but tempered with 
moderation. 

It would be perfidious in those intrusted 
with the guardianship of the state sover- 
eignty, and acting under the solemn obliga- 
tion of the following oath : " I do swear, 
that I will support the Constitution of the 
United States," not to warn you of encroach- 
ments, which, though clothed with the 
pretext of necessity, or disguised by argu- 
ments of expediency, may yet establish 
precedents, which may ultimately devote a 
generous and unsuspicious peojile to all 
the consequences of usurped power. 

Encroachments, springing from agovern- 
ment whose organization cannot be main- 
tained without the co-operation of the 
states, furnish the strongest incitements 
ujion the state legislatures to watchfulness, 
and impose upon them the strongest obliga- 
tion to preserve unimpaired the line of 
partition. 

The acquiescence of the states under in- 
fractions of the federal compact, would 
either beget a speedy consolidation, by 
precipitating the state governments into 
impotency and contempt ; or prepare the 
way for a revolution, by a repetition of 
these infractions, until the jieople are 
aroused to appear in the majesty of their 
strength. It is to avoid these calamities, 
that we exhibit to the people the momen- 
tous question, whether the Constitution of 
the United States shall yield to a construc- 
tion which defies every restraint and over- 
whelms the best hopes of republicanism. 

Exhortations to disregard domestic usur- 
pations until foreign danger shall have 
passed, is an artifice which may be for ever 
used ; because the possessors of power, who 
are the advocates for its extension, can 
ever create national embarrassments, to he 
successively employed to soothe the people 
into sleep, whilst that power is swelling 
silently, secretly, and fatally. Of the same 
character are insinuations of a foreign in- 
fiuence, which seize upon a laudable en- 
thusiasm against danger from a broad, and 
distort it by an unnatural application, so 
as to blind your eyes against danger at 
home. 

The sedition act presents a scene which 
was never expected l>y the early friends of 
the Constitution. It was then admitted 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



that the state sovereipjnties were only di- 
minished by powers speeiliculiy eiiiiiiier- 
ated, or uecessary to earry the sixeilied 
powers into ellect. Now i'e(h'ral iuithority 
IS deduced ironi iini)lieation, and from the 
existence of state hiw it is inferred that 
Congress possesses a similar power of legis- 
hition ; wiience Congress will be endowed 
with a jiower of legislation in all cases 
whatsoever, and the states will be stript of 
every right reserved by the concurrent 
claims of a paramount legislature. 

The sedition act is theollspring of these 
tremen<lous pretensions, which inflict a 
death wound on the sovereignty of these 
states. 

For the honor of American understand- 
ing, we will not believe that the people 
have been allured into the adoption of the 
Constitution by an affectation of defining 
powers, whilst the preamble would admit 
a constructi<jn which would erect the will 
of Congress into a power paramount in all 
cases, and therefore limited in none. On 
the contrary, it is eviilent that the objects 
for which the (constitution was formed 
were deemed attainable only by a particu- 
lar enumeration and specification of each 
power granted to the federal government ; 
reserving all others to the people, or to the 
states. And yet it is in vain we search for 
any specified power, embracing the right 
of legislation against the freedom of the 
press. 

Had the states been despoiled of their 
sovereignty l)y the generality of the 
preamble, and had the federal government 
been endowed with whatever they should 
judge to be instrumental towards union, 
justice, tranquillity, common defence, gen- 
eral welfare, and the preservation of liberty 
nothing could have been more frivolous 
than an enumeration of powers. 

All the preceding arguments rising from 
a deficiency of constitutional power in Con- 
gress, apply to the alien act, and this act is 
liable to other ol)jections peculiar to itself. 
If a suspicion that aliens are dangerous 
constitute the justification of that power 
exercised over them by Congress, then a 
similar sus])icion will justify the exercise 
of a similar power over natives. Because 
there is nothing in the Constitution dis- 
tinguishing between the power of a state to 
permit the residence of natives and aliens. 
It is therefore a right originally ])ossessed, 
and never surrendered by the respective 
states, and which is rendered dear and 
valuable to Virginia, because it is assailed 
through the bosom of the Constitution, 
and because her peculiar situation renders 
the ca-sy admission of artisans and labor- 
ers an interest of vast importance. 

But this bill contains other features, still 
more alarming and dangerous. It dispen- 
ses with the trial by jury : it violates the 
judicial system ; it confounds legislative, , 



executive, and judicial powers; it punishes 
without trial; ami it bestows upon tlio 
President <lespotie jxiwer over a numerous 
class of men. Are sueh measures eonsiHtent 
with our constitutional prineiplcs? And 
will an accumulation of power .so extensive 
in the hands of the executive, over aliens, 
secure to natives the blessings of re[mbli- 
ean liberty ? 

If nieasures can mould governments, 
and if an uncotitroUeil power of construc- 
tion is surrendered to those whoa<lmini«ter 
tliem, their progress may be easily foreseen 
and their end easily ioretold. A lover of 
monarchy, who o|)ens the treasures of cor- 
ruption, by distriijuting emolument among 
devoted partisans, may atthesame time be 
approaching his object, and deluding the 
)HM)ple with professions of repul)licaiiism. 
He may confound monarchy and republic- 
anism, by the art of definition. He may 
varnish over the dexterity which ambition 
never fails to display, with the pliancy of 
language, the seuuction of expediency, or 
the prejudices of the times. And he may 
come at length to avow that so extensive 
a territory as that of the United States can 
only be governed by the energies of mon- 
archy ; that it cannot be defended, except 
by standing armies; and that it cannot be 
united, except by consolidation. 

]\Ieasures have already been adopted 
which may lead to these consequences. 
They consist: 

In fiscal systems and arrangements, which 
keep a host of commercial and wealthy 
individuals, embodied and obedient to the 
mandates of the treasury. 

In armies and navies, which will, on the 
one hand, enlist the tendency of man to 
pay homage to his fellow-creature who can 
feed or honor him; and on the other, em- 
ploy the principle of fear, by punishing 
imaginary insurrections, under the pretext 
of preventive justice. 

In swarms of officers, civil and military, 
who can inculcate political tenets tending 
to consolidation and monarchy, both by 
indulgences and severities ; and can act as 
spies over the free exercise of human re;ison. 

In restraining the freedom of the press, 
and investing the executive with legisla- 
tive, executive, and judicial powers, over 
a numerous body of men. 

And, that we may shorten the catalogue, 
in establishing by successive precedents 
such a mode of construing the Constitution 
as will rapidly remove every restraint upon 
federal ])ower. 

Let history be consulted ; let the man of 
experience reflect ; nay, let the artificers 
of monarchy be asked what farther mate- 
rials they can need for building up their 
favorite system ? 

These arc solemn, but painful truths; 
and yet we recommend it to you not to for- 
get tiic podaibility of daugcr from without, 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



although danger threatens us from within. 
Usurpation is indeed dreadful, but against 
foreign invasion, if that should happen, let 
us rise with hearts and hands united, and 
repel the attack with the zeal of freemen, 
who will strengthen their title to examine 
antl correct domestic measures by having 
defended their country against foreign ag- 
gression. 

Pledged a.s we are, fellow-citizens, to 
these sacred engagements, we yet humbly 
and fervently implore the Almighty Dis- 
poser of events to avert from our land war 
and usurpation, the scourges of mankind ; 
to permit our fields to be cultivated in 
peace; to instill into nations the love of 
friendly intercourse ; to sutler our youth to 
be educated in virtue ; and to preserve our 
morality from the pollution invariably in- 
cident to habits of war ; to prevent the 
laborer and husbandman from being har- 
assed by taxes and imposts; to remove 
from ambition the means of disturbing the 
commonwealth; to annihilate all pretexts 
for power alForded by war; to maintain 
the Constitution ; and to bless our nation 
with tranquillity, under whose benign in- 
fluence we may reach the summit of hap- 
piness and glory, to which we are destined 
by Nature and Nature's God. 

Attest, JoHx Stewart, C. H. D. 

1799, Jan. 23. Agreed to by the Senate. 

H. Bkooke, C. S. 

A true copy from the original, deposited 
in the office of the General Assembly. 
John Steavart, Keeper of Eolls. 



Anstvcrs of the several State Ijeglslatures. 

State of Delaware. — In the House 
of Representatives, Feb. 1, 1799. Resolved, 
By the Senate and House of Representa- 
ti-»'es of the state of Delaware, in General 
Assembly met, that they consider the reso- 
lutions from the state of Virginia as a very 
unjustifia])le interference with the general 
government and constituted authorities of 
the United States, and of dangerous tend- 
ency, and therefore not fit subject for the 
furtlier consideration of the General As- 
sembly. 

Isaac Davis, Speaker of the Senate. 

Stepiiex Lewis, Speaker of the H. of 
R'3. Test— 

John Fisher, C. S. 
John Caldwell, C. H. R. 

State of Rhode Island and Prov- 
idence Plantations. — In General As- 
semldy, February, A. D. 1799. Certain 
resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia, 
passed on 21st of I)ecend)er last, being 
commuuicuted to this Assembly, 



1. Resolved, That in the opinion of this 
legislature, the second section of third ar- 
ticle of the Constitution of the United 
States in these words, to wit : The judi- 
cial power shall extend to all cases arisino- 
under the laws of the United States, vests 
in the federal courts, exclusively, and in 
the Supreme Court of the United States 
ultimately, the authority of deciding on 
the constitutionality of any act or law of 
the Congress of the United States. 

2. Jiesolved, That for any state legisla- 
ture to assume that authority, would be, 

1st. Blending together legislative and 
judicial powers. 

2d. Hazarding an interruption of the 
peace of the states by civil discord, in case 
of a diversity of opinions among the state 
legislatures ; each state having, in that 
case, no resort for vindicating its own 
opinions, but to the strength of its own 
arm. 

3d. Submitting most important ques- 
tions of law to less competent tribunals ; 
and 

4th. An infraction of the Constitution 
of the United States, expressed in plain 
terms. 

3. Besolvcd, That although for the above 
reasons, this legislature, in their public 
capacity, do not feel themselves authorized 
to consider and decide on the constitu- 
tionality of the sedition and alien laws (so 
called) ; yet they are called upon by the 
exigency of this occasion, to declare, that 
in their private opinions, these laws are 
within the powers delegated to Congress, 
and promotive of the welfare of the Uni- 
ted States. 

4. liesoli'ed, That the governor commu- 
nicate these resolutions to the sujireme ex- 
ecutive of the state of Virginia, and at the 
same time express to him that this legisla- 
ture cannot contemplate, without extreme 
concern and regret, the many evil and 
fatal consequences which may flow from 
the very unwarrantable resolutions afore- 
said, of the legislature of Virginia, passed 
on the twenty -first day of December last. 

A true copy. Samuel Eddy, Sec. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
—In Senate, Feb. 9, 1799. The legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts having taken into 
serious consideration the resolutions of the 
State of Virginia, jnissed the 21st day of 
December last, and communicated by 
his excellency the governor, relative to 
certain supposed infractions of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, by the gov- 
ernment thereof, and being tonvinced that 
the Federal Constitution is calculated to 
promote the happiness, prosperity, and 
safety of the people of these Ignited States, 
and to maintain that union of the several 
states, so essential to the welfare of the 
whole ; and being bound by solemn oath, 



POLITICAL TLATFORMS. 



to support and dofenrl that Constitution, 
fi'cl it unnecessary to make any professions 
of their att-uhinent to it, or of their (inn 
determination to support it against every 
agirression, foreign or doini'stie. 

But they deem it their duty solemnly to 
deelare, that while they hold saered tlie 
principle, that consent of the people is the 
only pure source of just and legitimate 
power, they cannot admit the right of the 
s'ate legislatures to denounce the adminis- 
tration of (hat government to whiih the 
^>e'>ple themselves, hy a solemn compact, 
rive exclusively committed their national 
coiu-erns : That, although a lioeral and 
enlightened vigilance among the people is 
always to ho cherished, yet an unrc.tsona- 
hle jealousy of the men of their choice, 
aud a recurrence to measures of extremity, 
upon groundless or trivial pretexts, have a 
strDng tendency to destroy all rational lib- 
erty at home, and to deprive the L'nited 
Stiitcs of the most essential advantages in 
their rcUitions abroad : That this legisla- 
ture are persuaded that the decision of all 
cases in law and ecjuity, arising under the 
Constitution of the United States, and the 
construction of all laws made in pursu- 
ance thereof, are exclusively vested by the 
people in the judicial courts of the United 
States. 

That the people in that solemn compact, 
which is declared to be the supreme law 
of the land, have not constituted the state 
legislatures the judges of the acts or mea- 
sures of the federal government, but have 
confided to them the i)ower of proposing 
such amendments of the Constitution, as 
shall appear to them necessary to the in- 
terests, or conformable to the wishes of 
the people whom they represent. 

That by this construction of the Con- 
stitution, an amicable and dispa-ssionate 
remedy is pointed out for any evil which 
experience may prove to exist, and the 
peace and prosperity of the United States 
may be preserved without interruption. 

But, should the respectable state of Vir- 
ginia persist in the assumption of the 
right to declare the acts of the national 
government unconstitutional, and should 
she oppose successfully her force and will 
to those of the nation, the Constitution 
would be reduced to a mere cipher, to the 
form and pageantry of authority, without 
tlie energy of power. Every act of the 
federal government which thwarted the 
views or checked the ambitious projects of 
a particular state, or of its leading and in- 
fluential members, would be the object of 
opposition and of remonstrance ; while 
the people, convulsed and confused by the 
conflict between two hostile jurisdictions, 
enjoying the proteeticm of neither, would 
be wearied into a submission to some bold 
leader, who would establish himself on the 
ruins of both. 
21 



The h'gislature of Mas-*achusotts, al- 
though they ilo not themselves claim the 
right, nor ailmit the authority of any of 
the state goveriimeuts, to decide upon the 
constitutionality of the acts of the federal 
govcriimeut, still, lest their silence should 
be construed into disajjprobation, or at 
best into a doid)t of the constitutionality 
of the acts relerred to by the State of Vir- 
ginia ; and, Its the (Jeneral .\ssend)ly of 
N'irginia has called for an expres.-tion of 
their sentiments, do explicitly declare, that 
they consider the acts of Congress, com- 
monly calleil '"the alien and sedition acts," 
not only constitutional, but ex|)edient and 
necessary : That the former act resj)ect8 
a description of persons whose rights were 
not particularly contemplated in the Con- 
stitution of the United States, who are en- 
titled only to a temporary j)rotection, 
while they yield a temporary allegiance; 
a protection which ought to be witlidrawn 
whenever they become "dangenms to the 
public safety," or are found guilty of 
" treasonable machination " against the 
government : That Congress having been 
especially intrusted by the peo[de with the 
general defence of the nation, had not only 
the right, but were bound to protect it 
against internal as well as external foes. 
That the United States, at the time of pass- 
ing the act concerning aliens, were threat- 
ened with actual inva-sion, had been driv- 
en by the unjust and andjitious conduct of 
the French government into warlike pre- 
parations, expensive and burthensome, and 
had then, within the bosom of the coun- 
try, thousands of aliens, who, we doubt 
not, were ready to co-operate in any ex- 
ternal attack. 

It cannot be seriously believed, that the 
United States should have waited till the 
poignard had in fact been plunged. The 
removal of aliens is the usual preliminary 
of hostility, and is justified by the invari- 
able usages of nations. Actual hostility 
had unhappily long been experienced, and 
a formal declaration of it the government 
had reason daily to expect. The law, 
therefore, was just and salutary, and no 
oftieer could, with so much propriety, be 
intrusted with the execution of it, as the 
one in whom the Constitution has reposed 
the executive power of the United States, 

The sedition act, so called, is, in the 
f)pinion of this legislature, equally defen- 
sible. The General Assembly of Virginia, 
in their resolve under consideration, ob- 
serve, that when that stitc by its conven- 
tion ratified the Federal Constitution, it 
expressly declared, " T'hat, among other 
essential rights, the liberty of conscience 
and of the press cannot be cancelled, 
abridged, re-strained, or modified by any 
authority of the United States," and from 
its extreme anxiety to guard the*e rights 
from every possible attack of soi>histry or 



8 



AMERICAN POLITICS, 



ambition, with other states, recommend 
an amendment for that purpose : Avhich 
amendment \va.s, in due time, annexed to 
the Constitution ; but they did not surely 
expect that the proceedings of their state 
convention were to explain the amend- 
ment adopted by the Union. The words 
of that amendment, on this subject, are, 
" Congress shall make no law abridging 
the freedom of s])ecch or of the press." 

The act complained of is no abridgment 
of the freedom of either. The genuine 
liberty of speech and the press, is the lib- 
erty to utter and publish the truth ; but 
the constitutional right of the citizen to 
utter and publish the truth, is not to be 
confounded with the licentiousness in 
speaking and writing, that is only em- 
ployed in propagating falsehood and slan- 
der. This freedom of the press has been 
explicitly secured by most, if not all, the 
state constitutions ; and of this provision 
there has been generally but one construc- 
tion among enlightened men ; that it is a 
security for the rational use and not the 
abuse of the press ; of which the courts ol 
law, the juries, and people will judge; this 
right is not infringed, but coutirnied and 
established by the late act of Congress. 

By tlu Constitution, the legislative, ex- 
ecutive, and judicial departments of gov- 
ernment are ordained and established ; 
and general enumerated powers vested in 
them respectively, including those which 
are prohibited to the several states. Cer- 
tain powers are granted in general terms 
by the people to their general government, 
for the purposes of their safety and protec- 
tion. The government is not only em- 
powered, but it is made their duty to re- 
pel invasions and suppress insurrections ; 
to guaranty to the several states a repub- 
lican form of government ; to protect each 
state against invasion, and, when applied 
to, against domestic violence ; to hear and 
decide all cases in law and equity, arising 
under the Constitution, and under any 
treaty or law made in pursuance thereof; 
and all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction, and relating to the law of na- 
tions. Whenever, therefore, it becomes 
necessary to effect any of tlie objects de- 
signated, it is perfectly consonant to all 
just rules of construction, to infer, that the 
usual means and powers necessary to the 
attainment of that object, are also granted : 
But the Constitution has left no occasion 
to resort to implieation for these powers ; 
it has made an express grant of them, in 
the 8th section of the first article, which 
ordains, "That Congress shall have power 
to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and [>roper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by the Constitution in the govern- 
ment of the United State.s or iu any de- 
partment or officer thereof." 



' This Constitution has established a Su- 
preme Court of the United States, but has 
made no provisions for its protection, even 
against such improper conduct in its pres- 
ence, as might disturb its proceedings, un- 
less expressed in the section before recited. 
But as no statute has been passed on this 
subject, this protection is, and has been 
for nine years past, uniformly found in the 
application of the principles and usages of 
the common law. The same protection 
may unquestionably be afforded by a stat- 
ute passed in virtue of the before-men- 
tioned section, as necessary and proper, for 
carrying into execution the powers vested 
in that department. A construction of 
the different parts of the Constitution, per- 
fectly just and fair, will, on analogous 
principles, extend protection and security 
against the offences in question, to the 
other departments of government, in dis- 
charge of their respective trusts. 

The President of the United States is 
bound by his oath " to preserve, protect, 
and defend the Constitution," and it is ex- 
pressly made his duty, " to take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed; " but this 
would be impracticable by any created 
being, if there could be no legal restraint 
of those scandalous misrejircsentations of 
his measures and motives, which directly 
tend to rob him of the public confidence. 
And equally impotent would be every 
other public officer, if thus left to the mercy 
of the seditious. 

It is holdeu to be a truth most clear, that 
the important trusts before enumerated 
cannot be discharged by the government 
to which they are committed, without the 
power to restrain seditious practices and 
unlawful combinations against itself, and 
to pi'otect the officers thereof from abusive 
misrepresentations. Had the Constitution 
withheld this power, it would have made 
the government responsible for the effects 
without any control over the causes which 
naturally produce them, and would have 
essentially failed of answering the great 
ends for which the people of the United 
States declare, in the first clause of that in- 
strument, that they establish the same, 
viz: "To form a more perfect union, es- 
tablish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defence, promote 
the general warfare, and secure the bless- 
ings of liberty to ourselves and posterity." 

Seditious practices and unlawful combi- 
nations against the federal government, or 
any officer thereof, in the j)erl'ormance of 
his duty, as well as licentiousness of speech 
and of the press, were punishable on the 
principles of common law in the courts of 
the United States, before the act in ques- 
tion was passed. This act then is an ame- 
lioration of that law in favor of the party 
accused, as it mitigates the punishment 
which that authorizes, and admits of any 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



9 



investigation of public men Jinil measures 
wiiich is rep:;ul:itc(l by trutii. It is not in- 
tended to protect men in otlkc, only ius 
tlicy iin* uj^i'iits of tlic people. It.-;olijeet 
is to iill'ord le;i;;il security to j)ai)lie ollicis 
;ind trusts created for tlie sak-ty and luip- 
|)iue;s of the peo[)le, and therefore the se- 
curity tleriveii from it is for the benefit of 
(ho people, and is their rij^ht. 

The constrncti(jn of the C'onstitntion aiul 
of the existing; law of the land, ;ts well ;ls 
tlie act coniplaineil of, the lef:;islature of 
Massachusetts mostdeliI)erateIy and lirnily 
believe result.s frninajust and full view ol 
the several parts of the Constitution: and 
they consider that act to he wise and ne- 
cessary, as an audacious and unjjrincipled 
spirit of falseiiood and abuse had been too 
lon^ unreniittinLrly exerttxl for the pur- 
pose of pervertin'j: public opinion, and 
threatened to undermine and destroy the 
whole fabric of }:;overniaent. 

The legislature further declare, that in 
the fore,troinix sentiments they have ex- 
pressed the general opinion of their consti- 
tuent's, who have not only acquiesced 
without complaint in those particular 
measures of the federal government, but 
iiave given their explicit approbation by 
re-electing those men who voted for the 
adoption of them. Nor is it apprehended, 
that the citizens of this state will be ac- 
cused of supinencss or of an indiirerenee 
to their constitutional rights ; for while, 
on the one hand, they regard with due vi- 
gilance the conduct of the government, on 
the other, their freedom, safety and liappi- 
ne.ss require, that they should defend that 
government and its constitutional mea- 
sures against the open or insidious attacks 
of any foe, whether foreign or domestic. 

And, lastly, that the legislature of Mas- 
Bacnusetts feel a strong conviction, that 
the several United States are connected 
by a common interest which ought to ren- 
«ler their u.iion indissoluble, and that this 
Ftate will always co-operate with its con- 
federate states in rendering that union pro- 
ductive of mutual security, freedom, and 
ha'.piness. 

iisent down for concurrence. 

;>AMUEL Philips, President. 

In the House of Representatives, Feb. 
13, 1799. 

Read and concurred. 

Edavaud II. RoBBiNS, Speaker. 
A true copy. Attest, 

JoHX Avery, Secretary. 

State of New Youk. — In Senate, 
March 5, 1790. — Whereas, the people of 
tiie United St;ites have established for 
themselves a free and independent national 
government: And whcrciis it is essential 
to the existence of every government, that 
it have authority to defend and preserve 



its constitutional powers inviolate, inau- 
much as every infringement tlureof tend.s 
to its subviision: .\iiil whcn-xs the judi- 
cial power extends expressly l>> all ca-ies of 
law and e<[uity arising under the Omsti- 
tution and the laws of the United States 
whereby the interference of the legislatures 
of the particular states in those casi's ia 
manifestly excluded : And whereas our 
peace, prosperity, and hapi)iiu\ss, eminent- 
ly dei)end on tlie preservation of the Union, 
in order to which, a reasonable conhdenro 
in the constituteil authorities antl chosen 
representatives of the people is indispen- 
sable : Ami whereas every measure calcu- 
lated U) weaken that confidonee has a tea- 
dency to destroy the uselulnessof our pub- 
lie functiouaries, and to excite jealousies 
ecjually hostile to rational liijerty, and the 
principles of a good republican govern- 
ment: And wherciis the Senate, not per- 
ceiving that the rights of the particii!ar 
states have been violated, nor any uncon- 
stitutional powers assumed by the gcner.il 
government, cannot forbear to express th»3 
anxiety and regret with which they observe 
the inflammatory and pernicious senti- 
ments and doctrines which are containe<J 
in the resolutions of the legislatures of 
Virginia and Kentucky — sentiments and 
doctrines, no less repugnant to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and the prlrn 
ciples of their union, than destructive to 
the Feder.al government and unjust to 
those whom the peoj)le have elected to ad- 
minister it: wherefore. Resolved, That 
while the Senate feel themselves coa- 
strained to bear unequivocal tcstimo.ny 
against such sentiments and doctrines, 
they deem it a duty no less indispensable, 
explicitly to declare their incomj)etency, .as 
a branch ofthe legislature of this state, to su- 
pervise the acts of the general government. 

Resolved, That his Excellency, th« 
Governor, be, and he is hereby requested 
to transmit a copy ofthe foregoing resolu- 
tion to the executives ofthe states of Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky, to the end that tho 
same may be communicated to the lejjisla- 
tures thereof. 

A true cojjy. 

Abu. B. Bauoker, Clerk. 

State of Connecticut.— At a General 
Assembly of the state of Connecticut, 
holden at Hartford, in the said st;»tc, on 
the second Thursday of May, Anno Domi- 
ni 1799, his excellency the governor hav- 
ing communicated to this assembly sundry 
resolutions of the legislature of Virginia, 
adopted in December, 179S, which relate 
to the measures of the general government; 
and the said resolutions having been con- 
sidered, it is 

Resi'lvcd, That this Assembly views with 
deep regret, ami explicitly disavows, the 
principles conLuned in the aforesaid roo* 



10 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



lution.?; anrl particularly the opposition 
to the " Alien and Sedition Acts " — acts 
which the Constitution authorized ; which 
the exij^'oncy of the country rendered ne- 
cessary ; which the constituted autlninties 
have enacted, and which merit the entire 
approbation ol" this Assembly. Tiiey, 
therefore, decidedly refuse to concur with 
the legislature of 'Virginia, in promoting 
any ot'the objeetij attempted in the afore- 
said resolutions. 

And it is further resolved. That his ex- 
cellency the governor be requested to trans- 
mit a copy of the foregoing resolution to 
the governor of Virginia, that it may be 
communicated to the legislature of that 
state. 

Passed in the House of Representatives 
unanimously. 

Attest, John C. Smith, Clerk. 

Concurred, unanimously, in the upper 
House. 

Teste, Sam. Wyllys, Sec'y. 

State of New Hampshire. — In the 

Hou-se of Representatives, June 14, 1799. 
— ^Tlie committee to take into considera- 
tion the resolutions of the General Assem- 
bly of Virginia, dated December 21, 1798; 
also certain resolutions of the legislature of 
Kentucky, of the lUth of November, 1798 ; 
report as follows : — 

The legislature of New Hampshire, hav- 
ing taken into consideration certain reso- 
lutions of the General Assembly of Vir- 
ginia, dated December 21, 1798 ; also cer- 
tain resolutions of the legislature of Ken- 
tuckv, of the 10th of November, 1798,— 

Resolved, That the legislature of New 
Hampshire unequivocally express a firm 
resolution to maintain and defend the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and the con- 
stitution of this state, against every aggres- 
sion, either foreign or domestic, and that 
thev will support the government of the 
United States in all measures warranted 
by the former. 

That the state legislatures are not the 
proper tribunals to determine the consti- 
tutionality of the laws of the general gov- 
ernment; that the duty of such decision is 
projjerly and exclusively confided to the 
judicial department. 

Tliat if the legislature of New Hamp- 
ehire, for mere speculative purposes, were 
to express an opinion on the acts of the 
general government, commonly called 
^'the Alien and Sedition Bills," that 
opinion woidd unreservedly be, that those 
acts are constitutional and, in the prasent 
critical situation of our country, highly ex- 
pedient. 

That the constitutionality and expedi- 
en'-y of the acts aforesaid have been very 
ably advocated and i-!early demonstrated 
by manv citizens of the United States, more 
especially by the minority of the General 



Assembly of Virginia. The legislature of 
New Hampshire, therefore, deem it unne- 
cessary, by any train of arguments, to at- 
tempc further illustration of the proposi- 
tions, the truth of which, it is confidently 
believed, at this day, is very generally seen 
and acknowledged. 

^Vhich report, being read and considered, 
was unanimously received and accepted, 
one hundred and thirty-seven members 
being present. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

John Prentice, Speaker. 

In Senate, same day, read and concurred 
in unanimously. 

Amos Shepard, President. 

Approved June 15, 1799. 

J. T. GiLMAN, Governor. 
A true copy. 

Attest, Joseph Pearson, Sec'y. 

State of Vermont. — In the House of 
Representatives, October 30, A. D. 1799. — 
The House proceeded to take under their 
consideration the resolutions of the Gene- 
ral Assembly of Virginia, relative to cer- 
tain measures of the general government, 
transmitted to the legislature of this state 
for their consideration ; whereupon, 

Resolved, that the General Assembly of 
the state of Vermont do highly disapprove 
of the resolutions of the General Assembly 
of the state of Virginia, as being unconsti- 
tutional in their nature and dangerous in 
their tendency. It belongs not to state 
legislatures to decide on the constitution- 
ality of the laws made by the general gov- 
ernment; this power being exclusively 
vested in judiciary courts of the Union. 

That his excellency the governor be re- 
quested to transmit a copy of this resolu- 
tion to the executive of Virginia, to be 
communicated to the General Assembly of 
that state; and that the same be sent to 
the Governor and Council for their con- 
currence. 

Samuel C. Crafts, Clerk. 

In Council, October 30, 1799.— Read and 
concurred in unanimously. 

Richard Whitney, Sec'y. 

Resolutions of 1798 and 1799. 

(The origiual draught prepared by Thomas Jefferson.) 

The following resolutions passed the 
House of Representatives of Kentucky, 
Nov. 10, 1798. On the ]iassage of the first 
resolution, one dissentient; 2d, 3d, 4th, 
r)th, Gth, 7th, 8th, two dissentients; 9th, 
three dissentients. 

1. Resolved, That the several states com- 
posing the United States of America, are 
not united on the principle of unlimited 
submission to their general government ; 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



11 



}<iit thftt by comjtfiot under the stylo and 
title of a Coiistitution for the' United Stato, 
.'iml i»t' amciiilmcnts thereto, tlu-v consti- 
tuted a jreni-ral •roveruiaL'iit lor sjn'cial ]>ur- 
jixcs, deli'gated to that lioveriiiiuMiI ecrlain 
deliiiile powers, resiTvinjr, eacli stati- to it- 
self, the residuary mass of ri<rht to their 
own self-government: and, that wiioiiso- 
i-ver the c;eneral government assumes un- 
(h'legated powers, its aet-s are unauthorita- 
tive, void, and of no foree ; that to tliis 
cornpaet each state aeeeded as a state, and 
is an integral party ; that this govern- 
ment, ercated by this eomjiact, was not 
made thi> exchisive or tinal ju<lge of the 
extent of the powers delegated to itself; 
sinee that would have made its iliseretion, 
and not the ( 'ousiitutir)n, the measure ol 
its powers ; Imt, that as in all ofhur eascs 
of eomjiaet among parties having no com- 
mon judge, eaeli party his an e'pial righi 
to judge for itself, as well of infractions as 
of the mode and measure of redress. 

2. lie.tolcd, That the Constitution of 
the United States having delegated to Con- 
gre-!s a power to punish trea.son, counter- 
feiting the securities and current coin of 
the United States, piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas, and otfences 
against the laws of nations, and no other 
crimeji whatever; and it being true, as a 
general principle, and one of the amend- 
ments to the Constitution having also de- 
elared, " that the powers not delegated to 
the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved 
to the states respectively, or to the people," 
therefore also the same act of Congress. 
}ia.ssed on the 14th day of July, 1708, and 
entitled "An act in addition to the act 
fititled An act for the punishment of cer- 
tain crimes against the United States ;" as 
also the act passed by them on the 27th 
day of June, 1798, entitled " An act to 
punish frauds committed on the Bank of 
the United States," (and all other their 
acts which assume to create, define, or 
puidsh crimes other than those enumerated 
in the Constitution), are altogether void 
a 'id of no force, and that the power to 
create, define, and punish such other crimes 
is reserved, and of right appertains solely 
and exclusively to the respective states, 
each within its own territory. 

3. Rcnolved, That it is true, as a general 
principle, and is alsocxpre*?ly declared by 
one of the amendments to the Constitution, 
that "the powers not delegated to the 
United States l)y the Constitution, nor pro- 
hibited by it to the states, are reserved to 
the states respectively, or to the people ;"' 
and that no power over the freedom of re- 
ligion, freedom of speech, or freedom of 
the press being delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor pr)hibited 
by it to the states, all lawful powers rcspex^t- 
ing the same did of right remain, and were 



reserved to the states or to the people; that 
thus wasmaiiiffrtted their detcrHiinatioii to 
retain to tiuinsclvcs the riglit of judging 
how I'ar the licentiousness of speci h ana 
of the press may be abridged without 1(»- 
s( iiing thiir usfful freedom, and iiow far 
those abuses which cannot be separated 
from their use should bf tolerated rather 
than tlie use l)e destroyed ; and tlius ai.so 
they guarded against all abridgment by iho 
United States, of the freedom r>f religious 
princijiles and exercises, and retained to 
themselves the riglitof protecting tlwKame, * 
as this, stated by a law [lasH-d on the gen- 
eral demand of its citizens, had already 
pnjtected them from all huuian restraint or 
interference: and that, in addition lo this 
general jirinciple and express declaration, 
another and more special [tr.'visi'in Irw 
been made l)y one of the amendments to 
the Constitution, which expressly decdarca, 
that "Congress shall make no laws respect- 
ing an establishment of religion, or i)ro- 
hibiting the free exercise thereof, or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
press," thereby guarding in the same sen- 
tence, and under the same words, the free- 
dom of religion, of speech, and of the 
press, insomuch that whatever violates 
either, throws down the sanctuary which 
covers the others ; and that libels, talse- 
hood. and defamation, equally with heresy 
and false religion, are withheld from the 
cognisance of federal tribunals. That there- 
fore the act of the Congress of the United 
States, passed on the 14th of July, 1798, 
entitled " An act in addition to the act en- 
titled An act for the punishment of certain 
crimes ag;iinst the United States," which 
does abridge the freedom of the press, is 
not law, but is altogether void and of no 
force. 

4. Resolved, That alien friends are under 
the jurisdiction and jjrotection <(f the laws 
of the state wherein they are : that no 
power over them has been delegated to the 
United States, nor prohibited to the indi- 
vidual states distinct from their power over 
citizens ; and it being true, as a general 
principle, and one of tlie amendments to 
the Constitution having also declared, that 
■' the p<nvers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor proliibited 
to the states, are reserved to the states re- 
spectively, or to the people," the actof the 
Congress of the United States, p.-issed the 
22d day of June, 1798, entitled " An act 
concerning aliens," which sissumcs pov/cr 
over alien friends not delegated by the Con- 
stitution, is not law, but is altogether void 
and of no force. 

5. Be.soh-ed, That in addition to the gen- 
eral Jirinciple as well as the expre.ss de- 
claration, that [lowers not delegated are re- 
served, another and morespe<:;ial provision 
inferred in the Constitution, from «band- 
unt caution has declared, '" that the migra- 



12 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



tion or importation of such persons as any 
of the states now existing shall think 
proper to admit, shall not be prohibited l)y 
the Congress prior to the year 1808." That 
this commonwealth does admit the migra- 
tion of alien friends described as the sub- 
ject of the said act concerning aliens ; that 
a provision against prohibiting their migra- 
tion, is a provision against all acts equiva- 
lent thereto, or it would be nugatory ; that 
to remove them when migrated is equiva- 
3ent to a prohibition of their migration, 
hJid is, therefore, contrary to the said pro- 
vision of the Constitution, and void. 

6. Resolved, That the imprisonment of 
a person under the proiection of the laws 
of this commonwealth on his failure to 
obey the sinii)le order of the President to 
depart out of the United States, as is under- 
taken by the said act, entitled, " An act 
concerning aliens," is contrary to the Con- 
stitution, one amendment in which has 
provided, that " no person shall be deprived 
of liberty without due process of law," 
and, that another having provided, " that 
in all criminal prosecutions, the accused 
»3iall enjoy the right to a public trial by 
an impartial jury, to be informed as to the 
nature and cause of the accusation, to be 
confronted with the witnesses against him, 
to have com])ulsory process for obtaining 
witnes: es in his favor, and to have assist- 
ance of counsel for his defence," the same 
act undertaking to authorize the President 
to remove a pei"sou out of the United States 
who is under the protection of the law, on 
liis own suspicion, Avithout jury, without 
public trial, without confrontation of the 
witnesses against him, without having wit- 
nesses in his favor, without defence, with- 
out counsel, is contrary to these provisions 
also of tlie Constitution, is therefore not 
law, but utterly void and of no force. 

That transferring the power of judging 
any person who is under the protection of 
the laws, from the courts to the President 
of the United States, as is undertaken by 
the same act concerning aliens, is against 
the article of the Constitution which pro- 
vides, that " the judicial power of the 
United States shall be vested in the courts, 
the judges of which shall hold their office 
during good behavior," and that the said 
act is void lor that reason also ; and it is 
further to be noted that this transfer oi' 
judiciary power is to that magistrate of the 
general government who already possesses 
all the executive, and a qualified negative 
in all the legislative powers. 

7. Resolved, That the construction ap- 
plied by the general government (as is 
evident by sundry of their proceedings) to 
tiiose parts of the Constitution of the 
United States which delegate to ('ongress 
power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im- 
posts, excises ; to pay the debts, and pro- 
vide for the common defence and general 



welfare of the United States, and to make 
all laws which shall be necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution the 
powers vested by the Constitution in the 
government of the United States, or any 
dejiartment thereof, goes to the destruction 
of all the limits prescribed to their power 
by the Con^itution : That words meant by 
that instiument to be subsidiary only to 
the execution of the limited powers, ought 
not to be so construed as themselves to give 
unlimited powers, nor apart so to betaken 
as to destroy the whole residue of the in- 
strument : That the proceedings of the 
general government under color of those 
articles, will be a fit and necessary subject 
tor revisal and correction at a time of 
greater tranquillity, while those specified in 
the preceding resolutions call for imme- 
diate redress. 

8. Resolved, That the preceding resolu- 
tions be transmitted to the Senators and 
Representatives in Congress from this com- 
monwealth, who are enjoined to present 
the same to their respective Houses, and 
to use their best endeavors to procure at 
the next session of Congress a repeal of 
the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnox- 
ious acts. 

9. Resolved lastly, That the governor of 
this commonwealth be, and is hereby au- 
thorized and requested to communicate the 
preceding resolutions to the legislatures of 
the several states, to assure them that this 
commonwealth considers union for special 
national purposes, and particularly for 
those specified in their late federal com- 
pact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness, 
and prosperity of all the states — that, faith- 
ful to that compact, according to the plain 
intent and meaning in which it was under- 
stood and acceded to by the several parties, 
it is sincerely anxious for its preservation ; 
that it does also believe, that to take from 
the states all the powers of sell-govern- 
ment, and transfer them to a general and 
consolidated government, without regard 
to the special delegations and reservations 
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not 
for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of 
these states ; and that, therefore, this com- 
monwealth is determined, as it doubts not 
its co-states are, to submit to undelegated 
and consequently unlimited powers in no 
man, or body of men on earth : that if the 
acts before specified should stand, these 
conclusions would flow from them ; that 
the general government may place any act 
they think proper on the list of crimes and 
punish it tliemselves, whether enumerated 
or not enumerated by the Constitution as 
cognisable by them ; that they nuiy trans- 
fer its cognisance to the President or any 
other person, who may himself be the ac- 
cuser, counsel, judge, and jury, whose sus- 
picions may be the evidence, his order the 
sentence, his officer the executioner, and 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



13 



his breast the sole record of the transac- 
tion ; that a very niuiicrous and vahiuble 
description of" the inhal)itants of these 
states, beincj by this precedent reduced as 
outhiws to tile absolute dominion of one 
man and the barriers of the Constitution 
thus swept from us nil, no ranijjart now re- 
mains a;.Minst tlie passions and tiie jxtwer 
of a majority of Congress, to orotect from 
a lilce exportation or other f^rievous pun- 
i^linient the minority of the same body, 
tlie k\u;isiaturcs, judges, governors, and 
counsellors of tlie states, nor their other 
peaceable iidialiitants who may venture to 
reclaim the constitutional rights and liber- 
ties of the states and people, or who, for 
other causes, good or bad, may be obnox- 
ious to the view or marked by the suspi- 
cions of the President, or to be thought dan- 
gerous to his or their elections or other 
interests, ])ublic or personal; that the 
friendless alien has been selected as the 
safest subject of a first experiment ; but 
the citizen will soon follow, or rather has 
already followed ; for, already has a setli- 
tion act marked him as a prey : that these 
and successive acts of the same character, 
unless arrested on the threshold, may tend 
to drive these states into revolution and 
blood, and will furnish new calumnies 
against re[)ublican governments, and new 
pretexts for those who wish it to be be- 
lieved, that man cannot be governed but 
by a rod of iron ; that it would be a dan- 
gerous delusion were a confidence in the 
men of our choice to silence our fears for 
the safety of our rights ; that confidence is 
everywhere the parent of despotism ; free 
government is found in jealousy and not 
in confidence ; it is jealousy and not con- 
fidence which prei;cribes limited constitu- 
tions to bind down those whom we are 
obliged to trust with power ; that our Con- 
stitution has accordingly fixed the limits 
to which, and no farther, our confidence 
may go ; and lot the honest advocate of 
confidence read the alien and sedition acts, 
and say if the Constitution has not been 
wise in fixing limits to the government it 
created, and whether we should be wise in 
dastroying those limits ? Let him say what 
the government is, if it be not a tyranny, 
which the men of our choice have conferred 
on the President, and the President of our 
choice has assented to and accepted over 
the friendly strangers, to whom the mild 
spirit of our country and its laws had 
pledged hospitality and protection ; that 
the men of our choice have more respected 
the bare suspicions of the President than 
the solid rights of innocence, the claims of 
justification, the sacred force of truth, and 
the forms and substance of law and justice. 
In questions of power, then, let no more 
be said of confidence in man, but bind him 
down from mischief by the chains of the 
Constitution. That this Commonwealth 



does therefore cull on its co-states for an 
expression nl' their scntiment-s on the acta 
concerning aliens, and for the puni.-^hment 
of certain crimes hcrcinbi-fore specified, 
j)lainly dei hiring whe-ther lluse act.s are or 
are not authorized by the fiMJcral compact. 
And it doubts not that their snisc- will bo 
so announced as to ])rove th<''r attachment 
to limited government, whether general or 
particular, and that the right.s and liberties 
of their co-states will be exjiosed to no 
dangers by remaining embarked on a com- 
mon bottom with their own : but tlicy will 
concur with this commonwealth in consid- 
ering the said acts its so jialpably again.st 
the Constitution a.s to amount to an undis- 
guised declaration, that the com])act is not 
meant to be the me;u«ure of the powers of 
the general government, but that it will 
proceed in the exercise over these states of 
all powers whatsoever. That they will 
view this as seizing the rights of the states 
and consolidating them in the hands of the 
general government, wifti a power a.ssumed 
to bind the states (not merely in ciwea 
made federal) but in all cases whatsoever, 
by laws made, not with their consent, but 
by others against their consent ; that this 
would be to surrender the form of govern- 
ment we have chosen, and live under one 
deriving its powers from its own will, and 
not from our authority ; and that the co- 
states recurring to their natural rights ia 
cases not made federal, will concur in de- 
claring these void and of no force, and will 
each unite with this Commonwealth in re- 
questing their repeal at the next session of 
Congress. 

Edmund Bullock, S. H. R. 

John Campbell, S. P. T. 

Passed the House of Representatives, 
Nov. 10, 1798. 

Attest, Thos. Todd, C. H. R. 

In Senate, Nov. 13, 1798. — Unanimouslj 
concurred in. 

Attest, B. THUIU5T0N, C. S. 

Approved, Nov. 19, 1798. 

Jas. Garrard, Gov. of Ky. 

By the Governor, 

Harry Toulmin, Sec. of State. 

House of Representatives, Thursdav, ) 
Nov. 14, 17!t'). ) 

The House, according to the standinjf 
order of the day, resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole House, on the state 
of the commonwealth, Mr. Desha in the 
chair; and after some time spent therein, 
the speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. 
Desha reported that the committee had 
taken under consideration sundrj- resolu- 
tions passed by several state legislatures, 
on the subject of the alien and sedition 
laws, and had come to a resolution there- 
upon, which he delivered in at the clerk's 



14 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



table, where it was road and unanimoushj 
agreed to by the House, as follows : — 

The representatives of the good people 
of this eonunonwealth, in General Assem- 
bly convened, having maturely considered 
the answers of sundry states in the Unicm, 
to their rci-olutions passed the last session, 
respecting certain unconstitutional laws of 
Congress, commonly called the alien and 
sedition laws, would be faithless, indeed, 
to themselves and to those they represent, 
were they silently to acquiesce in the prin- 
ciples and doctrines attempted to be main- 
tained in all those answers, that of Vir- 
ginia only excepted. To again enter the 
field of argument, and attempt more fully 
or forcibly to expose the unconstitutional- 
ity of those obnoxious laws, would, it is 
apprehended, be as unnecessary as unavail- 
ing. We cannot, however, but lament 
that, in the discussion of those interesting 
subjects by sundry of the legislatures of 
our sister states unl'ounded suggestions 
and uncandid insinuations, derogatory to 
the true character and principles of this 
commonwealth, have been substituted in 
place of fair reasoning and sound argu- 
ment. Our opinions of these alarming 
measures of the general government, to- 
gether with our reasons for those opinions, 
were detailed with decency and with tem- 
per, and submitted to the discussion and 
judgment of our fellow-citizens throughout 
the Union. Whether the like decency 
and temper have been observed in the an- 
Bwers of most of those states who have 
denied or attempted to obviate the great 
truths contained in those resolutions, we 
have now only to submit to a candid world. 
Faithful to the true principles of the Fed- 
eral Union, unconscious of any designs to 
disturb the harmony of that Union, and 
anxious only to escape the fangs of despot- 
ism, the good people of this common- 
wealth are regardless of censure or calum- 
niation. Lest, however, the silence of 
this commonwealth should be construed 
into an acquiescence in the doctrines and 
principles advanced and attempted to be 
maintained by the said answers, or lest 
those of our fellow-citizens throughout the 
Union who so widely difl'er from us on 
those important suljjects, should be deluded 
by the expectation, that we shall be de- 
terred from what we conceive our duty, or 
shrink Irom the principles contained in 
those resolutions — tlierefore, 

Resolved, That this commonwealth con- 
siders the Federal Union, upon the terms 
and for the purj)oses specified in the late 
ox)m]p;ict, as conducive to the liberty and 
hapjiine.ss of the several states: That it 
docs now unequivocally declare its attach- 
ment to the Union, and to that compact, 
agreeablv to its obvious and real intention, 
and will be among the last to seek its dis- 
solution : That if those who administer 



the general government be permitted to 
transgress the limits fixed by that compact, 
by a total disregard to the special delega- 
tions of power therein contained, an anni- 
hilation of the state governments, and the 
creation upon their ruins of a general con- 
solidated government, will be the inevita- 
ble consequence: That the principle and 
construction contended for by sundry of 
the state legislatures, that the general gov- 
ernment is the exclusive judge of the ex- 
tent of the powers delegated to it, stop 
nothing sliort of desjwtism — since the dis- 
cretion of those who administer the gov- 
ernment, and not the Constitution, would 
be the measure of their powers : That the 
several states who formed that instrument 
being sovereign and independent, have the 
unquestionable right to judge of the in- 
fraction ; and that a nullification by those 
sovereignties of all unauthorized acts done 
under color of that instrument is the right- 
iul remed}' : That this commonwealth 
does, under the most deliberate reconsid- 
eration, declare that the said alien and 
sedition laws are, in their opinion, palpa- 
ble violations of the said Constitution ; 
and, however cheerfully it may be disposed 
to surrender its opinion to a majority of its 
sister states, in matters of ordinary or 
doubtful policy, yet, in momentous regula- 
tions like the present, which so vitally 
wound the best rights of the citizen, it 
would consider a silent acquiescence as 
highly criminal : That although this com- 
monwealth, as a party to the federal com- 
pact, will bow to the laws of the Union, 
yet it does, at the same time, declare that 
it will not now, or ever hereafter, cease to 
oppose in a constitutional manner every 
attempt, at what quarter soever offered, to 
violate that compact. And, finally, in or- 
der that no pretext or arguments may be 
drawn from a supposed acquiescence on 
the part of this commonwealth in tlie con- 
stitutionality of those laws, and he thereby 
used as precedents for similar future viola- 
tions of the federal comj)act — this com- 
monwealth does now enter against them its 
solemn protest. 

Extract, &c. Attest, 'T. Todd, C. H. R. 

In Senate, Nov. 22, 1799 — Read and con- 
curred in. 

Attest, B. Thurston, C. S. ■ 

\Vaslilngfto»»'s Farewell Address to the Peo- 
ple of tlie Viilted States, Sept. 17, 1796. 

Accepted as a Flatjonn fur the I'lOfle o/ the NaiUm, regard- 
lean oj party. 

Friends and Fellow-citizens: — 

The period for a new election of a citi- 
zen to administer the executive govern- 
ment of the United Stales being not far 
distant, and the time actually arrived when 
your ihouglits must be employed in desig- 
nating the j)ersonwho is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me pro- 



P L I T I C A L P L A T F (J l\ M S . 



15 



Scr, especially as it may conduce to a more 
istiiK-t c.\j)r«-.ssioii oftlic [)ulilic voici', (hat 
I rilioiild now a|)[irist' you of the resolution 
1 havt.' I'ornic'il to (loclinc beinj^ consiiKivd 
anioni;' tlir luiinltiT of thost-out of wImui a 
chiiice is to be made. I bej;; you, at tiie 
same lime, to do lue ilij justice to be as- 
suivil th:it this resolution has i;ot been 
taken without a strict re^'^ard to all the 
considerations a|>i)erlainin^ to the relation 
whieh binds a dutiful eiti/.t n to his coun- 
try ; and that in withdrawinj>; the tender of 
service, whieh silence, in my siluati(»n, 
luiLrht ini|)ly, I am intlueneed by no diini- 
nntioii of zeal lor your future intercls; no 
detlciencY of grateful n'spect of your past 
kindness; but am supported by a full con- 
viction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance 
hitherto in, the office to which your sul- 
frajrcs have twice called me, have been a 
uniform sacrifice of inclination to the 
opinion of duty, and to a deference for 
what appeared to be your desire. I eon- 
stantly hoped that it would have been 
nuuh earlier in my power, consistently 
with motives which I w;us not at liberty to 
disreirard, to return to that retirement from 
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The 
strength of my iiKlinatif)ii to do this, pre- 
vious to the last election, had even led to 
the preparation of an address to declare it 
to you ; but mature rcllection on the then 
per[)lexed and critical posture of our affairs 
with foreign nations, and the unanimous 
advice of persons entitled to my conhdence, 
imjielled me to abandon the idea. 

I re-joice that the state of your concerns, 
external as well as internal, no longer ren- 
ders the pursuit of inclination incompati- 
ble with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; 
and am persuaded, wdiatever partiality 
may be retained for my services, that, in 
the present circumstances of our country, 
you will not disapprove my determination 
to retire. 

The impressions with wdiich I first un- 
dertook the arduous trust were explained 
on the proper occasion. In the discharge 
of this trust, I will only say, that I have 
with good intentions contributed towards 
the organization and administration of the 
government the best exertions of which a 
very fallible judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious in the outset of the inferiority 
of my qualifications, experience, in my 
own eye.-^ — perhaps still more in the eyes 
of ollurs — has strengthened the motives to 
diffidence of myself; and every day the in- 
creasing weight of years admonishes me. 
morj and more, that the abode of retire- 
ment is as necessary to me as it will be 
widcome. Satisfied that if any circum- 
stances have given peculiar value to my 
.services, they were temporary, I have the 
coasolaiion to bi lieve that, while choice 



and prudence invite me to quit the politi- 
cal ."^rene, patriotism clocs not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment wliirh 
is intended to terminate the lariir of iny 
pul)lic life, my let lings do not permit me 
to suspend (he deep aeknowiedgment of 
that debt of gratitude whieh I owe to my 
beloved country for the many honors it 
has conferred upon mc; still more for tlio 
.«teailfitst confidence with whieh it ha.* 
supported tnc; and for the o|iportunitie.; 1 
have thence enjoyed of manifesting my 
inviolable altachment, by services faithful 
and nersevering, though in usefulne-s un- 
c(pntl to my zeal. Jf benefits iiave re- 
sulted to our country from these services, 
let it always be remembered to your 
praise, and as an instructive example in 
our annals, that under circumstances in 
which the passions, agitated in every direc- 
tion, were li;'.ble to mislead; amidst ai>- 
pearances sometimes dubi(ius, vicissitudes 
of fortune often discouniging ; in situations 
in wdiich, not nnfrequently, want of suc- 
cess has countenanced the spirit of criti- 
cism, — the constancy of your support was 
the essential prop of the efibrts, and a 
guarantee of the plans, by which they 
were edccted. Proioundly penetrated by 
this new idea, I shall carry it wi'li mc to 
my grave, as a strong incitement to un- 
ceasing vows, that IJeaven may continue 
to you the choicest tokens of its benefi- 
cence; that union and brotherly afiection 
may be j»erpetual ; that the free Constitu- 
tion, which is the work of your hands, 
may be .sacredl.v maintained ; that its ad- 
ministration, in every department, may be 
stamped with wisdom and virtue; that in 
fine, the happiness of the jieople of these 
states, under the auspices of liberty, may 
be made complete, by so careful a preser- 
vatio!i and so prudent a use of this blessing 
as will acquire to them the glory of recom- 
mending it to the a|>]dause. the affection, 
and the adoption of every nation which is 
yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a 
solicitude for your welfare, wdiich cannot 
end but with my life, and the apprehen- 
sion of danger natural to that solicitude, 
urge me, on an occasion like the jire^seiit, 
to offer to your solemn eontemnlation, and 
to recommend to your frequent review, 
some sentiments, which are the result of 
mu( h reflection, of no inconsiderable oli- 
servation, and which apjiear to me all-im- 
portant to the permanency of your felicity 
as a people. These will be afforded tcyou 
with the more freedom, as you can only 
.see in them the disinterested warning of a 
parting friend, who can pos.-ibly have no 
personal motive to l)i:is his counsel ; nor 
can I forget, as an encouragement to it, 
your indulgent reception of my sentiment.s 
on a farmer and not dissimilar onoa.-<inn. 

Interwoven ius is the love of liberty with 



16 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



even' ligament of your hearts, no recom- 
mendation ol" mine is nece:5sary to fortify 
or coniirm the attaehuient. 

The unity of governuieut which consti- 
tutes you one people, is al.so now dear to 
you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pilhir 
in the edihce of your real inde{)endence — 
the sujtport of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your 
j^rosperity, of that very liberty which you 
fo highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee 
that, from different causes and from diifer- 
ent quarters, nuu'h pains will be taken, 
many artifices employed, to weaken in 
your minds the conviction of this truth; 
as this is the point m your political fortress 
against which the batteries of internal and 
external enemies will be most constantly 
and actively, (thougu often covertly and 
insidiously) directed, — it is of infinite mo- 
ment that you should projjerly estimate the 
immense value of your national union to 
your collective and individual happiness; 
that you should cherish a cordial, habitunl, 
and immovable attachment to it ; accus- 
toming yourself to think and speak of it as 
of the palladium of your political safety 
and prosperity, watching for its preserva- 
tion with jealous anxiety ; discountenan- 
cing whatever may suggest even a suspicion 
that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; 
and indignantly frowning upon the first 
dawning of every attempt to alienate any 
portion of our country from the rest, or to 
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link to- 
gether the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth 
or choice, of a common country, that coun- 
try has a right to concentrate your affec- 
tions. The name of American, which be- 
longs to you in your national capacity, 
must always exalt the just pride of ]>atri- 
otism, more than appellations derived from 
local discriminations. With slight shades 
of difference, you have the same religion, 
manners, habits, and political principles. 
You have, in a common cause, fought and 
triumphed together ; the independence and 
liberty you ]iosse«s are the work of joint 
counsels and joint efforts, of common dan- 
gers, sufferings, and successes. But these 
considerations, however powerfully they 
address themselves to your sensibility, are 
generally outweighed by those which a.p- 

{>ly more immediately to your interest; 
lere every y)ortion of our country finds the 
most comnninding motives for carefully 
guarding and preserving the union of the 
whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained inter- 
course with the South, j)rotected by the 
equal laws of a common government, finds, 
in the productions of the latter, great ad- 
ditional resources of maritime and com- 
mercial enterprise, and precious materials 
of manufacturing industry. The South, in 



the same intercourse benefiting by the 
agency of the Norih, sees its agriculture 
grow, and its cf)mmerce expanded. Turn- 
ing partly into its own channels the sea- 
men of the North, it finds its particular 
navigation invigorated ; and while it con- 
tributes, in different ways, to nourish and 
increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protec- 
tion of a maritime strength to which itself 
is unequally adapted. The East, in like 
intercourse with the West, already finds, 
and ill the progressive improvement of in- 
terior communication, by land and by 
water, will nnu-e and more find, a valuable 
I vent tor tne commociitieswhicli eacfi brings 
from abroad or manufactures at home. The 
I West derives Irom the East sup])lies re- 
I quisite to its growth or comfort, and what 
I is perhaps of still greater consequence, it 
must, of necessity, owe the secure enjoy- 
I ment of indispensable outlets for its own 
productions, to the weight, influence, and 
the maritime strength of the Atlantic side 
of the Union, directed by an indissoluble 
community of interests as one nation. Any 
other tenure by ^vhich tlie West can liolii 
this essential advantage, whether derived 
from its ov*'n se})arate strength, or from an 
apostate and unnatural connexion with any 
foreign power, must be intrinsically pre- 
carious. 

While, then, every part of our country 
thus feels an immediate and particular in- 
terest in union, all the parts combined can- 
not fail to find, in the united mass of 
means and efforts, greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionably greater security 
from external danger, a less frequent inter- 
ruption of their peace by foreign nations; 
and what is of inestimable value, they must 
derive from union an exemption from those 
broils and wars between themselves, which 
so frequently afflict neighboring countries, 
not tied together by the same government; 
which their own rivalship alone would be 
sufRcient to produce, but which op]iosite 
foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues, 
would stimulate and embitter. Hence, 
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of 
those overgrown militai-y establishments, 
which, under any form of government, are 
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to 
be regtirded as particularly hostile to re- 
publican liberty ; in this sense it is that 
your union ought to be considered as a 
main i)rop of your liberty, and that the 
love of one ought to endear to you the pre- 
servation of the other. 

Those considerations speak a persuasive 
language to every rellec ting and virtuous 
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the 
Union as a primary object of patriotic de- 
sire. Is tb.ere a doubt, wdiether a conmion 
government can embrace so large a sphere? 
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere 
speculation, in such a case, were criminaL 



POLITICAL TLATFORMS. 



17 



We arc authorized to hone, that a proper 
orgaui/.aliou of the whole, witli the aux- 
iliary ajreiicv it' j;()vernineiits lor tlie ro- 
.■<[)eitivc subdivisions, will allord u hapj)y 
issue to the experiment. It U well worth 
a I'uir and lull experiment, ^\'ith .such 
powerful and obvious motives to rnion, 
nlfeetinj; all parts of our country, while ex- 
perieiuf shall not have demonstrated its 
im])racti lability, there will always be rea- 
son to tlistrust the patriotism oftho.se who, 
in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken 
its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may 
disturb our Union, it occurs as a matter of 
serious concern, that any ground should 
have been furnished ior characterizing 
parties by geographical discriminations — 
S'orthcrn and Southern — Atlantic and 
Western : whence designing men may en- 
de.ivor to excite a belief that there is a real 
ditl'erencc of local interests and views. One 
of the expedients of party to acquire in- 
fluence within particular districts, is to 
misrepres-ent the opinions and aims of oth- 
er districts. You cannot shield yourselves 
too much against the jealousies and heart- 
burnings win; h spring from these misrep- 
resentations ; they tend to render alien to 
each other those who ought to be bound 
together by i):;ternal allection. The inhabi- 
tants of our Western country have lately 
had a useiul lesson on this head ; they have 
seen in the negotiation by the executive, 
and in the unanimous ratification by the 
Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the 
universal satisfaction at that event through- 
out the United States, decisive proof how 
unibunded were t"ae suspicions propagated 
among them, of a policy in the general 
government, and in the Atlantic States, 
unfriendly to their interest in regard to the 
Mississippi — that with Great Britain, and 
that with Spain, which secure to them 
everything they could desire in respect to 
our foreign relations, towards confirming 
their prosperitv. Will it not be their wi.s- 
dom to rely for the preservation of these 
advantages on the Union by which they 
were procured ? Will they not henceforth 
be deaf to those advisers, if .such there are, 
who would sever them from their brethren, 
and connect them with aliens? 

To the ellijaey and permanency of your 
Union a government of the whole is indis- 
pensable. No alliance, however strict be- 
tween the parties, can be an adequate sub- 
stitute; they must inevitably experience 
the infractions and interrujitions which all 
alliances, in all time, have experienced. 
Sensible of this momentous truth, you 
have improved upon your fir.-t essay, by 
the adoption of a (^Constitution of govern- 
ment, better calculated than your former 
for an intimate union, and for the effica- 
cious management of your common eon- 
ceras. This government, the offcpring of 



j our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed 
I — adopted upon full investigation and ma- 
ture deliberation, coinpUlely free in its 
l)rinciples, in tiic distributiun of its powers 
{ — uniting security with ciierL'y, un<l cou- 
I taining witliin itself a provision lor its own 
[amendment, has a just claim to your con- 
; fiilence and your suj)port. Hcspect lor its 
authority, compliance with its laws, ac- 
I quiescence in its measures, are duties cn- 
I joined by the fundanifiital maxima of true 
[liberty. Ihe basis ol (Uir p<ditical sy.stem 
I is the riglit of the people to make ami to 
alter their Constitutions of government; 
but the Constitution which at any time 
! exists, till changed by an exjilicit and 
j authentic act of the whole peoj>h-, is.sacred- 
I ly obligatory upon all. Tiie very idea of 
the power and right of the jieople to estab- 
lish government, j)resupposes the duty of 
every individual to obey the e-stablished 
government. 

All obstruction to the execution of laws, 
all combinations and a.ssociations under 
whatever plausible character, with the 
real design to direct, control, counteract, or 
awe the regular dcliberati<jn and action of 
the constituted authorities, are destructive 
to this fundamental jirinciple, and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organi/.e faction, 
to give it an artificial and extraordinary 
force, to jiUt in the place of the delegated 
will of the nation, the will of a party, often 
a small but artful and enterprising minority 
of the community; and. according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to 
make the public administration the mirror 
of the ill-concerted and incongrutms jro- 
jects of fashion, rather than tlie organ of 
consistent and whok\some i)lans, digested 
by common counsels and modified by mu- 
tual interests. 

However combinations or as-sociations of 
the above descrii)tion may nf)W and then 
answer poi)ular ends, they are likely, in 
the course of time and things, to become 
potent engines, by which cunning, am- 
bitious, and unprincipled men will be 
eiud)led to subvert the jiower of the people, 
and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
government; dcstroyintr, alterward-s, the 
very engines which had lifted them to un- 
just dominion. 

Towards the j^resorvation of your gov- 
ernment, and the permanency of your 
present happy state, it is requisite, not only 
that you steadil\' discountenance irregular 
oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the sjdrit 
of innovation ujion its principles, however 
specious the pretexts. One method of as- 
sault may be to eflect, in the forms of the 
Constitution, alterations which will impair 
the energy of the system, and thus to ui>- 
dermine what cannot be directly over- 
thrown. In all the changes to which you 
may be invited, remember that time aad 



18 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



habit are at least as necessary to fix the 
true character of governments as of other 
human institutions; that experience is the 
surest standard by which to test the real 
tendency of the existing constitution of a 
country'; tiiat facility in changes, upon the 
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion ex- 
Tioses to perpetual change, Irom the end- 
less variety of hypothesis and opinion ; and 
remember, especially, that for tlic efficient 
management of your common interests, in 
a country so extensive as ours, a govern- 
ment of as much vigor as is consistent witli 
the perfect security of li])erty is indispen- 
sable. Lioerty itself will find in such a 
government, with powers properly distri- 
buted, and adjusted, its surest guardian. 
It is, indeed, little else than a name, where 
the government is too leeble to withstand 
the "etitcrprise of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits de- 
scribed by the laws, and to maintain all 
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of 
the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the 
danger of parties in the state with particu- 
lar reference to the founding of them on 
geographical discriminations. Let me 
now take a more comprehensive view, and 
warn you, in the most solemn manner, 
against tlie baneful eflccts of the spirit of 
party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable 
from our nature, having its root in the 
strongest passions of the human mind. It 
exists^under difierent shapes in all govern- 
ments, more or less stifled, controlled, or 
repressed ; but in those of the popular 
form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and 
is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction 
over another, shari)ened by the spirit of 
revenge, natural to party dissensions, 
which, in different ages and countries, has 
perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is 
itself a frightful despotism. But this 
leads, at length, to a more formal and 
permanent despotism. The disorders and 
miseries which result, gradually incline 
the minds of men to seek security and re- 
pose in the absolute power of an indi- 
vidual ; and sooner or later, the chief of 
some prevailing faction, more able or more 
fortunate than" his competitors, turns this 
disposition to the purposes of his own ele- 
vation on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking lorward to an ex- 
tremity of this kind (wliich, nevertheless, 
ought not to be entirely out of sight), the 
common and eontinual mischii'fs of the 
spirit of party are sulficient to liiake it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to dis- 
courage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public 
councils, and enfeeble the public adminis- 
tration. It agitates the community with 
ill-fouuded jculousics and false alarms; 



kindles the animosity of one part against 
another; foments, occasionally, riot and 
insurrection. It opens the door to foreign 
infiuence and corruption, which find a ' 
i'acilitated access to the government itself, 
thnmgh the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and tlic will of one coun- 
try are subjected to the policy and Avill of 
another. 

There is an opinion that parties, in free 
countries, are useful checks upon the ad- 
ministration of the government, and serve 
to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, 
within certain limits, is probably true; 
and in governments of a monarchical ca.st, 
patriotism may look with indulgence, if 
not with favor, upon the spirit of part}'. 
But in those of the popular character, in 
governments purely elective, it is a spirit 
not to be encouraged. From their natural 
tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary 
pur})ose. And there being constant dan- 
ger of excess, the efibrt ought to be, by 
force of public opinion, to mitigate and 
assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent 
its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of 
warming, it should consume. 

It is im])ortant, likewise, that the habits 
of thinking, in a free country, should in- 
spire caution in those intrusted with its 
administration, to confine themselves with- 
in their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of 
one department, to encmach ujton another. 
The spirit of enerorichmcnt tends to con- 
solidate the powers of all the departments ia 
one, and thus to create, whatever the form 
of government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and prone- 
ness to abuse it, which p)-edominates in 
the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us 
of the truth of this position. 

The necessity of reciprocal checks in the 
exercise of political power, by divi'iing 
and distributing it into difierent deposito- 
ries, and constituting each the guardian 
of the public weal, against invasions by 
the others, has been evinced by experi- 
ments, ancient and modern ; some of them 
in our f>wn country, and under our own 
eyes. To preserve them must be as neces- 
sary as to institute them. If, in the 
opinion of the }»eople, the distribution or 
modification of the constitutinnal powers 
be, in any particular, wrong, let it l)e cor- 
rected by an amendment in the way which 
the Constitution designates. But let there 
be no change by usurpation; for though 
this, in one instance, may be the instru- 
ment of good, it is the customary weapon 
l)y which free governments are destroyed. 
The precedent must always grei'tly over- 
l)alancc, in permanent evil, any partial or 
transient benefit whicii the use can at any 
time yield. 



POLITICAL PLATKORMS. 



i^ 



Of ill! the ilispositioiis utul Ii.ihils which 
lend to political proHpcrily, ivlij:;i(»a ami 
morality arc i!i<lispciisa!)lc .^iipporLs. In 
vain \V(tul(l that man claiiii the trilmtc m{ 
I>atriolism, who shouM lalmr to huhvcrl 
these ^reat pillars ot" hnniaii hapj)iin's-i, 
thi;-tc iiriia'st props ol" the duties of men 
and eiti/.i'U-i. The mere politician, eipiaily 
with the pious man, ou,i;lit to respect and 
elierish them. A volume could not trace 
all their connexions with private and puh- 
lic felicity. Let it simply be asked, where 
is the security for property, for reputation, 
for life, if the sense ot relii^ious ohiiication 
desert tiie oaths which are t!ie instruments 
of investiujation in courts of justice? And 
let us with I'aulion indulj^e the supposition, 
that moralitv can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to 
the inihieneeof relined eilucation on minds 
of peculiar structure, reason and experi- 
ence both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of re- 
li :;hius principles. It is substantially true, 
t!iat virtue or morality is a necessary 
sprin;! of popular government. The rule, 
indeed, extends with more or less force to 
every ?j)ecie3 of free government. Who, 
th:it is a sincere friend to it, can look with 
indilfcrcir.'e upon attempts to shake the 
foundation of the fabric? 

Promote then, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general 
diiiusion of knowledge. In proportion as 
the structure of a government gives force 
tj public opinion, it is essential that pub- 
lic opinion slioulJ be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength 
and secnritv, cherish public credit. One 
method of preserving it is to use it as spar- 
ingly ;is possible, avoiding oi;casions of 
eM;j)cnse bv- cultivating pence, but romeni- 
bering also that timely disbursements to 
l)repare for da ig?r frequently prevent 
miicl\ greater disbursements to repel it ; 
avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of 
debt, not only by shunning occasions of 
expense, but bv vigorous exertions in time 
of peace to discharge the debts ■which un- 
avoidable wars may have occasioned; not 
nagenerouslv tUrotving upon posterity the 
burden which we ourselves ought to bear. 
The execution of these maxims belongs to 
your re oresentitives, but it is necessary 
that public opinion should co-operate. To 
facilitate to them the performance of tlieir 
<lut/, it is essential that you should practi- 
cally bear in mind, that toward the pavments 
of debts there must be revenues ; that to 
have revenue there must be taxes; that no 
taxes can be devised, which are not more 
or less inconvenient and unpleasant ; that 
the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable 
from the selection of the ))roi>er objects 
(which is alwavs a choice of dithoulties) 
ou^ht to be a decisive moment for a can- 
did coosta'uction of the conduct of the 



government in making it, and for h s|.irit 
of aci|uiertcence in the measure for obUiin- 
ing rcveruic, which the public exigencies 
may at any time dictate. 

()l)scrve good laith and ju.stico towurd.i 
all nations; cultivate luace and harmony 
with all; religion and morality enjoin llii.s 
conduct; and can it be that go<)d policv 
does not eijually enjoin it? It will be 
worthy of a tree, enlightened, and at no 
distant neriod a great nation, to give U} 
maidcind the magnanimons and too novel 
example of a peo]de always guided by an 
exalttrd justice and benevolence. SVho 
can doubt that, in the course of time and 
tl.'ngs, the Iruits of such a plan would 
richly repay any temporary advantages 
which might be lost by a stea<ly adlu:rence 
to it? Can it be that I'rovidcnce has not 
connected the i>ermanent felicity of a na- 
tion witli its virtue? The experiment, at 
least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is 
it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing 
is more essential than that permanent, in- 
veterate antipathies against particular na- 
tions, and passionate attachniv'ut lor others, 
should be excluded: and that in place of 
them, just and amicable feelings towards 
all should be cultivated. The nation 
which indulges towards another an habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some 
degree, a slave. It is a slave to its ani- 
mosity or to its affection ; either of which 
is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty 
and its interest. Antipathy in one nation 
against another, disposes each more readily 
to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of 
slightcausesof umbrage, and to be haughty 
and untractable, when accidental or trilling 
occasions of dispute occur. Hence fre- 
quent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
bloodv contests. The nation, prompted by 
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impeU 
to war the government, contrary to the best 
calculations of policy. The government 
sometimes participates in the national 
propensity, and adopts, through piussion, 
what reiuson would reject; at other tim(.>3 
it makes the animosity of the nation sub- 
servient to projects of hostility, instigated 
by pride, ambition, and other sinister and 
pernicicms motives. The peace ollen, some- 
times ])erhaj)s the liberty, of nations has 
been the victim. 

So likewise a passionate attachment of 
one nation to another produces a variety 
of evils. Sympathy for the favorite na- 
tion, facilitating the illusion of an im- 
aginary common interest, in castas where 
no real common interest exists, and infas- 
ing into one the enmities of the other, 
betrays the former into a participation in 
the quarrels and wars of the latter, without 
adequate inducimient or justification. It 
leads also to concessiona to the favorite 



20 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



nation of privileges denied to others, which 
is apt doubly to injure the nation making 
the concessions ; by unnecessarily parting 
with what ought to have been retained, 
and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a 
disposition to rt'taliate, in the parties Ironi 
whom equal i)rivileges are withheld ; and 
it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or de- 
luded citizens (who devote themselves 
to the favorite nation) facility to betray, or 
sacrifice the interest of their own country, 
without odium ; sometimes even with pojju- 
larity ; gilding with the appearance of a 
virtuous sense of obligation, a commend- 
able deference for public opinion, or a 
laudable zeal lor public good, the base or 
foolish compliances of ambition, corrup- 
tion, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in in- 
numerable ways, such attachments are 
particularly alarming to the truly enlight- 
ened and independent patriot. How many 
opportunities do thoy aflFord to tamper 
with domestic I'actions, to practice the art 
of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to 
influence or awe the public councils? 
Such an attachment of a small or weak, 
towards a great and powerful nation, dooms 
the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign 
influence (I conjure you to believe me, 
fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free peo- 
ple ought to be constantly awake ; since 
liistory and experience prove that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful loes 
of republican government. But that 
jealousy, to be usei'ul, mu.st be impar- 
tial ; else it becomes the instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided, instead of a 
defence against it. Excessive partiality 
for one foreign nation, and excessive dis- 
like for another, cause those whom they 
actuate to sec danger only on one side, and 
serve to veil, and even second, the arts of 
influence on the other. Real i)atriots, who 
mav resist the intrigues of the favorite, are 
liable to become suspected and odious ; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the ap- 
plause and confidence of the people, to 
surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in re- 
gard to foreign nations, is, in extending 
our commercial relations, to have Avith 
them a.s little political connexion as possi- 
ble. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with 
perfect good faith. There let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have none, or a very remote 
relation. Hence she must be engaged in 
frequent contnjvcrsies, the causes of which 
are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us 
i/D implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in 
the ordinary vicissitud(!S of her politics, or 
the ordinary cond^inalions and collisions 
of her friendships or eumitics. 



Our detached and distant situation in- 
vites and enables us to pursue a difl'erent 
course. If we remain one people under 
an eflicient government, the period is not 
far ofl' when we may defy material injury 
from external annoyance ; when we may 
take such an attitude as will cause the 
neutrality we may at any time resolve 
upon, to be scrupulously respected ; when 
belligerent nations, under the impossibility 
of making acquisitions upon us, Avill not 
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; 
when we may choose peace or war, as our 
interests, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so pecu- 
liar a situation? AVhy quit our own to 
stand upon foreign ground? Why, by in- 
terweaving our destiny with that of any 
part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambi- 
tion, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of 
permanent alliances with any portion of 
the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as Ave 
are now at liberty to do it; for let me not 
be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold 
the nuixim no less applicable to public 
than to private affairs, that honesty is al- 
ways the best policy. I repeat it, there- 
fore, let those engagements be observed in 
their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, 
it is unnecessary, and would be unwise to 
extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by 
suitable establishments, on a respectable 
defensive posture, we may safely trust to 
temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with 
all nations, are recommended by policy, 
humanity, and interest. But even our com- 
mercial policy should hold an equal and 
impartial hand; neither seeking n(ir grant- 
ing exclusive favors or preferences; con- 
sulting the natural cause of things; difliis- 
ing and diversifying, by gentle means, the 
streams of commerce, by forcing nothing ; 
establishing, with powers so disjiosed, in 
order to give trade a stable course, to de- 
fine the rights of our merchants, and to 
enable the government to support them, 
conventional rules of intercourse, the best 
that present circumstances and mutual 
opinions will jjermit, but temporary, and 
liable to be, from time to time, abandoned 
or varied, as experience and circumstances 
shall dictate ; constantly keeping in view, 
that it is folly in one nation to look for dis- 
interested favf)rs from another ; that it 
must i>ay, with a portion of its independ- 
(>nce, for Avhatever it may accept under 
that character; that by such acceptance it 
may place itself in the condition of hav- 
ing given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingrati- 
tude for not giving more. There can be 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



21 



no greater error than to expect, or calru- 
liiti' u])on, roal favors from nation to nation. 
It is an illusion \vliicli (.'XixTii-nce must 
cur*', wliirli a just pritii- ou^Mit to discard. 

In oM'erin^^ to you, my i-ountrymiii, tlu'si> 
counsels of an oUl and affcctioiuito friend, 
I dart' not hope they will make the stron^r 
and lastinj;: impression I could wish; that 
they will control the usual current of the 
pji.'isions, or ])revcnt our nation from run- 
ning the course wl ich has liitherto marked 
the destiny of nations; but if I nuiy even 
flatter myself that they may be jiroduetive 
of some partial benefit, some occasional 
good; that they may now and then recur 
to moderate the fury of j)arty spirit, to 
warn against the misehiefs of foreign in- 
trigue-!, to guard against the impostures of 
j)retended patriotism; this hope will be a 
liill recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far. in the discharge of my oHieial 
duties. I have been guided by the princi- 
ples which have been delineated, the pub- 
lic records, and other evidences of my con- 
duct, must witness to you and the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own con- 
science is, that I have at le;ist believed my- 
self to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in 
Europe, my proclamation of the 23d of 
April, 17i>3, is the index to my plan. 
Sanctioned by your approving voice, and 
by that of your representatives in both 
Houses of Congress, the spirit of that 
measure has continually governed me, un- 
influenced by any attempts to deter or di- 
vert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the 
aid of the best lights I could obtain. I was 
well satisfied that our country, under all 
the circumstances of the case, had a right 
to take, and was bound in duty and inter- 
est to take a neutral position. Having 
taken it, I determined, as far as should 
depend upon me, to maintain it with mod- 
eration, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the 
right to hold this conduct, it is not neces- 
sary on this occasion to detail. I will only 
observe, that, according to my understand- 
ing of tlie matter, that right, so far from 
being denii-d by any of the belligerent 
powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding neutral conduct 
may be inferred, without anything more, 
from the obligation which ju.stice and hu- 
manity impose on every nation, in cases in 
which it is free to act, to maintain invio- 
late the relations of peace and unity to- 
wards other nations. 

The inducements of interests, for observ'- 
ing that conduct, will best be referred to 
your own refiections and experience. 
With me, a predominant motive has been 
to endeavor to gain time to our country to 
settle and mature its yet recent institutions, 



and to progres.s, without interruption, to 
tliat degree of strength and consislcricy 
wliieli is neee.ssary to give it, humanly 
speaking, the command of iUs own for- 
tunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of 
my administration, I am unconseious of 
intentiomd error; I am, nevertheless, too 
.sensilile of my defects not to think it jm)- 
l>able that 1 may have committed nianv 
errors. ^Vhat«•ver they may be, I fervently 
beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate 
the evils to which they may t^'iid. I shall 
also carry with me the hope, that my coun- 
try will never come to view them with in- 
fliilgence; and that, aft<T forty-five yeai-s 
of my life dedicated to its service with an 
U]>right zeal, the faalts of ineompetent 
abilities will be consigned tu oblivion, an 
myself must soon be to the mansions of 
rest. 

Kelying on it.s kindness in this, as in 
other things, and actuated by that fervent 
love towards it which is so natural to a 
man who views in it the native soil of 
himself and his progenitors for several 
generations, I anticij>ate, with pleasing ex- 
pectation, that retreat in which I promise 
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet 
enjoyment of jmrUiking, in the midst of 
my fellow-citizens, the benign influence f)f 
good laws under a free government — the 
ever favorite object of my heart — and 
happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual 
cares, labors, and dangers. 

George Wasiiixgton. 
United States, 17th of Sept., 17%. 



1800.— No Federal Platform. 



Republican Platform, Philadelphia. 

Adopted in Congrts^iomd C\iu^iiii. 

1. An inviolal)le preserv.ation of the 
Federal constitution, according to the true 
sense in which it was adopted by the states, 
that in which it was advocated by its 
friends, and not that which its enemies 
apprehended, who, therefore, became 
its enemies. 

2. Opposition to monarchizing its fea« 
tures by the forms of its administration, 
with a view to conciliate a transition, first, 
to a president and senate for life; and, 
secondly, to an hereditary tenure of those 
offices, and thus to worm out the elective 
principle. 

3. Preservation to the stdtes of tlie pow- 
ers not yielded bv them to the T'nion. and 
to the legislature of the Union its constitu- 
tional share in division of powers ; and re- 
si-stance. therefore, to existing movements 
for transferring all the powers of the states 



22 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



to the general government, and all of those 
of that government to the executive 
branch. 

4. A rigorously frugal administration of 
the government, and the ai)plication o:''all 
the possible savings of the public revenue 
to the liquidation of the j'ublic debt; and 
resistance, therefore, to all measures look- 
ing to a multiplication of oflicers and sala- 
ries, merely to create partisans and to aug- 

I nient the public debt, on the principle of 
ius being a public blessing. 

5. Keliance for internal defense solely 
upon the militia, till actual invasion, and 
lor such a naval tbrce only as may be suf- 
licient to protect our coasts and harbors 
from depredations ; and opposition, there- 
ibre, to the policy of a standing army in 
time of peace which may overawe the pub- 
lic sentiment, and to a navy, which, by its 
own expenses, and the wars iti wliich it 
will implicate us, will grind us with pub- 
lic burdens and sink us under them. 

6. Free commerce with all nations, po- 
litical connection with none, and little or 
no diplomatic establishment. 

7. Opposition to linking ourselves, by 
new treaties, with the quarrels of Europe, 
entering their fields of slaughter to pre- 
serve their balance, or joining in the con- 
federacy of kings to war against the princi- 
ples of liberty. 

8. Freedom of religion, and opposition 
to all maneuvers to bring about a legal as- 
cendency of one sect over another. 

9. Freedom of speech and of the press; 
and opposition, therefore, to all violations 
of the constitution, to silence, by force, and 
not by reason, the complaints or criticisms, 
just or unjust, of our citizens against the 
conduct of their j)ublic agents. 

10. Liberal naturalization laws, under 
which the w ell disposed of all nations who 
may desire to embark their fortunes with 
us "and share Avith us the public burdens, 
may have that oppportunity, under mode- 
rate restrictions, for the development of 
honest intention, and severe ones to guard 
against the usurpation of our flag. 

11 Encouragement of science and the 
arts in all their branches, to the end that 
the American people may perfect their in- 
dependence of all foreign monopolies, in- 
stitutions and influences. 



1801— 1811.— No Platforms. 

{No Convention or Cauctis hold.) 



1812.— No RepnUlcan Platform. 



No Federal Platform. 



Cllntonlan Platform. 

New York, Attest 17. 

1. Opposition to nominations of chief 
magistrates by congressional caucuses, as 
well because such practices are the exer- 
cise of undelegated authority, as of their 
re])Ugnance to the freedom of elections. 

2. Opposition to all customs and usages 
in both the executive and legislative de- 
partments which have for their object the 
maintenance of an otficial regency to pre- 
scribe tenets of political faith, the line of 
conduct to be deemed fidelity or recreancy 
to republican principles, and to perj)etuate 
in themselves or families the offices of the 
Federal government. 

3. Opposition to all efforts on the part of 
particular states to monopolize the princi-- 
pal offices of the government, as well be- 
cause of their certainty to destroy the har- 
mony which ought to prevail amongst all 
the constituent parts of the Union, as of 
their leanings toward a form of oligarchy 
entirely at variance with the theory of re- 
publican government; and, consequently, 
particular oi)pjosition to continuing a citi- 
zen of Virginia in the executive office an- 
other term, unless she can show that she 
enjoys a corresponding monopoly of talents 
and patriotism, after she has been honored 
with the presidency for twenty out of 
twenty-four years of our constitutional ex- 
istence, and when it is obvious that the 
practice has arrayed the agricultural 
against the commercial interests of the 
country. 

4. Opposition to continuing public men 
for long periods in offices of delicate trust 
and weight}' responsibility as the reward 
of public services, to the detriment of all 
or any particular interest in, or section of, 
the country ; and, consequently, to the 
continuance of Mr. Madison in an office 
which, in view of our pending difficulties 
with Great Britain, requires an incumbent 
of greater decision, energy and efficiency. 

r>. Opposition to the lingering inadequa- 
cy of prejiaration for the war with Great 
liriiain, now about to ensue, and to the 
measure which allows uninterrupted trade 
with Si>ain and Portugal, which, as it can 
not be carried on under our flag, gives to 
Great Britain the means of sup])lying her 
armies with provisions, of which they 
would otherwise be destitute, and thus af- 
fbnling aid and comfort to our enemy. 

H. Averment of the existing necessity 
for placing the country in a condition for 
aggre-sive action for the conquest of tlie Bri- 
tish American Provinces and for the defence 
of our coasts and ex])osed frontiers: and of 
the propriety of such a levy of taxes as will 
raise the necessary funds for the emergency. 

7. Advocacy of the election of De Witt 
Clinton as the surest method of relieving 
the country from all the evils existing and 



P L 1 Tl C A L P L A T 1-" (J It M .> . 



•K\ 



prospective, for tlie reason that his great 
talents and inllexibi(^ patriotism guaranty 
a lirui and unyielding niaintenaiici' of our 
national sovcroignty, and the proteetion of 
those coninieri'ial interests which were 
(lagging under the weakness and imbecility 
of the administration. 



1815.— RpMoIiitlouN paMsrcI by tlie Hartford 
Coiivfutiuii, .Taiiiuiry -l. 

Resolrcd, That it be and is hereby re- 
commended to the legislatures of the seve- 
ral states represented in this convention, to 
adopt all such measures as may be neces- 
sarv eH'eetually to jirotect the citizens of 
said states from the operation and elfects of 
all acts which have been or may be passed 
bv the Congress of the United States, 
which sliall contain provisions subjecting 
tlie militia or other citizens to forcible 
drawls, conscriptions, or impressments not 
authorized by tlie constitution of the United 
States. 

Resolved, That it be and is hereby re- 
commended ta the said legislatures, to au- 
thorize an immediate and an earnest ap- 
plication to be made to the government of 
the United States, requesting their consent 
to some arrangement whereby the said 
states may, separately or in concert, be 
empowered to as<unicupon themselves the 
defense of tlieir territory against the ene- 
my, and a reasonable portion of the taxes 
collected within said states may be paid 
into the resj)ective treasuries thereof, and 
appropriated to the balance due said states 
and to the future defense of the same. 
The amount so ])aid into said treasuries to 
be credited, and the disbursements made 
as aforesaid to be charged to the United 
States. 

Resolved, That it be and hereby is re- 
commended to the legislatures of the afore- 
said states, to pass lav.-s where it has not 
already been done, authorizing the gov- 
ernors or commanders-in-chief of their mi- 
litia to make detachments from the same, 
or to form voluntary corps, as shall be 
most convenient and conformable to their 
constitutions, and to cause the same to be 
well armed, equipped, and held in readi- 
ness for service, and upon request of the 
governor of either of the other states, to 
employ the whole of such detachment or 
corps, as well as the r'^gular forces of the 
3tate, or such part thereof as may be re- 
quired, and can be spared consistently with 
t'le safety of the state, in a.ssistingthe slate 
making such request to repel any invasion 
thereof which sliall be made or attempted 
by the ])ublic enemy. 

Resolved, That the following amendments 
of the constitution of the United States be 
recommended to the states represented as 

09 



aforesaid, to be proposed by tliem for 
adoption by the stale legislatureM, and in 
such cases jis may be <leemcd expedient by 
a convention chosen by tiie people of each 
state. And it is further n-commendiMJ tiiat 
the .said states sliall pt rsrvire in ih- ir ef- 
forts to obtain such ainentlnieiits, until the 
same shall be effected. 

First. Representatives and direct ta.xcH 
shall be anportioned among the several 
states whicii may be ini-luded within this 
Union, according to iheir respective num- 
bers of free persons, including those bound 
to serve for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, an<l all oilier persons; 

Second. No new state shall be admitted 
into the Union by Congress, in virtue of 
the i)ower granted in the constitution, 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
both houses; 

Third. Congress shall not have power to 
lay an embargo on the ships or vessels of the 
citizens of the United States, in the ports or 
harbors thereof, for mf>re than sixty days; 

Fourth. Congre-ss shall nut have j)ower, 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
both houses, to interdict the er)nniiercial 
intercourse between the United States and 
any foreign nation or the dependencies 
thereof; 

Fifth. Congress shall not make nor de- 
clare war, nor authorize acts of hostility 
against any foreign nation, without the 
concurrence of two-thirds of both houses, 
except such acts of hostility be in defense 
of the territories of the United States when 
actually invaded ; 

Sixth. No person who shall hereafter be 
naturalized shall be eligible as a member 
of the Senate or House of Ilepresentative.-; 
of the United States, or capable of holding 
anv civil office under the authority of the 
United States; 

Seventh. The same person shall not be 
elected President of the United States a 
second time, nor shall the President be 
elected from the same state two terms in 
succession. 

Resolved, That if the application of these 
states to the government of the United 
States, recommended in a foregoing resolu- 
tion, should be unsuccessful, and peace 
should not be concluded, and the defense 
of these states should be neglected, as it has 
been since the cimmencement of the war, 
it will, in the opinion of this convention, 
be expedient for the legislatures of the 
several states to appoint delegates to an- 
other convention, to meet at IJostnn, in the 
state of ^Massachusetts, on t!ie third Mon- 
day of June next, with .>-ueh powers and 
instructions as the exigency of a crisis so 
momentous may remiire. 

Resolved, That the Honorable George 
Cabot, the Honorable Chauncey Goodrich, 
the Honorable Duiiel Lyman, or any two 
of them, be authorized to call another 



24 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



meeting of this convention, to be holden 
in Boston at any time before new delegates 
shall be chosen as recommended in the 
above resolution, if in their judgment the 
situation of the country shall urgently re- 
quire it. 



From 1813-1839.— No Platforms toy either 

polltlc;al party, except that at Hartford 

by Federalists, glvcM above. 



1830.— Antl-niasonlc resolution, 

Philadelphia, Se;plember. 

Resolved, That it is recommended to the 
people of the United States, opposed to 
secret societies, to meet in convention on 
Monday, the 26th day of September, 1831, 
at the city of Baltimore, by delegates equal 
in number to their representatives in both 
Houses of Congress, to make nominations 
of suitable candidates for the offices of 
President and Vice-President, to be sup- 
ported at the next election, and for the 
transaction of such other business as the 
cause of Anti-Masonry may require. 



183!3.— Natioual Democratic Platform, 
adopted at a ratification Meeting 

at Washinglun City, May 11. 

Resolved, That an adequate protection 
to American industry is indispensable to 
the prosperity of the country ; and that an 
abandonment of the policy at this period 
would be attended with consequences ruin- 
ous to the best interests of the nation. 

Resolved, That a uniform system of in- 
ternal improvements, sustained and sup- 
ported by the general government, is calcu- 
lated to secure, in the highest degree, the 
harmony, the strength and permanency of 
the republic. 

Resolved, That the indiscriminate remo- 
val of ])ul)lic officers for a mere difference 
of political opinion, is a gross abuse of 
power ; and that the doctrine lately boldly 
])reached in the United States Senate, that 
" to the victors belong the spoils of the 
vanquished," is detrimental to the interests, 
corrupting to the morals, and dangerous to 
the liberties of the country. 



1836.— «< tocofoco " Platform, 

New York, January. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created free and equal ; 
tliat they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
liajipiiK'ss ; that the true foundation of re- 



publican government is the equal rights of 
every citizen in his person and property, 
and in their management ; that the idea is 
quite unfounded that on entering into 
society we give up any natural right ; that 
the rightful power of all legislation is to 
declare and enforce only our natural rights 
and duties, and to take none of them from 
us ; that no man has the natural right to 
commit aggressions on the equal rights of 
another, and this is all from which the 
law ought to restrain him ; that everj' man 
is under the natural duty of contributing 
to the necessities of society, and this all 
the law should enforce on him ; that when 
the laws have declared and enforced all 
this, they have fulfilled their functions. 

We declare unqualified hostility to bank 
notes and jiaper money as a circulating 
medium, because gold and silver is the only 
safe and constitutional currency; hostility 
to any and all monopolies by legislation, 
because they are violations of equal rights 
of the peojile ; hostility to the dangerous 
and unconstitutional creation of vested 
rights or prerogatives by legislation, be- 
cause they are usurpations of the people's 
sovereign rights ; no legislative or other 
authority in the body politic can rightful- 
ly, by charter or otherwise, exempt any 
man or body of men, in any case whatever, 
from trial by jury and the jurisdiction or 
operation of the laws which govern the 
community. 

We holtl that each and every law or act 
of incorporation, passed by preceding le- 
gislatures, can be rightfully altered and re- 
I)ealed by their successors ; and that they 
should be altered or repealed, when neces- 
sary for the public good, or when required 
by a majority of the people. 



1836.— Whig Resolutions, 

Albany, N. Y., February 3. 

Resolved, That in support of our cause, 
we invite all citizens opposed to Martin 
Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees. 

Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by 
intriguing with the executive to obtain his 
influence to elect him to the presidency, 
has set an example dangerous to our free- 
dom and corrupting to our free institutions. 

Resolved, That the support we render to 
William H. Harrison is by no means given 
to him solely on account of his brilliant 
and successfiil services as leader of our 
armies during the last war, but that in 
him we view also the man of high intellect, 
the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the 
machinery of liackneyed politicians — a 
man of the school of Washington. 

Resolved, That in Francis Granger we 
recognize one of our moat distinguished 
fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, 



i> U L 1 1' 1 C A L 1' L A r b^ (J li M S , 



26 



whose patriotism wo trust, ami whose priu- 
ciples we sanction. 



1830.— Abolition Resolution, 

H'liriKiic, iV. 1'., Soiiinlier II!, 

Resolved, That, in our judgment, every 
consideration of duty and exjjediency 
which ought to control the action of Chris- 
tian freemen, requires of the Abolitionists 
of the United States to organize a distinct 
and independent political party, emhracing 
all the necessary means for nominating 
candidates for oilice and sustaining them 
by public suffrage. 



Abolition Platforms. 

The first national platform of the Aboli- 
tion party ui)on which it went into the 
contest in 1840, favored the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia and 
Territories ; the inter-state slave-trade, and 
a general opposition to slavery to the full 
extent of constitutional power. 

In 1848, that jiortion of the party which 
did not suj)j)ort the Bull'alo nominees took 
the ground of aliirming the constitutional 
authority and duty of the General Govern- 
ment to abolish slavery in the States. 

Untler the head of " Buffalo," the plat- 
form of the Free Soil party, which nomi- 
nated Mr. Van Buren, will be found. 



1840. — Democratic Platform, 

B<iUi>nore, May 5. 

Resolved, That the Federal government 
is one of limited powers, derived solely 
from the constitution, and the grants of 
power shown therein ought to be strictly 
construed by all the departments and agents 
of the government, and that it is inexpe- 
dient and dangerous to exercise doubtful 
constitutional powers. 

2. Resolved, That the constitution does 
not confer upon the general government 
the power to commence and carry on a 
general system of internal improvements. 

3. Resolved, That the constitution does 
not confer authority upon the Federal 
government, directly or indirectly, to as- 
sume the debts of the several states, con- 
tracted for local internal improvements or 
other state purposes ; nor would such as- 
sumption be just or expedient. 

4. Resolved, That justice and sound po- 
licy forbid the Federal government to 
foster one branch of industry to the detri- 
ment of another, or to cherish the interests 
of one portion to the injury of another 
portion of our common countn,' — that every 
citizen and every section of the country 



h;us a right to (jcniaml and iii>i^t upon an 
equality of rights and privileges and to 
complete and atnpic nroteclion of [K-xyouH 
and j)r()perty from domestic violence or 
foreign aggression. 

f). Resolved, That it is the duty of ev»'ry 
branch of tiie government to enforce an<l 
practice the most rigi<l economy in con- 
ducting our pul)lic affairs, and that no 
mori- revenue ought to be raised than in 
recjuircil to defray the necessary expenscH 
of tlic goviTument. 

(). Resolved, Tiiat Congress ha.s no jtower 
to charter a United States banit; that we 
lielieve such an institution one of deadly 
hostility to the best interests of the coun- 
try, dangerous to our republican institu- 
tions and the liberties of the people, and 
calculated to place the business of the 
country within the control of a concen- 
trated money j)owcr, and above the htww 
and the will of the peoj)le. 

7. Resolved, That Congress has no j)ower 
under the constitution, to interfere with or 
control the domestic institutions of the 
several states; and that such states are the 
sole and proper judges of everything per- 
taining to their own affairs, not jtrohibited 
by the constitution ; that all efforts, by 
Abolitionists or others, made to induce 
Congress to interfere with questions of 
slavery, or to take incipient steps in rela- 
tion thereto, are calculated to lead to the 
most alarming and dangerous consequen- 
ces, and that all such efforts have an inevi- 
table tendency to diminish the happiness 
of the people, and endanger the stability 
and permanence of the Union, and ought 
not to be ccmntenanced by any friend to 
our political institutions. 

8. Resolved, That the separation of the 
moneys of the government from banking 
institutions is indispensable for the safety 
of the funds of the government and the 
rights of the people. 

9. Resolved, That the liberal principles 
embodied by Jeflerson in the Declaration 
of Independence, and sanctioned in the 
constitution, which makes ours the land of 
liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of 
every nation, haveever been cardinal prin- 
ciples in the democratic faith ; and every 
attempt to abridge the present privilege 
of becoming citizens, and the owners of 
soil among us, ought to be resisted with 
the same spirit which swept the alien and 
sedition laws from our statute hook. 

W/iereas, Several of the statvs which 
have nominated Martin Van Buren iiw a 
candidate for the presidency, have put in 
nomination different individuals its candi- 
dates for Vice-President, thus indicating* 
diversity of opinion as to the person bewt 
entitled to the nomination; and whereas, 
some of the said states are not rejire^entea 
in this convention ; therefore. 

Resolved, That the convention deem h 



AMERICAN PULITICS. 



expedient at the present time not to choose 
between tlie individuals in nomination, 
but to leave the decision to their repub- 
lican fellow-citizens in the several states, 
trusting that before the election shall take 
place, their opinions will become so con- 
centrated as to secure the choice of a Vice- 
President by the electoral college. 



1843.— liitiertj' Platform. 

Buffalo, August M. 

1. Resolved, That human brotherhood is 
a cardinal principle of true democracy, as 
well as of pure Christianity, which spurns 
all inconsistent limitations ; and neither 
the political party which repudiates it, nor 
the political system which is not based 
ui>on it, can be truly democratic or per- 
manent. 

2. L'rsolved, That the Liberty party, 
placing itself upon this broad principle, 
will demand the absolute and unqualified 
divorce of the general government from 
slavery, and also the restoration of equal- 
ity of rights among men, in every state 
where the party exists, or may exist. 

3. Resolved, That the Liberty party has 
not been organized for any temporary pur- 
pose by interested politicians, _ but has 
arisen from among the people in conse- 
quence of a conviction, hourly gaining 
ground, that no other party in the country 
represents the true principles of American 
liberty, or the true spirit of the constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

4. Resolved, That the Liberty party has 
not been organized merely for the over- 
throw of slavery ; its first decided effort 
must, indeed, be directed against slave- 
holding as the grossest and most revolting 
manifestation of despotism, but it will also 
carry out the principle of equal rights into 
all its practical consequences and applica- 
tions, and support every just measure con- 
ducive to individual and social freedom. 

5. Resolved, That the Liberty party is 
not a sectional party but a national party ; 
was not originated in a desire to accom- 
jdish a single object, but in a comprehen- 
sive regard to the great interests of the 
wliolr n)untry ; is not a new party, npr a 
third partv, Init is the party of 1776, re- 
viving the principles of that memorable 
era, and striving to carry them into prac- 
tical application. . 

6. Resolved, That it was understood in the 
times of the declaration and the constitu- 
tion, that the existence of slavery in some 
of the states was in derogation of the prin- 
.•ij)lcs of Aiiierican liberty, and a deep 
stain upon the character of the country, 
-pxl the implied faith of the states and the 
,iati<)!i wa^i pledged that slavery should 
never be extended bey<>n«l it^ tluMi exist- 



ing limits, but should be gradually, and 
yet, at no distant day, wholly abolished by 
state authority. 

7. Resolved, That the faith of the states 
and the nation thus pledged, was most 
nobly redeemed by the voluntary aboli- 
tion of slavery in several of the states, and 
by the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, 
for the government oi' the territory north- 
west of the river Ohio, then the only ter- 
ritory in the United States, and conse- 
quently the only territory subject in this 
respect to the control of Congress, by 
which ordinance slavery was forever ex- 
cluded from the vast regions which now 
compose the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and the territory of Wisconsin, 
and an incapacity to bear up any other 
than freemen was impressed on the soil 
itself. 

8. Resolved, That the faith of the states 
and the nation thus pledged, has been 
shamefully violated by the omission, on 
the part of many of the states, to take any 
measures whatever for the abolition of 
slavery Avithin their respective limits ; by 
the continuance of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, and in the territories of 
Louisiana and Florida ; by the legislation 
of Congress ; by the protection afforded by 
national legislation and negotiation to 
slaveholding in American vessels, on the 
high seas, employed in the coastwise Slave 
Traffic ; and by the extension of slavery 
tar beyond its original limits, by acts of 
Congress admitting new slave states into 
the Union. 

9. Resolved, That the fundamental truths 
of the Declaration of Independence, that 
all men are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness, was made the fundamental law of 
our national government, by that amend- 
ment of the constitution which declares 
th;it no person shall be deprived of life, 
lilierty, or property, without due process 
of law. 

10. Resolved, That we recognize as sound 
the doctrine maintained by slaveholding 
jurists, that slaveiy is against naturi',1 
rights, and strictly local, and that its ex- 
istence and continuance rc'sts on no other 
support than state legislation, and not on 
any authority of Congress. 

11. Resolved, That the general govern- 
ment has, under the constitution, no pow- 
er to establish or continue slavery any- 
where, and therefore that all treaties and 
acts of Congress establishing, continuing 
or favoring slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia, in the territory of Florida, or on 
the high seas, are unconstitutional, and all 
attempts to hold men as property within 
the limits of exclusive national jurisdic- 
tion ought to be prohibited by law. 

12. Resolved, That the provisions of the 



i 



rOLITlCAL PLATFORMS. 



27 



fOii>ititiition i)t' the Uiiitfl Slates wliivli 
confers fxtnionliiiary ])()litifiil powers on 
the owners ot" slaves, and tlierelty eonsti- 
tutiiiir the two hundred and lifty thousand 
shiveliohk'rs in the slave states a privi- 
leged aristocracy ; and the i)rovisi(>ns for 
the reclamation of fugitive slaves from 
service, are anti-reitulilican in their char- 
acter, dangerous to the liberties of the peo- 
ple, and ought to he atirogated. 

IM. IifSdlrcd, That the practical opera- 
tion of the second of these provisions, is 
seen in the enactment of the act of Con- 
gress respecting persons escajjing from 
their mjvsters, which act, if the construc- 
tion given to it by the Supreme Court of 
the United States in the case of Prigg vs. 
Pennsylvania be correct, nullifies the ha- 
beas corpus acts of all tlie states takes 
away the whole legal security of per- 
sonal freedom-, and ought, therefore, to be 
immediately n'pealcd. 

14. Resolved, That the peculiar patron- 
age and support hitherto extended to 
slavery and slaveholding, by the general 
government, ought to be immediately with- 
drawn, and the example and influence of 
national authority ought to be arrayed on 
the side of liberty and free labor. 

15. Jicsolved, That the practice of the 
general government, which prevails in 
the slave states, of employing slaves upon 
the public works, instead of free laborers, 
and paying aristocratic masters, with a 
view to secure or reward political services, 
is utterly indefensible and ought to be 
abandoned. 

16. Resolved, That freedom of speech 
and of the press, and the right of petition, 
and the right of trial by jury, are sacred 
and inviolable ; and that all rules, regula- 
tions and laws, in derogation of either, are 
oppressive, unconstitutional, and not to be 
enaured by a free people. 

17. Resolved, That we regard voting, in 
an eminent degree, as a moral and reli- 
gious duty, which, when exercised, should 
be by voting for those who will do all in 
their power for immediate emancipation. 

18. Resolved, That this convention re- 
commend to the friends of liberty in all 
those free states where any inequality of 
rightii and privileges exists on account of 
color, to employ their utmost energies to 
remove all such remnants and effects of 
the slave system. 

Whereas, The constitution of these Uni- 
ted States is a series of agreements, cove- 
nants or contracts between the ])eople of 
the United States, each with all, and all 
with each ; and, 

Whereas, It is a principle of universal 
morality, that the moral laws of the Crea- 
tor are paramount to all human laws ; or, 
in the language of an Apostle, that " we 
ought to obey God rather than men ; " 
and, 



Wherriis, The princijile of commim law 
— that any contract, oivenant, <tr agree- 
ment, to do an act derogatory to naturaJ 
right, is vitiated and annulled by its in- 
herent immorality — has i)een recognized 
by one of the justices of the Supreme 
C\)urt of the United States, who in a re- 
cent case expressly holds that "any con- 
tract that rests upon such a basis ispoiti," 
and, 

Whereas, The third clause of the second 
section of the fourth article of the constitu- 
tion of the United States, when construe*] 
as providing for the surrender of a fugitive 
slave, does "rest upon such a basis," in 
that it is a contract to rob a man of a 
natural right^ — namely, his natural right 
to his own liberty — and is therefore ab- 
solutely void. Therefore, 

19. Resolved, That we hereby give it to 
be distinctly understood by this nation 
and the world, that, a.s abolitionists, con- 
sidering that the strength of our cau«e lies 
in its righteousness, and our hofjc for it in 
our conformity to the laws of God, and our 
respect for the rights of man, we owe it to 
the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a 
proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our 
civil relations and offices, whether as pri- 
vate citizens, or public functionaries sworn 
to support the constitution of the United 
States, to regard and to treat the third 
clause of the fourth article of that instru- 
ment, whenever ai)plied to the cjise of a 
fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, 
and consequently as forming no part of the 
constitution of the United States, when- 
ever we are called upon or sworn to sup- 
port it. 

20. Resolved, That the power given to 
Congress by the constitution, to provide 
for calling out the militia to suppress in- 
surrection, does not make it the duty of 
the government to maintain slavery by 
military force, much less does it make 
it the duty of the citizens to form a part 
of such military force ; when freemen 
unsheathe the sword it should be to strike 
for liberty, not for despotism. 

21. Resolved, That to preserve the peace 
of the citizens, and secure the blessings of 
freedom, the legislature of each of the free 
states ought to keep in force suitable. statutes 
rendering it penal for any of its iidiabi- 
tants to transport, or aid in transporting 
from such .state, any j)erson sought to be 
thus transported, merely because subject 
to the slave laws of any other state ; this 
remnant of independence being accorde<l 
to the free states by the decision of the 
Supreme Court, in the case of Prigg r». 
the state of Pennsvlvania. 



18*4.-WlilR Platfonn. 

B-illimnrf, May 1. 

1. Resolved, That these principles may 



28 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



be summed as comprising a well-regulated 
national currency : a tariff for revenue to 
defray the necessary expenses of the gov- 
ernment, and discriminating with special 
reference to the protection of the domes- 
tic labor of the country ; the distribution 
of the i^roceeds ii-om the sales of the pub- 
lic lands ; a single term for the presidency ; 
a reform of executive usurpations ; and 
generally such an administration of the 
affairs of the country as shall impart to 
every branch of the public service the 
greatest practical efficiency, controlled by 
a well-regulated and wise economy. 



1844. - Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore, May 27. 

Resolutions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, of 
the platform of 1840, were reaffirmed, to 
which were added the following : 

10. Resolved, That the proceeds of the 
public lands ought to be sacredly ap- 
plied to the national objects specified in 
the constitution, and that we are oi)posed 
to the laws lately adopted, and to any law 
for the distribution of such proceeds 
among the states, as alike inexpedient in 
policy and repugnant to the constitution. 

11. Resolved, That we are decidedly op- 
posed to taking Irum the President the 
qualified veto power by which he is ena- 
bled, under restrictions and responsibili- 
ties amply sufficient to guard the public 
interest, to suspend the passage of a bill 
whose merits can not secure the approval 
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, until the judgment of the 
people can be obtained thereon, and which 
has thrice saved the American people fi-om 
the corrupt and tyrannical domination of 
tlie bank of the United States. 

12. Resolved, That our title to the whole 
of the territory of Oregon is clear and un- 
questionable ; that no portion of the same 
ought to be ceded to England or any other 
power, and that tlie reoccupation of Ore- 
gon and the reaniiexation of Texas at the 
earliest practicable period, are great 
American measures, which this conven- 
tion recommends to the cordial support of 
the democracy of the Union. 



1848.— Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore, May 22. 

1. Resolved, That the American democ- 
racy place tht-ir trust in the intelligence, 
the patri(ttism,und the discriminating jus- 
tice of the American people. 

2. ResdIrcJ, That we regard this as a 
distinctive feature of our political creed, 
which we are proud to inaint:iin before the 
world, as the great moral element in a 



form of government springing from and 
upheld by the popular will ; and contrast 
it with the creed and practice of federal- 
ism, under whatever name or form, which 
seeks to palsy the will of the constituent, 
and which conceives no imposture too 
monstrous for the popular credulity. 

3. Resolved, Therefore, that entertain- 
ing these views, the Democratic party of 
this Union, through the delegates assem- 
bled in general convention of the states, 
coming together in a spirit of concord, of 
devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free 
representative government, and appealing 
to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of 
their intentions, renew and reassert before 
tho American people, the declaration of 
principles avowed by them on a former oc- 
casion, when, in general convention, they 
presented their candidates for the popular 
suffrage. 

Resolutions 1, 2, 3 and 4, of the plat- 
form of 1840, were reaffirmed. 

8. Resolved, That it is the duty of every 
branch of the government to enforce and 
practice the most rigid economy in con- 
ducting our public affairs, and that no 
more revenue ought to be raised than is re- 
quired to defray the necessary expenses of 
the government, and for the gradual but 
certain extinction of the debt created by 
the prosecution of a just and necessary 
war. 

Resolution 5, of the platform of 1840, 
was enlarged by the following : 

And that the results of democratic legis- 
lation, in this and all other financial mea- 
sures, upon which issues have been made 
between the two political parties of the 
country, have demonstrated to careful and 
practical men of all parties, their sound- 
ness, safety and utility in all business pur- 
suits. 

Resolutions 7, 8 and 9, of the platform 
of 1840, were here inserted. 

13. Resolved, That the proceeds of the 
public lauds ought to be sacredly applied 
to the national objects specified in the con- 
stitution ; and that we are opposed to any 
law for the distribution of such proceeds 
among the states as alike inexpedient in 
policy and repugnant to the constitution. 

14. Resolved, That we are decidedly op- 
posed to taking from the President the 
qualified veto power, by which he is en- 
abled, under restrictions and responsibili- 
ties amjjly sufficient to guard the public in- 
terests, to sui)end the passage of a bill 
whose merits can not secure the approval 
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of 
Rei>resentatives, until the judgment of the 
people can l)e obtained thereon, and which 
has saved the American })eople from the 
corrupt and tyrannical domination of the 
Bank of the United States, and from a cor- 
rupting system of general internal im- 
provements. 



PULiTlCAL I'l.A'l'i'URMS. 



29 



1'). Resolced, That the war with Mexi- 
co, provoked on hor part by years of insult 
and injury, was eomnieneed hy her army 
erossinji; the Rio Grande, attacking the 
American trooj)s, and invadiiifj: our .sister 
•state of Texas, and upon all the ])rincii)les 
of patriotism and the laws of nations, it is 
a just and necessary war on our part, in 
which every American citizen should have 
shown himself on the sitle of hifi country, 
and neither morally nor physically, by 
word or by deed, have given " aid and 
com tort to the enemy. " 

IG. Jie.tolrrtl, That we would be rejoiced 
at the assurance of peace with Mexico, 
founded on the just i)rinciples of indem- 
nity for the past aiul security for the fu- 
ture; but that while the ratification of the 
liberal treaty otTered to ^lexico remains in 
doubt, it is the duty of the country to sus- 
tain the administration and to sustain the 
country in every measure necessary to pro- 
vide for the vigorous prosecution of the 
war, should that treaty be rejected. 

17. li'e.'iolrcil, That the officers and sol- 
diers who have carried the arms of their 
I'ountry into Mexico, have crowned it with 
imperishable glory. Their unconquerable 
courage, their daring enterprise, their un- 
faltering perseverance and fortitude when 
assailed on all sides by innumerable foes 
and that more formidable enemy — the 
diseases of the climate — exalt their devoted 
patriotism into the highest heroism, and 
give them a right to the i)rofound grati- 
tude of their country, and the admiration 
of the world. 

18. Resohied, That the Democratic Na- 
tional Convention ofthirty states composing 
the American Republic, tender their fra- 
ternal congratulations to the National Con- 
vention of the Republic of France, now as- 
sembled as the free sutfrage I'epresentative 
of the sovereignty of thirty-five millions of 
Republicans, to establish government on 
those eternal principles of equal rights, for 
which their La Fayette and our Washing- 
ton fought side by side in the struggle I'or 
our national independence ; and we would 
es|)ecially convey to them, and to the 
whole people of France, our earnest wishes 
f>r the cons )lidation of their liberties, 
tlirough the wisdom that shall guide their 
councils, on the b;isis of a democratic con- 
stitution, not derived from the grants or 
concessions of kings or dynasties, but orig- 
inating fromtheonly true source of political 
])ower recognized in the states of this 
Union — the inherent and inalienable right 
of the people, in their sovereign capacity, 
to make and to amend their forms of gov- 
ernment in such manner as the welfare 
of the community may require. 

19. Rpunlrrd, That in view of the recent 
develoimieut of this grand political truth, 
of the sovereignty of the peo]>le and their 
c-jvpacity and jiower for self-government. 



which is prostrating thrones and erecting 
republics on the rums of despotism in the 
old world, we feel that a high and sacred 
duty is devolved, witli incrcii-st'd respejiisi- 
bility, upon the Democratic party of this 
country, asthejiarty of the people, to sustain 
and advance among us constitulioinil lib- 
erty, equality, and fraternity, by continu- 
ing to resist all monopolies and exelu-sive 
legislation ibr the benefit of the few at the 
expense of the many, and by a vigilant 
and constant adhcreiire to those princij)le« 
and comiiromises of the constitution, which 
are broad enough and strong enough to 
embrace and uphold the I'nion ius it was, 
the Union <us it is, and the Union a.s it 
shall be in the full exjiansion of the 
energies and capacity of this great and 
l)rogressive peojile. 

20. Resolved, That a copy of these re.so- 
lutions be forwarded, through the American 
minister at Paris, to the National Conven- 
tion of the Kepublic of France. 

21. Jiesolred, That the fruits of the 
great political triumph of 1S44, which elect- 
ed James K. Polk and (Jeorge ^I. Dallas, 
President and Vice-President of the United 
States, have fulfilled the hopes of the de- 
mocracy of the Union in defeating the de- 
clared purj)oses of their opponents in 
creating a National Bank ; in preventing 
the corrupt and unconstitutional distribu- 
tion of the land proceeds from the com- 
mon treasury of the Union for local pur- 
poses; in protecting the currency and labor 
of the country from ruinous fluctuations^ 
and guarding the nioney of the couiitiy for 
the use of the i)eople by the establishment 
of the constitutional treasury ; in the noble 
impulse given to the cause of free trade by 
the repeal of the tariflTof '42, and the crea- 
tion of the more equal, honest, and pro- 
ductive tariff of 184(5 ; and that, in our 
opinion, it would be a fatal error to weaken 
the bands of a political organization by 
which these great reforms have been 
achieved, and risk them in the hands of 
their known adversaries, with whatever 
delusive apjieals they may solicit our .sur- 
render of that vitrilaiue whith is the only 
safeguard of liberty. 

22. Resolved, That the confidence of the 
democracy of the Union in the j)rinciple.s, 
capacity, firmness, and integrity of James 
K. Polk, manifested by his nomination and 
ele'tion in ^*^44, has been signally justified 
by the strictness of his adherence to sound 
democratic doctrines, by the purity of pnr- 
|)osp, the energy and ability, which have 
characterized his administration in all our 
affairs at home and abroad ; that we tender 
to him our cordial congratulations upon 
the brilliant success which has hitherto 
crowned his patriotic efl^orts, and Jtssure 
him in advance, that at the expiration of 
his presidential term he will carry with him 



30 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



to Ills retiremeut, the esteem, respect and 
admiration of a grateful country. 

23. Resolved, Tliat this convention here- 
by present to the people of the United States 
Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the candidate 
of the Democratic party for the office of 
President, and William O. Butler, of Ken- 
tucky, lor Vice-President of the United 
States. 



184:8.— Wliig Principles Adopted at a Ratl- 
ficatlou Meetiug, 

Philadelphia, June 9. 

1. Resolved, That the Whigs of the 
United States, here assembled by their 
representatives, heartily ratify the nomi- 
nations of General Zachary Taylor as Pres- 
ident, and Millard Fillmore as Vice-Pres- 
ident, of the United States, and pledge 
themselves to their support. 

2. Resolved, That in the choice of Gen- 
eral Taylor as the Whig candidate for 
President, we are glad to discover sympathy 
with a great popular sentiment throughout 
the nation — a sentiment which having its 
origin in admiration of great military suc- 
cess, has been strengthened by the develop- 
ment, in every action and every word, of 
sound conservative opinions, and of true 
fidelity to the great example of former 
days, and to the principles of the constitu- 
tion as administered by its founders. 

3. Resolved, That General Taylor, in say- 
ing that, had he voted in 1844, he would 
have voted the Whig ticket, gives us the 
assurance — and no better is needed from a 
consistent and truth-speaking man — that 
his heart was with us at the crisis of our 
political destiny, when Henry Clay was 
our candidate, and when not only Whig 
principles were well defined and clearly 
asserted, but Whig measures depended on 
success. The heart that was with us then 
is with us now, and, we have a soldier's 
word of honor, and a life of public and 
private virtue, as the security. 

4. Resolved, That we look on General 
Taylor's administration of the government 
;is "one conducive of peace, prosperity and 
union ; of peace, because no one better 
knows, or has greater reason to deplore, 
what he has seen sadly on the field of vic- 
tory, the horrors of war, and especially of a 
foreign and aggressive war; of prosperity, 
now more than ever needed to relieve the 
nation from a burden of debt, and restore 
industry — agricultural, manufacturing, and 
commercial — to its accustomed ami peace- 
ful functions and influences; of union, be- 
cause we have a candidate whose very 
position as a southwestern man, reared on 
the l)anks of the great stream whose trib- 
utaries, natural and artificial, embrace the 
whole Union, renders the protection of the 
interests of the whole country his first 
trust, and whose various duties in past lifp 



have been rendered, not on the ^uil, or 
uuder the flag of any state or section, but 
over the wide frontier, and under the 
broad banner of the nation. 

5. Resolved, That standing, as the Whig 
party does, on the broad and firm platform 
of the constitution, braced up by all its in- 
violable and sacred guarantees and com- 
promises, and cherished in the affections, 
because {jrotective of the interests of the 
people, we are proud to have as the ex- 
ponent of our opinions, one who is pledged 
to construe it by the wise and generous 
rules which Washington applied to it, and 
who has said — and no Whig desires any 
other assurance — that he will make Wash- 
ington's administration his model. 

6. Resolved, That as Whigs and Ameri- 
cans, we are proud to acknowledge our 
gratitude for the great military services 
which, beginning at Palo Alto, and end- 
ing at Buena Vista, first awakened the 
American people to a just estimate of him 
who is now our Whig candidate. In the 
discharge of a painful duty — for his march 
into the enemy's country was a reluctant 
one ; in the command of regulars at one 
time, and volunteers at another, and of 
both combined ; in the decisive though 
punctual discipline of his camp, where all 
respected and loved him ; in the negotia- 
tion of terms for a dejected and desperate 
enemy ; in the exigency of actual conflict 
when the balance was perilously doubtful — 
we have found him the same — brave, dis- 
tinguished, and considerate, no heartlesa 
spectator of bloodshed, no trifler with hu- 
man life or human happiness ; and we do 
not know which to admire most, his hero- 
ism in withstanding the assaults of the 
enemy in the most hopeless fields of Buena 
Vista — mourning in generous sorrow over 
the graves of Ringgold, of Clay, of Hardin 
— or in giving, in the heat of battle, terras 
of merciful capitulation to a vanquished 
foe at Monterey, and not being ashamed to 
avow that he did it to spare women and 
children, helpless infancy and more help- 
less age, against whom no American sol- 
dier ever wars. Such a military man, 
whose triumphs are neither remote nor 
doubtful, whose virtues these trials have 
tested, we are proud to make our candidate. 

7. Resolved, That in sup))ort of this 
nomination, we ask our Whig friends 
throughout the nation to unite, to co-op- 
erate zealously, resolutely, with earnest- 
ness, in behalf of our candidate, whom 
calumny can not reach, and with respect- 
ful demeanor to our adversaries, whose can- 
didates have yet to i)rove tlieir claims on 
the gratitude of the nation. 



184:8.— Biilfalo Platform. 

Ulica, Jiinv 2i!. 

Whereas, We have assembled in conven- 
tion as a union of freemen, for the sake of 



'ULITICAL I'l.ATl'OKMS. 



31 



freedom, forgetting all psvst [jolitical dif- 
ference, in u eommon resolve to nuiintain 
tiie right*} of free hilior against the aggres- 
sion of the t*lave power, and to sec^ure free 
soil to a free ])e(){)le ; and, 

Wlitreas, Tlu' politieal conventions re- 
cently asscnibU'd at Baltimore and I'hila- 
delphia — the one stifling the voice of a 
great constitueiu'v, entitle<l to be heard in 
it-s deliberations, and tlie other abandoning 
its distinctive priticiples for mere avail- 
ability — have dissolveil the national party 
organization heretofore existing, by nomi- 
nating for the chief nnigistracy of the 
United 8tates, under the slaveholding dic- 
tation, caiulidates, neither of whom can be 
supported by the opponents of slavery ex- 
tension, without a sacrifice of consistency, 
duty, and self-respect ; and, 

IVhereas, These nominations so made, 
furnish the occasion, and demonstrate the 
necessity of the union of the people under 
the banner of free democracy, in a solemn 
and formal declaration of their independ- 
ence of the slave power, and of their fixed 
<letermination to rescue the Federal gov- 
ernment from its control, 

1. Resolved, therefore, That we, the peo- 
ple here sissembled, remembering the ex- 
ample of our fathers in the days of the 
first Declaration of Independence, putting 
our trust in God for the triumph of our 
cause, and invoking His guidance in our 
endeavors to advance it, do now plant our- 
selves upon the national platform of free- 
dom, in opposition to the sectional plat- 
form of slavery. 

2. Resolved, That slavery in the several 
states of this Union which recognize its 
existence, depends upon the state laws 
alone, which can not be repealed or modi- 
fied by the Federal government, and for 
which laws that government is not respon- 
sible. We therefore propose no interfer- 
ence by Congres-; with slavery within the 
limits of any state. 

.3. Resolved, That the proviso of Jeffer- 
son, to prohibit the existence of .slavery, 
after 1800, in all the territories of the 
United States, southern and northern ; the 
votes of six states and sixteen delegates in 
Congre-ss of 1784, for the proviso, to three 
states and seven delegates against it ; the 
actual exclusion of slavery from the North- 
western Territory, by the Ordinance of 
17S7, unanimously adopted by the .states 
in Congress; and the entire history of that 
period, clearly show that it was the settleil 
policy of the nation not to extend, na- 
tionalize or encourage, but to limit, lo- 
calize and discourage, slavery ; and to this 
policy, which should never have been de- 
parted from, the government ought U) 
return. 

4. Resolved, That our fathers ordained 
the constitution of the United States, in 
order, among other great national objects, 



to establish justice, promote the ceneral 
welfare, and secure the blessings of hberty; 
but expressly denied to the Federal gov- 
ernment, which they created, all constitu- 
tional power to deprive any j)erson of life, 
liberty, or properly, without due legal 
process. 

5. Resolved, That in the judgment of 
this convention, Congress h:us no moro 
power tf) make a slave than to make a 
king; no more power to institute or estab- 
lish slavery than to institute or estiibli>h a 
monarchy ; no such nower can be found 
among those specifically conferred by the 
constitution, or derived by just implication 
from them. 

6. Resolved, That it is the duty of the 
Federal g<ivernment to relieve itself from 
all responsibility for the existence or con- 
tinuance of slavery wherever the govern- 
ment possesses constitutional power to 
legislate on that subject, and it is thus re- 
sponsible for its existence. 

7. Resolved, That the true, and, in the 
judgment of this convention, the only safe 
means of preventing the extension of 
slavery into territory now free, is to pro- 
hibit its extension in all such territory by 
an act of Congre.ss. 

8. Resolved, That we accept the issue 
which the slave power has forced upon us; 
and to their demand for more slave states, 
and more slave territory, our calm but 
final answer is, no more slave states and 
no more slave territory. Let the soil of 
our extensive domains be kept free for the 
hardy pioneers of our own land, and the 
oppressed and banished of other lands, 
seeking homes of comfort and fields of 
enterprise in the new world. 

9. Resolved, That the bill lately re- 
ported bv the committee of eight in the 
Senate of" the United States, was no com- 
promise, but an absolute surrender of the 
rights of the non-slaveholders of all the 
states; and while we rejoice to know thar 
a measure which, while opening the door 
for the introduction of slavery into the 
territories now free, would also have 
opened the door to litigation and .strife 
among the future inhabitants thereof, to 
the ruin of their peace and prosjierity, was 
defeated in the House of Representatives, 
its pa.ssage, in hot liaste, by a majority, 
embracing several senators who voted in 
open violation of the known will of Mieir 
constituents, should warn the people to 
see to it that their rej>resentatives be not 
suffered to betray them. There must be 
no more compromi.ses with slavery ; it 
made, they must be repealed. 

10. Resi lived, That we demand freedom 
and established institutions for our breth- 
ren in (Jregon, now exposed to hardships, 
peril, and ma.s.sacre, by the reckless hos- 
tility of the slave power to the establish- 
ment of free government and free territo- 



32 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ries ; and not only for them, but for our 
brethren in California and New Mexico. 

11. Jiesolved, It is due not only to this 
occasion, but to the whole people of the 
United fcftates, that we should also declare 
ourselves on certain other questions of na- 
tional policy ; therefore, 

12. liesuived, That we demand cheap 
postage for the people ; a retrenchment of 
the expenses and patronage of the Federal 
government ; the abolition of all unneces- 
sary offices and salaries ; and the election 
by the people of all civil officers in the 
service of the government, so far as the 
same may be practicable. 

13. Resolved, that river and harbor im- 
provements, when demanded by the safety 
and convenience of ccnnuerce with for- 
eign nations, or among the several states, 
are objects of national concern, and that it 
is the duty of Congress, in the exercise of 
its constitutional power, to provide there- 
for. 

14. Resolved, That the free grant to 
actual settlers, in consideration of the ex- 
penses they incur in making settlements in 
the w-ildei-ness, which are usually fully 
equal to their actual cost, and of the pub- 
lic benefits resulting therefrom, of reason- 
able portions of the public lands, under 
suitable limitations, is a wise and just 
measure of public policy, which will pro- 
mote in various ways the interests of all 
the states of this IJnion ; and we, there- 
fore, recommend it to the favorable con- 
sideration of the American People. 

15. Resolved, That the obligations of 
honor and patriotism require the earliest 
practical payment of the national debt, and 
we are, therefore, in favor of such a tarifi' 
of duties as will raise revenue adequate to 
defray the expenses of the Federal govern- 
ment", and to pay annual installments of 
our debt and the interest thereon. 

in. Resolved, That we inscribe on our 
banner, " Free Soil, Free Speech, Free 
Labor, and Free Men," and under it we will 
fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant 
victory shall reward our exertions. 



1853.- Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore, June 1. 

Resolutions 1, 2, 8, 4, 5, 6 and 7, of the 
platform of 1S4.S, were ri'affinned, to which 
were added the following: 

8. Resolved, Tliat it is the duty of every 
branch of the government to enforce and 
practice the most rigid economy in con- 
ducting our public affairs, and that no 
more revenue ought to be raised than is 
required to defray the necessary expenses 
of the government, and for the gradual but 
certain extinction of the public del)t. 

9. Resolved, T\\aX Congress has no powir 



to charter a National Bank ; that we be- 
lieve such an institution one of deadly 
hostility to the best interests of the coun- 
try, dangerous to our lepublicun institu- 
tions and the liberties of the people, and 
calculated to place the business of the 
country within the control of a concen- 
trated money power, and that above the 
laws and will of the people ; and that the 
results of Democratic legislation, in this 
and all other financial measures, upon 
which issues have been made between the 
two political parties of the country, have 
demonstrated to candid and practical men 
of all parties, their soundness, safety, and 
utility, in all business pursuits. 

10. Resolved, That the separation of the 
moneys of the government I'rom banking 
institutions is indispensable I'or the safety 
of the funds of the government and the 
rights of the people. 

11. Resolved, That the liberal princijjles 
embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration 
of Independence, and sanctioned in the 
constitution, which makes ours the land 
of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed 
of every nation, have ever been cardinal 
principles in the Democratic faith ; and 
every attempt to abridge the privilege of 
becoming citizens and the owners of the 
soil among us, ought to be resisted with 
the same spirit that swept the alien and 
sedition laws from our stattite books. 

12. Resolved, That Congress has no 
jjower under the constitution to interfere 
Avith, or control, the domestic institutions 
of the several states, and that such states 
are the sole and proper judges of every- 
thing appertaining to their own aflairs, not 
prohibited by the constitution; that all 
efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made 
to induce Congress to interfere with ques- 
tions of slavery, or to take incipient steps 
in relation thereto, are calctilated to lead 
to the most alarming and dangerous conse- 
quences ; and that all stich efibi'ts have an 
inevitable tendency to diminish the happi- 
ness of the people, and endanger the sta- 
bility and permanency of the Union, and 
ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend of our political institutions. 

13. Resolved, That the foregoing propo- 
sition covers, and is intended to embrace, 
the whole subject of slavery^ agitation in 
Congress ; and therefore the Democratic 
party of the Union, standing on this na- 
tional platform, will abide by, and adhere 
to, a faithful execution of the acts known 
as the Compromise measures settled by 
last Congress, "the act for reclaiming fugi- 
tives from service labor " included ; which 
act, being designed to carry out an ex- 
press provision of the constitution, can 
not, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, nor 
so changed as to destroy or impair its 
(.•Hiciency. 

14. Resolved, That the Democratic party 



I'OI.I TICA I. I'L A TKOllMS. 



33 



will resist all attempts ut reiiewiiijj in C'<iii- 
grcss, or out of it, the agitation of the 
slavery (iuesti(Mi, uiuler whatever shape or 
color the attempt may be made. 

[Here resolutions i;{ and 11, of tlie plat- 
form of 1S4.*<, were inserted.) 

17. Ji'snlred, That the Democraiie party 
will faithfully abide by and uphold the 
print'iples laid down in the Kentueky and 
Virj^inia resolutions of 17i>2 and 171>S, aiul 
in the re{>ort of .Mr. Madison to the Vir- 
ginia Le;,Mslature in 179!l; that it adopts 
those i>riiu'iples as eonstituting one of the 
main foundations of its political creed, anil 
is resolved to carry them out in their ob- 
vious meaning and import. 

IS. Resolved, That the war with Mexico, 
upon all the principles of patriotism and 
the law of nations, was a just and necessary 
war on our part, in which no American 
citizen shoukl have shown himself opposed 
to his country, and neither morally nor 
physically, by word or deed, given aid and 
comfort to the enemy. 

li). Resolved, That we rejoice at the re- 
storation of friendly relations with our 
sister Republic of Mexico, and earnestly 
desire for her all the blessings and pros- 
perity which we enjoy under republican 
institutions, and we congratulate the 
American people on the results of that 
war which have so manifestly justified the 
policy and conduct of the Democratic 
party, and insured to the United States 
indemnity for the past and security for the 
future. 

20. Besdlred, That, in view of the condi- 
tion of popular institutions in the old 
world, a high and sacred duty is devolved 
with increased responsibility upon the De- 
mocracy of this country, as the party of 
the people, to uphold and maintain the 
rights of every state, and thereby the 
union of states, and to sustain and advance 
among them constitutional liberty, by con- 
tinuing to resist all monopolies and exclu- 
sive legislation for the benefit of the few 
at the expense of the many, and by a 
vigilant and con.stant adherence to tho.se 
principles and compromises of the consti- 
tution which are broad enough and strong 
enough to embrace and uphold the Union 
as it is, and the Union as it .should be, in 
the full expansion of the energies and ca- 
pacity of this great and progressive people. 



1853. -Whig Platform. 

Baltimore, June 16. 

The Whigs of the United States, in con- 
vention assembled adhering to the great 
conservative principles by which they are 
controlled and governed, and now Jis ever 
relying upon the intelligence of the Ameri- 
can people, with an abiding confidence in 
their capacity for self-government and 



their devotion to the constitution and the 
Union, do i)rochiim the following its the 
political sentiments and determination for 
the establishment and maintenance of 
which their national organization as a 
party was etfeeted : 

First. The government <»f the United 
States is of a limited character, and is con- 
lined to the exercise of powers expressly 
granti'd by the constitution, and such u» 
may be necessary and proper for carrying 
tin- granted powers into full execution, 
and that powers not granted or neces.sarily 
implied are reserved to the states respec- 
tively and to the pecjple. 

Second. The state governments should 
be held secure to their reserved rights, and 
the General (Tovernment sustained in its 
constitutional powers, and that tlie Union 
should be revered and watched over as the 
palladium of our liberties. 

Third. That while struggling freedom 
everywhere enlists the warmest sym])athy 
of the Whig party, we still adhere to the 
doctrines of the Father of his Country, as 
announced in his Farewell Addres.s, of 
keeping ourselves free from all entangling 
alliances with foreign countries, and of 
never quitting our own to stand upon for- 
eign ground ; that our mission as a rejmb- 
lic is not to propagate our oi)inions, or im- 
pose on other countries our forms of gov- 
ernment, by artifice or force, but to teach 
by exam}de, and show by our success, 
moderation and justice, the blessings of 
self-government, and the advantages of 
free institutions. 

Fourth. That, as the people make and 
control the government, they should obey 
its constitution, laws and treaties as they 
would retain their self-respect and the re- 
spect which they claim and will enforce 
from foreign powers. 

Fifth. Uovernments .should be conduc- 
ted on the principles of the strictest econo- 
my ; and revenue sufficient for the expen- 
ses thereof, in time of peace, ought to be 
derived mainly from a duty on imports, 
and not from direct taxes; and on laying 
such duties sound policy requires a just 
discrimination, and, when j)racticable, by 
specific duties, whereby suitable encour- 
agement may be afi'orded to American in- 
dustrj', equally to all classes and to all 
portions of the country. 

Sixth. The constitution ve.sts in Con- 
gress the i>ower to o[>cn and repair har- 
bors, and remove obstructions from navi- 
gable rivers, whenever such improvements 
are necessary for the common defense, and 
for the protection and facility of commerce 
with foreign nations or among the states, 
said improvements being in ever}' instance 
national and general in their character. 

Seventh. The Federal and stjite govern- 
ments are parts of one system, alike neces- 
sary for the common prosjjerity, peace and 



u 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



.security, and ought to be regarded alike 
with a cordial, habitual and iunnovable at- 
tiichment. Respect for the authority of 
each, and acquiescence in the just consti- 
tutional measures of each, are duties re- 
quired by the plainest considerations of 
national, state and individual welfare. 

Eighth. That the series of acts of the 
32d Congress, the act known as the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law included, are received and 
acquiesced in by the Whig party of the 
United States as a settlement in principle 
and substance of the dangerous and excit- 
ing questions which they embrace ; and, 
no far as they are concerned, we will main- 
tain them, and insist upon their strict en- 
forcement, until time and experience shall 
demonstrate the necessity of further legis- 
lation to guard against the evasion of the 
laws on the one hand and the abuse of 
their powers on the other — not impairing 
their present efficiency ; and we deprecate 
all further agitation of the question thus 
settled, as dangerous to our peace, and will 
discountenance all eflfbrts to continue or 
renew such agitation whenever, where- 
ever or however the attempt may be made ; 
and we will maintain the system as essen- 
tial to the nationality of the Whig party, 
and the integrity of the Union. 



1S)6!S.— Free-soil Platform. 

PitUburg, Aiigtist 11. 

Having assembled in national conven- 
tion as the free democracy of the United 
States, united by a common resolve to 
maintain right against wrong, and freedom 
against slavery ; confiding in the intelli- 
gence, patriotism, and discriminating jus- 
tice of the American people; putting our 
trust in God for the triumph of our cause, 
and invoking His guidance in our endea- 
vors to advance it, we now submit to the 
candid judgment of all men, the following 
declaration of principles and measures: 

1. That governments, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed, 
are instituted among men to secure to all 
those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, with which they 
are endowed by their Creator, and of which 
none can be deprived by valid legislation, 
except for crime. 

2. That the true mission of American 
democracy is to maintain the liberties of 
the people, the sovereignty of the states, 
and the perpetuity of the Union, by the 
impartial application of public affairs, 
without sectional discriminations, of the 
I'und.'iniental principles of human right.s, 
.'<trict Justice, and an economical adminis- 
tration. 

'.J. That the Federal government is one 
of limited powere de'-ived solely liom the 



eon.stitution, and the grants of power there 
in ought to be strictly construed by all the 
dejiartments and agents of the government, 
and it is inexpedient and dangerous to ex- 
ercise doubtful constitutional powers. 

4. That the constitution of the United 
States, ordained to form a more perfect 
Union, to establish justice, and secure the 
blessings of liberty, expressly denies to the 
general government all power to deprive 
any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law ; and, there- 
fore, the government, having no more 
I»ower to make a slave than to make a 
king, and no more power to establish 
slavery than to establish a monarchy, 
should at once proceed to relieve itself 
from all responsibility for the existence of 
slavery, wherever it possesses constitutional 
power to legislate for its extinction. 

5. That, to the persevering and importu- 
nate demands of the slave power for more 
slave states, new slave territories, and the 
nationalization of slavery, our distinct 
and final answer is — no more slave states, 
no slave territory, no nationalized slavery, 
and no national legislation for the extra- 
dition of slaves. 

6. That slavery is a sin against God, and 
a crime against man, which no human en- 
actment nor usage can make right; and 
that Christianity, humanity, and patriot- 
ism alike demand its abolition. 

7. That the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is 
repugnant to the constitution, to the prin- 
ciples of the common law, to the spirit of 
Christianity, and to the sentiments of the 
civilized world; we, therefore, deny its 
binding force on the American people, 
and demand its immediate and total re- 
peal. 

8. That the doctrine that any human 
law is a finality, and not subject to modi- 
fication or repeal, is not in accordance 
with the creed of the founders of our gov- 
ernment, and is dangerous to the liberties 
of the people. 

9. That the acts of Congress, known as 
the Compromise measures of 1850, by mak- 
ing the admission of a sovereign state con- 
tingent upon the adoption of other mea- 
sures demanded by the special interests ol 
slavery ; by their omission to guarantee 
freedom in the free territories ; by their at- 
tempt to impose unconstitutional limita- 
tions on the powers of Congress and the 
people to admit new states ; by their pro- 
visions for the assumption of five millions 
of the state debt of Texas, and for the pay- 
ment of five millions more, and the cession 
of large territory to the same state under 
menace, as an inducement to the relin- 
(juishment of a groundless claim; and by 
tlieir invasion of the sovereignty of the 
states and the liberties of the people, 
through the enactment of an unjust, op- 

I pressive, and miconstitutional fugitive 



POLITICAL I'LATFOUMS. 



slave law, arc proved to he inconsistent 
with nil the principles and iniixiins of dv- 
mocraey, and wholly ina(ie(iu:ite to the 
settlement of the tpiestions of which they 
are elainied to he an adjuslment. 

10. That III) permanent seltlenu'iit ol' 
the slavery (piestion can be looked I'or ex- 
cept in the practical reco<:;nition of the 
truth that slavery is sectional and freedom 
national ; by the total scjiaration of the 
general <;overnment from slavery, and the 
exert'ise of its lci;itiniate and constitutional 
intluence on the side of freedom; ami by 
leavini!; to the stales the whole subject of 
slavery and the extradition of fugitives 
from service. 

11. That all men have a natural right to 
a portion of the soil ; and that as the use 
of the soil is indisi)ensable to life, the right 
of all men to the soil is as sacred as their 
right to life itself. 

12. That the public lands of the United 
States belong to the people and should notbt' 
sold to individuals nor granted to corpora- 
tions, but should be held as a sacred trust 
tor the benelit of the people, and should 
be granted in limited quantities, free of 
cost, to landless settlers. 

13. That due regard for the Federal 
constitution, a .sound administrative poli- 
cy, demand that the iunds of the general 
government be kej^t separate from bank- 
ing institutions ; that inland and ocean 
postage should be reduced to the lowest 
po.ssible point ; that no more revenue 
should be raised than is required to defray 
the strictly necessary expenses of the pub- 
lic service and to jiay oil' the public debt ; 
and that the power and patronage of the 
government should be diminished by the 
abolition of all unnecessary ofBces, salaries 
and ])rivileges, and by the election of the 
people of all civil officers in the service of 
the United States, so far as may be consist- 
ent with the ])rom])t and efficient transac- 
tion of the public bubiness. 

14. That river and harbor improvements, 
when necessary to the safety and con- 
venience of commerce with foreign nations, 
or among the several states, are objects of 
national concern; and it is the duty of 
Congress, in the exercise of its constitu- 
tional jiowers, to provide for the same. 

1"). That emigrants and exiles from the 
old world should find a cordial welcome to 
homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in 
the new; and every attempt to abridge 
their privilege of becoming citizens and 
owners of soil among us ought to be resist- 
ed with inflexible determination. 

16. That every nation has a clear right 
to alter or change its own goveriuuent. 
and to administer its own concerns in such 
manner as may best secure the rights 
and promote the happiness of the people ; 
and foreign interference with that right is 
a dangerous violation of the law of nations. 



against which all indeoendent govern- 
ments shoulil i)rofest, and endeavor by all 
proper means to prevent; and especially in 
it the duty of the American government, 
representing tiie chief rei)ublic of the 
world, to ]>rotest against, and hy all pro- 
per means to prevent, the intervention of 
kings and emoerors against nations seek- 
ing to establish lor tln'mselves repuhlican 
or constitutional governments. 

17. That the imlependiiiee of Hayti 
ought to he recogni/.ed l)y our government, 
and our commercial relations with it i)lacea 
on the footing of the most liivored nations. 

18. That as by the constitution, " the 
citizens of each state shall be entitled U> 
ail the privileges and immunities of citi- 
zens in the .several states," the practice of 
imprisoning colored seamen of other .states, 
while the vessels to which they belong lie 
in ])ort, and refusing the exercise of the 
right to bring such ca.ses before the >Su- 
])reme Court of the United State-s, to test 
the legality of such proceedings, is a fla- 
grant violation of the constitution, and an 
invasion of the rights of the citizens of 
other states, utterly inconsistent with the 
])rofessions made by the slaveholders, that 
they wish the provisions of the constitu- 
tion faithfully observed by every state in 
the Union. 

19. That we recommend the introduc- 
tion into all treaties hereafter to be nego- 
tiated between the United States and for- 
eign nations, of some provision for the 
amicable settlement of difficulties by a re- 
sort to decisive arbitrations. 

20. That the free democratic party is 
not organized to aid either the Whig or 
Democratic wing of the great slave com[)ro- 
mise party of the nation, but to defeat 
them both ; and that repudiating and re- 
nouncing both as ho[)elessly corrupt and 
utterly unworthy of confidence, the pur- 
pose of the Free Democracy is to take pos- 
session of the Federal government and ad- 
minister it for the better protection of the 
rights and interests of the whole people. 

21. That we inscribe on our banner 
Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and 
Free Men, and under it will fi^ht on and 
fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall 
rewanl our exertions. 

22. That upon this platform, the eon- 
ventiim presents to the American people, 
a.s a candidate for the office of President 
of the United States, John P. Hale, of 
New Hampshire, and as a candidate for 
the office ot Vice-President of the United 
States, George W. Julian, of Indiana, and 
earnestly commend them to the .support of 
all freemen and all parties. 



1856.— The American PlatfonM. 

Adopted nt FhiUidelphi-i Febnuny 21. 

1. An humble acknowledgment to thft 



36 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Supreme Being -or Tlis protecting care 
vouchsafed to our lathers in their success- 
ful revohitionary struggle, and hitherto 
manifested to us, their descendants, in the 
preservation of the liberties, the indepen- 
dence, and the union of these states. 

2. The perpetuation of the Federal 
Union and constitution, as the palladium 
of our civil and religious liberties, and the 
only sure bulwarks of American independ- 
ence. 

3. Americans must rule America ; and to 
this end native-horn citizens should be se- 
lected for all state, federal, and municipal 
offices of government employment, in pre- 
ference to all others. Nevertheless, 

4. Persons born of American parents 
residing temporarily abroad, should be 
entitled to all the rights of native-born 
citizens. 

5. No person should be selected for polit- 
ical station (whether of native or foreign 
birth), who recognizes any allegiance or 
obligation of any description to any foreign 
prince, potentate, or power, or who refuses 
to recognize the federal and state constitu- 
tions (each within its sphere) as paramount 
to all other laws, as rules of political ac- 
tion. 

6. The unequaled recognition and main- 
tenance of the reserved rights of the several 
states, and the cultivation of harmony and 
fraternal good-will between the citizens 
of the several states, and, to this end, non- 
interference by Congress with questions 
appertaining solely to the individual states, 
and non-intervention by each state with 
the affairs of any other state. 

7. The recognition of the right oj native- 
born and naturalized citizens of the Uni- 
ted States, permanently residing in any 
territory thereof, to frame their constitu- 
tion and laws, and to regulate their domes- 
tic and social affairs in their own mode, 
subject only to the provisions of the fed- 
eral constitution, with the privilege of ad- 
mission into the Union whenever they 
have the requisite population for one 
Eepresentative in Congress: Provided, al- 
ways, that none but those who are citizens 
of the United States under the constitu- 
tion and laws thereof, and who have a 
fixed residence in any such territory, ought 
to participate in the formation of the con- 
stitution or in the enactmeut of laws for 
said territory or state. 

8. An enforcement of the principles 
that no state or territory ought to admit 
others than citizens to the right of suffrage 
or of holding political offices of the United 
States. 

9. A change in the laws of naturaliza- 
tion, making a continued residence of 
twenty-one years, of all not heretofore 
provided for, an indispensable requisite for 
citizenship hereafter, and excluding all 
paupers and persons convicted of crime 



from landing upon our shores ; but no in- 
terference with the vested rights of for- 
eigners. 

10. Opposition to any union between 
church and state ; no interference with 
religious faith or worship ; and no test- 
oaths for office. 

11. Free and thorough investigation 
into any and all alleged abuses of public 
functionaries, and a strict economy in jjub- 
lic expenditures. 

12. The maintenance and enforcement 
of all laws constitutionally enacted, until 
said laws shall be repealed, or shall be de- 
clared null and void by competent judicial 
authority. 

13. 0]iposition to the reckless and un- 
wise policy of the present administration 
in the general management of our national 
affairs, and more especially as shown in 
removing "Americans" (by designation) 
and conservatives in jirinciple, from office, 
and placing foreigners and ultraists in 
their places ; as shown in a truckling sub- 
serviency to the stronger, and an insolent 
and cowardly bravado towards the weaker 
powers ; as shown in reopening sectional 
agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise ; as shown in granting to un- 
naturalized foreigners the right of suffrage 
in Kansas and Nebraska ; as shown in its 
vacillating course on the Kansas and Ne- 
braska question ; as shown in the corrup- 
tions which pervade some of the depart- 
ments of the government ; as shown in dis- 
gracing meritorious naval officers through 
prejudice or caprice ; and as shown in the 
blundering mismanagement of our foreign 
relations. 

14. Therefore, to remedy existing evils 
and prevent the disastrous consequences 
otherwise resulting therefrom, we would 
build up the " American Party " upon the 
principles hereinbefore stated. 

15. That each state council shall have 
authority to amend their several constitu- 
tions, so as to abolish the several degrees, 
and substitute a pledge of honor, instead 
of other obligations, for fellowship and 
admission into the party. 

16. A free and open discussion of all 
political principles embraced in our plat- 
form. 



1856. — Democratic Platform^ 

Adopted at Oinciyinati, June 6. 

Resolved, That the American democracy 
place their trust in the intelligence, the 
patriotism, and discriminating justice of 
the American people. 

Resolved, That we regard this as a dis- 
tinctive feature of our political creed, 
which we are proud to maintain before 
the world as a great moral element in a 
form of government springing from and 
upheld by the popular will ; and we con- 



I'OIJTH'A I. I'l.A'l'KOliMS. 



:J7 



triLst it with the creed and practice of 
federalism, under whatever name or form, 
wiiiih seeks to palsy the will of the eon- 
stilueiit, and which conceives no imposture 
too monstrous for the popular credulity. 

Eesvlred, there/are, That entertaining^ 
these views, the Democratic party of this 
I'nion, through their delegates, assembled 
in general convention, coming together in 
a spirit of concord, of devotion to the doc- 
trines and faith of a free repri'-^entative 
government, and appealing to their fellow 
citizens for tlie rectitude of their intentions, 
renew and reassert, before the American 
people, the declaration of principles 
avowed by them, when, on former occa- 
sions, in general convention, they have 
presented their candidates for tlu' po})ular 
suffrage. 

1. That the Federal government is one 
I if limited power, derived solely from the 
constitution, and the grants of power made 
therein ought to be strit'tly construed by 
all the departments and agents of the gov- 
ernment, and that it is inexpedient and 
dangerous to exercise doubtful constitu- 
tional powers. 

'2. That the constitution does not confer 
upon the general government the power to 
commence and carry on a general system 
of internal improvements. 

8. That the constitution doCvS not confer 
authority upon the Federal government, 
directly or indirectly, to assume the debts 
of the several states, contracted for local 
and internal improvements or other state 
])urposes; nor would such assumption be 
just or expedient. 

4. That justice and sound policy forbid 
the Federal government to foster one 
branch of industry to the detriment of 
another, or to cherish the interests of one 
})ortion of our common country ; that every 
citizen and every section of the country 
ha.s a right to demand and insist upon an 
equality of rights and privileges, and a 
complete and ample protection of persons 
and property from domestic violence and 
foreign aggression. 

5. That it is the duty of every branch 
of the government to enforce and practice 
the most rigid economy in conducting our 
public aflfairs, and that no more revenue 
ought to be raised than is required to de- 
fray the necessary expenses of the govern- 
ment and gradual but certain extinction of 
the public debt. 

6. That the proceeds of the public lands 
ought to be sacredly applied to the national 
objects specified in the constitution, and 
that we are opposed to any law for the dis- 
tribution of such proceeds among the states, 
as alike inexpedient in policy and repug- 
nant to the constitution. 

7. That Congress has no power to char- 
ter a national bank ; that we believe such 
an institution one of deadly hostility to 



the best interests of this country, danger- 
ous to our rei)ublican institutions iin<l the 
liberties of the people, and lalculalcd to 
l)lace the business of the country within 
the control of a concentrated money power 
and above the laws and will of the people; 
and the n'sult.s of the democratic legisla- 
tion in this and all other linaneial meiisures 
U|>on which issues have been made between 
the two jtolitical parties <if the country 
have demonstrated tocandi<l and |)ractical 
men of all parlies their soundness, safely, 
and utility in all i)usiness pursuits. 

S. Tiiat the separation of the moneys of 
the government from banking institutions 
is indispensable to the safety of the funds 
oi' the government and the rights of the 
j)eople. 

'.». That we are decidedly oppose<l to 
taking from the President the qualified 
veto power, by which he is enableu, un<ler 
restrictions and responsibilities amply siilfi- 
cient to guard the public interest.s, to su.s- 
pend the passage of a bill whose merits 
can not .secure the approval of two-third.s 
of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, until the judgment of the people can 
be obtained thereon, and which lias saved 
the American people from the corrupt and 
tyrannical dominion of the Bank of the 
United States and Irom a corrupting sys- 
tem of general internal improvements. 

10. That the liberal principles embodied 
by Jefferson in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and sanctioned in the Constitu- 
tion, which makes ours the land of liberty 
and the asylum of the ojipressed of ever)' 
nation, have ever been cardinal principles 
in the democratic faith ; and every at- 
tempt to abridge the [)rivilege of becom- 
ing citizens and owners of soil among us, 
ought to be resisted with the same spirit 
which swept the alien and sedition laws 
from our statute books. 

And icherais, Since the foregoing decla- 
ration was uniformly adopted by our i)rede- 
cessors in national conventions, an adverse 
political and religious test has been 
secretly organized by a party claiming to 
be exclusively Americans, and it is proper 
that the American democracy should 
clearly define its relations thereto ; and 
declare its determined opposition to all 
secret ])olitical societies, by whatever name 
they may be called — 

Resolved, That the foundation of this 
union of .states having been laid in. and 
its prosperity, expansion, and pre-eminent 
example in free government built upon, 
entire freedom of matters of religious con- 
cernment, and no respect of persons in re- 
gard to rank or place of birth, no party 
can justly be deemed national, con.stitu- 
tional, or in accordance with American 
principles, which bases its exclusive organ- 
ization upon religious opinions and acci- 
dental birth-place. And hence a political 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



crusade in the uineteentli century, and in 
tlie United States of yVmerica, against 
Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justi- 
fied by the past history or future prospects 
of the country, nor in unison with the 
spirit of toleration and enlightened free- 
dom which peculiarly distinguishes the 
American system of popular government. 
Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed 
energy of purpose the well-considered 
declarations of former conventions ujjon 
the sectional issue of domestic slavery, 
and concerning the reserved rights of the 
states — 

1. That Congress has no power under 
the constitution to interfere with or con- 
trol the domestic institutions of the several 
states, and that all such states are the sole 
and proper judges of everything apper- 
taining to their own affairs not prohibited 
by the constitution ; that all efforts of the 
Abolitionists or others, made to induce 
Congress to interfere with questions of 
slavery, or to take incipient ste})s in rela- 
tion thereto, are calculated to lead to the 
most alarming and dangerous conse- 
quences, and that all such eflbrts have an 
inevitable tendency to diminish the hap- 
piness of the people and endanger the 
stability and permanency of the Union, 
and ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend of our j^olitical institutions. 

2. That the foregoing proposition covers 
and was intended to embrace the whole 
subject of slavery agitation in Congress, 
and therefore the Democratic party of the 
Union, standing on this national platform, 
will abide by and adhere to a faithiul exe- 
cution of the acts known as the compro- 
mise measures, settled by the Congress of 
1850 — "the act for reclaiming fugitives 
from service or labor" included; which 
act, being designed to cany out an express 
provision of the constitution, can not, with 
lidelity thereto, be repealed, or so changed 
as to destroy or impair its efficiency. 

3. That the Democratic party will resist 
all attempts at renewing in Congress, or 
out of it, the agitation of the slavery ques- 
tion, under whatever shape or color the 
attem]:)t may be made. 

4. That the Democratic part}' will faith- 
fully abide by and uphold the principles 
laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the 
report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia 
legislature in 1799; that it ado])ts these 
principles as constituting one of tbe main 
foundations of its political creed, and is 
resolved to carry them out in their obvious 
meaning and import. 

And that we may more distinctly meet 
the issue on which a sectional party, sub- 
sisting exclusively on slavery agitation, 
now relies to test the fidelity of the people, 
north and south, to the constitution and 
the Union — 



1. Resolved, That claiming fellowship 
with and desiring the co-operation of all 
who regard the preservation of the Union 
under the constitution as the paramount 
issue, and repudiating all sectional parties 
and platforms concerning domestic slaverj"- 
which seek to embroil the states and in- 
cite to treason and armed resistance to law 
in the territories, and whose avowed pur 
pose, if consummated, must end in civil 
war and disunion, the American democracy 
recognize and adopt the principles con- 
tained in the organic laws establishing the 
territories of Nebraska and Kansas, as em- 
bodying the only sound and safe solution 
of the slavery question, upon which the 
great national idea of the people of this 
whole country can repose in its determined 
conservation of the Union, and non-inter- 
ference of Congress with slavery in the 
territories or in the District of Columbia. 

2. That this was the basis of the com- 
promise of 1850, confirmed by both the 
Democratic and Whig parties in national 
conventions, ratified by the people in the 
election of 1852, and rigbtly applied to the 
organization of the territories in 1854. 

3. That by the uniform application of 
the Democratic principle to the organiza- 
tion of territories and the admission of 
new states, with or without domestic sla- 
very, as they may elect, the equal rights of 
all the states will be preserved intact, the 
original compacts of the constitution main- 
tained inviolate, and the perpetuity and 
expansion of the Union insured to its ut- 
most capacity of embracing, in peace and 
harmony, every future American state that 
may be constituted or annexed with a re- 
publican form of government. 

Resolved, That we recognize the right 
of the people of all the territories, includ- 
ing Kansas and Nebraska, acting through 
the legally and fairly expressed will of the 
niajorrty of the actual residents, and when- 
ever the number of their inhabitants justi- 
fies it, to form a constitution, with or with- 
out domestic slavery', and be admitted into 
the Union upon terms of perfect equality 
with the other states. 

Resolved, finally, That in view of the 
condition of the jiopular institutions in the 
old world (and the dangerous tendencies 
of sectional agitation, combined with the 
attempt to enforce civil and religious disa- 
bilities against the rights of acquiring and 
enjoying citizenship in our own land), a 
high and sacred duty is devt)lved, with in- 
creased responsibility, upon the Demo- 
cratic ])arty of this country, as the party 
of the Union, to uphold and maintain the 
rights of every state, and thereby the 
union of the states, and to sustain and ad- 
vance among us constitutional liberty, hj 
continuing to resist all monopolies and ex- 
clusive legislation for the benefit of the few 
at the expense of the many, and by a vigi- 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



39 



lant and constant adhorcnro to those ])rin- 
ciples ami coiiijiroiiiiscs of tlu'coTistitutinn 
which arc broad enoiij^di and stron'j; enougli 
to enihracc and upliold tlie Union iw it 
was, the Union as it is, and the Union as 
it shall be, in the full expression of the 
energies and capacity of this great and 
progressive people. 

1. Jiesolrcd, That there are questions 
connected with the foreitrn policy of this 
Cmntry which are inlerior to no domestic 
ijuestions whatever. The time luw come 
tor the people of the United States to de- 
clare themselves in favor of free seas and 
progressive free trade throughout the world, 
and, by .solemn manifestations, to place 
their moral intlucnce at the side of their 
successful example. 

2. Resolved, That our geographical and 
political position with reference to the other 
states of this continent, no less than the 
interest of our commerce and the develop- 
ment of our growing power, re([uire9 that 
we should hold sacrea the principles in- 
volved in the Monroe doctrine. Their 
bearing and import admit of no miscon- 
struction, and should be applied with un- 
bending rigidity. 

3. Resoh-ed,' That the great highway 
which nature, as well as the a.ssent of states 
most immediately interested in its main- 
tenance, ha.'* marked out for free commu- 
nication between the Atlantic and Pacitic 
oceans, constitutes one of the most impor- 
tant achievements realized by the spirit of 
modern times, in the unconquerable energy 
of our people ; and that result would be 
secured by a timely and efhcient exertion 
of the control which we have the right to 
claim over it ; and no power on earth 
should be suffered to impede or clog its 
progress by any interference with relations 
that may suit our policy to establish be- 
tween our government and the govern- 
ments of the states within whose dominions 
it lies ; we can under no circumstances sur- 
render our preponderance in the adjust- 
ment of all questions arising out of it. 

4. Resolved, That in view of so com- 
manding an interest, the people of the 
United States cannot but sympathize with 
the efforts which are being made by the 
people of Central America to regenerate 
that portion of the continent which covers 
the passage across the inter-oceanic isthmus. 

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party 
will expect of the next administration that 
every proper effort be made to insure our 
a.scendency in the Gulf of Mexico, and to 
maintain permanent protection to thegreat 
outlets through which are emptied into its 
waters the products raised out of the soil 
and the commodities created by the indus- 
try of the people of our western valleys 
and of the Union at large. 

6. Resolved, That the administration of 
Franklin Pierce has been true to Demo 

23 



cratic principles, and, therpforc, true totho 
grc.it interests of the country; in the faco 
of violent oppositi(^n, lie Iiits inaint:iin(;d 
the laws at home and vindicated the rights 
of American citizens abroad, and, there- 
fore, we proclaim our unqualified admira- 
tion of his measures and policy. 



1850.— Republican Platfomn, 

Ailoptfd at I'hiladrlphUi, June 17. 

This convention of delegates, a.ssembled 
in pursuance of a call addressed to the 
people of the United States, without regard 
to past political differences or division.s, 
who are opj)osed to the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compnmiise, to the policy of the 
present administration, to the extension of 
slavery into free territory ; in favor of ad- 
mitting Kansas as a free state, of restoring 
the action of the Federal governmcTit to 
the principles of Wa.-ihington and Jetfer- 
son ; and who purpose to unite in present- 
ing candidates for the offices of President 
and Vice-President, do resolve as follows : 

Resolved, That the nuiintenance of the 
principles promulgated in the Declaration 
of Independence, and embodied in the 
federal constitution, is essential t^) the pre- 
servation of our Republican institutions, 
and that the federal constitution, tlie rights 
of the states, and the union of the .states, 
shall be preserved. 

Resolved, That with our republican 
fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth 
that all men are endowed with the inalien- 
able rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness, and that the primary object 
and ulterior design of our Federal govern- 
ment were, to secure these rights to all 
]>erson3 within its exclusive jurisdiction ; 
that as our republican fathers, when they 
had abolished slavery in all our national 
territory, ordained that no person should 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law, it becomes our 
duty to maintain this provision of the con- 
stitution against all attcmjits to violate it 
for the purpose of establishing slaverj' in 
any territory of the United States, by posi- 
tive legi.slation, prohibiting its existence or 
extension therein. That we deny the au- 
thority of Congress, of a territorial legis- 
lature, of any individual or association of 
individuals, to give legal existence to sla- 
very in any territory of the llnited States, 
while the present constitution shall be 
maintained. 

Resolved, That the constUutioBPConfers 
upon Congress sovereign power over the 
territories of the United States for their 
government, and that in the exercise of 
this power it is both the right and the im- 
perative duty of Congress to prohibit in 
the territories those twin relics of barbar- 
ism — ^polygamy and slavery. 



40 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Resolved, That while the constitution of 
the United States was ordained and estab- 
lished, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, j)rovide for the common de- 
fense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty, and contains 
ample provisions for the protection of the 
life, liberty, and property of every citizen, 
the dearest constitutional rights of the 
people of Kansas have been fraudulently 
and violently taken from them ; their terri- 
tory has been invaded by an armed force ; 
spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, 
and executive officers have been set over 
them, by whose usurped authority, sus- 
tained by the military power of the govern- 
ment, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws 
have been enacted and enforced ; the rights 
of the people to keep and bear arms have 
been infringed; test oaths of an extraordi- 
nary and entangling nature have been im- 
posed, as a condition of exercising the 
right of suffrage and holding office ; the 
right of an accused person to a speedy and 
public trial by an impartial jury has been 
denied ; the right of the people to be se- 
cure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
effects against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, has been violated ; they have been 
deprived of life, liberty, and property with- 
out due process of law ; that the freedom 
of speech and of the press has been abridg- 
ed ; the right to choose their representa- 
tives has been made of no effect ; murders, 
robberies, and arsons have been instigated 
or encouraged, and the offenders have been 
allowed to go unpunished ; that all these 
things have been done with the knowledge, 
sanction, and procurement of the present 
national administration ; and that for this 
high crime against the constitution, the 
Union, and humanity, we arraign the ad- 
ministration, the President, his advisers, 
agents, supporters, apologists, and acces- 
sories, either before or after the facts, be- 
fore the country and before the world ; 
and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the 
actual perpetrators of these atrocious out- 
rages, and their accomplices, to a sure and 
condign punishment hereafter. 

Resolved, That Kansas should be im- 
mediately admitted as a state of the Union 
with her present free constitution, as at 
once the most efl'ectual way of securing to 
her citizens the enjoyment of the rights 
and privileges to which they are entitled, 
and of ending the civil strife now raging 
in her territory. 

Resolved, That the highwayman's plea 
that "might makes right," embodied in 
the Ostend circular, was in every respect 
unworthy of American diplomacy, and 
would bring shame and dishonor upon any 
government or people that gave it their 
eanction. 

Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific 



ocean, by the most central and practicable 
route, is imperatively demanded by the in- 
terests of the whole country, and that the 
Federal government ought to render im- 
mediate and efficient aid in its construc- 
tion, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the im- 
mediate construction of an emigrant route 
on the line of the railroad. 

Resolved, That appropriations of Con- 
gress for the improvement of rivers and 
harbors of a national character, required 
for the accommodation and security of oui 
existing commerce, are authorized by the 
constitution, and justified by the obligation 
of government to protect the lives and 
property of its citizens. 

Resolved, That we invite the afliliation 
and co-operation of the men of all parties, 
however differing from us in other respects, 
in support of the principles herein de- 
clared ; and believing that the spirit of 
our institutions, as well as the constitution 
of our country, guarantees liberty of con- 
science and equality of rights among citi- 
zens, we oppose all proscriptive legislation 
affecting their security. 



1856 Wliig Platform. 

BaUitnore, September \'6. 

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United 
States, now here assembled, hereby de- 
clare their reverence for the constitution 
of the United States, their unalterable at- 
tachment to the National Union, and a 
fixed determination to do all in their 
power to preserve them for themselves and 
their posterity. They have no new princi- 
ples to announce ; no new platform to es- 
tablish ; but are content to broadly rest — 
where their fathers rested — upon the con- 
stitution of the United States, wishing no 
safer guide, no higher law. 

Resolved, That we regard with the 
deepest interest and anxiety the preseiit 
disordered condition of our national af- 
fairs — a portion of the country ravaged by 
civil war, large sections of our population 
embittered by mutual recriminations; and 
we distinctly trace these calamities to the 
culpable neglect of duty by the present 
national administration. 

Resolved, That the government of the 
United States was formed by the conjunc- 
tion in political unity of wide-spread geo- 
graphical sections, materially differing, not 
only in climate and products, but in social 
and domestic institutions ; and that any 
cause that shall permanently array the 
different sections of the Union in political 
hostility and organize parties founded only 
on geographical distinctions, must inevit- 
ably prove fatal to a continuance of the 
National Union. 

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United 
States declare, as a fundamental article of 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



41 



political faith, an absolute necessity for 
avoiding gi-ographical jjurtii's. Tlu' dan- 
cer, Ko clearly discerned \>y the Fallicr of 
his Country, luij. now become feartuliy 
apparent in the agitation now convulsing 
the nation, and must he arrested at once 
if we would preserve our constitution and 
our Union from dismemberment, and the 
name of America from being blotted out 
from the family of civilized nations. 

Jiesolred, Tiiat all who revere the con- 
stitution ami the Union, must look with 
alarm at the jiarties in the held in the 
present [>residential campaign — one claim- 
ing only to represent sixteen northern 
states, and the other appealing mainly to 
the passions and prejudices of the southern 
states; that the success of either faction 
must add fuel to the flame which now 
threatens to wrap our dearest interests in 
a common ruin. 

Resolved, That the only remedy for an 
evil so appalling is to support a candidate 
pledged to neither of the geogra})hical sec- 
tions nor arrayed in political antagonism, 
but holding both in a just and equal regard. 
We congratulate the friends of the Union 
that such a candidate exists in jMillard 
Fillmore. 

Resolved, That, without adopting or re- 
ferring to the peculiar doctrines of the 
party which has already selecteil Mr. Fill- 
more as a candidate, we look to him as a 
well tried and faithful friend of the consti- 
tution and the Union, eminent alike for 
his wisdom and firmness — for his justice 
and moderation in our foreign relations — 
calm and pacific temperament, so well be- 
coming the head of a great nation — for his 
devotion to the constitution in its true 
spirit: — his inflexibility in executing the 
laws but, beyond all these attributes, in 
possessing the one transcendent merit ofj 
being a representative of neither of the 
two sectional parties now struggling for 
political supremacy. 

Resolced, That, in the present exigency 
of political affairs, we are not called upon 
to discuss the subordinate questions of ad- 
ministration in the exercising of the con- 
stitutional powers of the government. It 
is enough to know that civil war is raging. 
and that the Union is in peril ; and we 
proclaim the conviction that the restora- 
tion of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency will 
furnish the best if not the only means of 
restoring peace. 



IS60.— Conatltatlonal Union Platform. 

Baltimore, iliiy 9. 

Whereas, Experience has demonstrated 
that platforms adopted by the partisan 
conventions of the country have had the 
effect to mislead and deceive the people, 



and at the same time to widen the political 

divisions of the country, by the creation 
and encouragement of geographical and 
sectional parties ; therefore, 

Resolved, That it is both the part of 
natriotism and of duty to rermjuize no po- 
litical principles other than Tilt: CoN.sTi- 
TUTIOX OV THE (JOUNTKV, TIIK UnIU.VOP 
TICK StATKH, and TIIK E.NTOUf K.MK.VT OF 
tuhLaws; and that as repre-entitiveaof 
the t'onstitutiftnal Union men of the coun- 
try, in national convention assembled, we 
herel)y pleilge ourselves to maintain, jiro- 
tect, and defend, separately and unitedly, 
these great princijiles of public liberty and 
national safetv against all enemies at liome 
and abroad, believing that thereity peace 
may once more be restored to the country, 
the rights of the neople ami of the states 
re-established, ana the government again 
placed in that condition of ju-tice, frater- 
nity, and equality, which, under the exam- 
ple and constitution of our fathers, has 
solemnly bound every citizen of the United 
States to maintain a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquil- 
lity, provide for the common defense, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and seciu-e the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity. 



I860.— Republican Platform, 

Chtciigv, May 17. 

Resolved, That we, the delegated repre- 
sentatives of the Republican electors of 
the United States, in convention assembled, 
in discharge of the duty we owe to our 
constituents and our country, unite in the 
following declarations: 

1. That the history of the nation, dur- 
ing the last four years, has fully e.-tablish- 
ed the projiriety and necessity of the or- 
ganization and perpetuation of the Re- 
publican party, and that the causes which 
called it into existence are permanent ia 
their nature, and now, more than ever be- 
fore, demand its peaceful and constitutional 
triumph. 

2. That the maintenance of the principles 
promulgated in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and embodied in the federal 
constitution, " That all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienal)Ie right.s; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness; that to seeure these 
rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed," is essential to 
the preservation of our republican institu- 
tions; and that the federal constitution, 
the rights of the states, and the union of 
the states, must and shall be preserved. 

3. That to the union of the states this 
nation owes its unprecedented increase in 
population, its surprising development of 



42 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



material resources, its rapid augmentation 
of weultli, its happiness at home and its 
honor abroad ; and we hold in abliorrence 
all schemes for disunion, come from what- 
ever source they may ; and we congratulate 
tlie country that no "Republican member of 
Congress has utteied or countenanced the 
threats of disunion so often made by De- 
mocratic members, without rebuke and 
»A-ith ajjplause from their political associ- 
ates ; and we denounce those threats of dis- 
union, in case of a popular overthrow of 
their ascendency, as denying the vital 
principles of a free government, and as an 
avowal of contemplated treason, which it 
is the imperative duty of an indignant 
people sternly to rebuke and forever silence. 

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the states, and especially the right 
of each state to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that 
balance of powers on which the perfection 
and endurance of our political fabric de- 
pends; and we denounce the lawless in- 
vasion, by armed force, of the soil of any 
state or territory, no matter under what 
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 

5. That the present Democratic admini- 
stration has far exceeded our worst ap- 
prehensions, in its measureless subserviency 
to the exactions of a sectional interest, as 
especially evinced in its desperate exertions 
to force the infamous Lecompton constitu- 
tion upon the protesting people of Kansas ; 
in construing the personal relations be- 
tween master and servant to involve an 
unqualified property in persons ; in its at- 
tempted enforcement, everywhere, on land 
and sea, through the intervention of Con- 
gress and of the federal courts, of the ex- 
treme pretensions of a purely local interest ; 
and in its general and unvarying abuse of 
the power entrusted to it by a confiding 
people. 

. 6. Thatthepeople justly view with alarm 
the reckless extravagance which pervades 
every department of the Federal govern- 
ment; that a return to rigid economy and 
accountability is indispensable to arrest the 
systematic plunder of the public treasury 
by favored partisans; while the recent 
startling developments of frauds and cor- 
ruptions at the federal metropolis, show 
that an entire change of administration is 
imperatively demanded. 

7. That the new dogma, that the consti- 
tution, of its own force, carries slavery into 
any or all of the territories of the United 
States, is a dangerous political heresy, at 
variance with the explicit provisions of 
that instrument itself, with contemporane- 
ous exposition, and with legislative and 
judicial precedent — is revolutionary in its 
tendency, and subversive of the peace and 
harmony of the country. 

8. That the normal condition of all the 



territory of the United States is that of 
freedom ; that as our republican fathers, 
when they had abolished slavery in all our 
natioiuil territory, ordained that " no per- 
son shall be deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law," it 
becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever 
such legislation is necessary, to maintain 
this provision of the constitution against 
all attempts to violate it ; and we deny the 
authority of Congress, of a territorial legis- 
lature, or of any individuals, to give legal 
existence to slavery in any territory of the 
United States. 

9. That we brand the recent reopening 
of the African slave trade, under the cover 
of our national flag, aided by perversions 
of judicial power, as a crime against human- 
ity and a burning shame to our country 
and age ; and we call upon Congress to 
take prompt and eflScient measures for the 
total and final suppression of that execrable 
traffic. 

10. That in the recent vetoes, by their 
federal governors, of the acts of the legis- 
latures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibit- 
ing slavery in those territories, we find a 
practical illustration of the boasted De- 
mocratic principle of non-intervention and 
popular sovereignty, embodied in the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demonstration 
of the deception and fraud involved 
therein. 

11. That Kansas should, of right, be 
immediately admitted as a state under the 
constitution recently formed and adopted 
by her people, and accepted by the House 
of Representatives. 

12. That, while providing revenue for 
the support of the general government by 
duties upon imports, sound policy requires 
such an adjustment of these imports as to 
encourage the development of the indus- 
trial interest of the whole country ; and 
we commend that policy of national ex- 
changes which secures to the working men 
liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative 
prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an 
adequate reward for their skill, labor, and 
enterprise, and to the nation commercial 
prosperity and independence. 

13. That we protest against any sale or 
alienation to others of the public lands 
held by actual settlers, and against any 
view of the homestead policy which re- 
gards the settlers as paupers or suppliants 
for public bounty; and we demand the 
passage by Congress of the complete and 
satisfactory homestead measure which has 
already passed the House, 

14. That the republican party is opposed 
to any change in our naturalization laws, 
or any state legislation by which the rights 
of citizenship hitherto accorded to immi- 
grants from foreign lands shall be abridged 
or impaired ; and in favor of giving a full 
and efficient protection to the rights of all 



POLITICAL P L A T V il M S . 



43 



cliusscj* of citizens, whetlicr iiativo or na- 
turaliztHl, both at hoinc and ahroatl. 

15. That appropriations by ('(iiii,^rc.ss for 
river atiil iiarbor iin]irovcnK'nt.H of a na- 
tional character, reipiireii for tiie at'coniino- 
dation and secnrity of an existini^ coni- 
merce, are authorized by the constitution 
and Justified l)y the ohli,u;ations of •govern- 
ment to protect tlie lives and projierty of 
its citizen.^. 

IG. That a railroad to the Paeitk; ocean 
is imperatively demanded by the int<.'rest 
of the whole country ; that the Federal 
government oui:;lit to render immediate and 
cHicient aid in its construction ; and that 
as preliminary thereto, a daily overland 
mail shoulil be promptly established. 

17. Finally, haviiijj; thus set forth our 
distinctive principles anil views, we invite 
the co-operation of all citizens, however 
differinj:; on other questions, who substan- 
tially agree with us in their allirmauce and 
mipport. 



I860.— Democratic (Don^laa) Platform, 

Charletlon, Ajiril 2:}, and Baltimore, June Is. 

1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of 
the Union, in convention assembled, here- 
by declare our affirmance of the resolutions 
unanimously adopted and declared as a 
Platform of principles by the Democratic 
convention at Cincinnati, in the year ISoG, 
believing that democratic principles are 
unchangeable in their nature when ajiplied 
to the same subject-matters ; and we recom- 
mend, as the only further resolutions, the 
following : 

Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist 
in the Democratic party as to the nature 
and extent of the powers of a territorial 
legislature, and as to the powers and duties 
of Congress, under the constitution of the 
United States, over the institution of sla- 
very within the territories: 

2. Rcaolvcd, That the Democratic party 
•will abide by the decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States on the questions 
of constitutional law. 

3. Ees(drcd, That it is the duty of the 
United States to afford ample and complete 
protection to all its citizens, whether at 
home or abroad, and whether native or 
foreign. 

4. Resolved, That one of the necessities 
of the age, in a military, commercial, and 
postal ]>oint of view, is speedy communi- 
cation between the Atlantic and I'acitic 
states; and the Democratic party pledge 
such constitutional government aid as will 
insure the construction of a railroad to the 
Pacific coiist at the earliest practicable 
period. 

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party 
arc in favor of the acquisition of the island 
of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honor- 
able to ourselves and just to Spain, 



(). Rrsolved, That thoonactmentHof Htato 
legislatures to defeat the I'aithful exi-cntiou 
of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in 
character, subversive of the constitution, 
and revolutionary in their elfect. 

7. Ji'es(dved, That it is in accordancse 
with the trm- interpretation of the Cincin- 
nati platform, that, <luring the existence of 
the territorial governments, the measure 
of restriction, whatever it may be, imp(»se<l 
by th(! federal constitution on the power of 
the territorial legislature over tlie subject 
of domestic relations, :i.s the same has been, 
or shall hereafter be, finally determined by 
the Supreme Court of the United States, 
shall be respected by all good citizens, and 
enforced with promi)tness and fidelity by 
every branch of the general government. 



18G0> — Democratic ^Breckinridge) Platform. 

Ctiarleslon and Ballimore. 

Resolved, That the platform adopted by 
the Democratic party at Cincinnati be af- 
firmed, with following explanatory resolu- 
tions : 

1. That the government of a territory, 
organized by an act of Congress, is pro- 
visional and temporary ; and, during its 
existence, all citizens of the United States 
have an equal right to settle, with their 
property, in the territory, without their 
rights, either of person or property, being 
destroyed or impaired by congressional or 
territorial lesrislation. 

2. That it is the duty of the Federal 
government, in all its depiirtnients, to pro- 
tect, when necessary, the rights of per- 
sons and property in the territories, and 
wherever else its constitutional authority 
extends. 

3. That when the settlers in a territory 
having an adequate population form a 
state constitution in pursuance of law, the 
right of sovereignty commences, and, be- 
ing consummated by admission into the 
Union, they stand on an equal footing 
with the people of other states, and the 
state thus organized ought to be admit- 
ted into the Federal Union, whether its 
constitution prohibits or recognizes the in- 
stitution of slavery. 

4. That the Democratic party are in 
favor of the acquisition of the island of 
Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable 
to ourselves and just to Spain, at the earli- 
est practicable moment. 

5. That the enaetmvnts of state legisla- 
tures to defeat the faithful execution of 
the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in 
character, subversive of the constitution, 
and revolutionary in their etTect. 

G. That the Democracy of the United 
States recognize it as the imperative dutv 
of this government to protect the natural- 



44 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ized citizen in all his rights, whether at 
home or in foreign lands, to the same ex- 
tent as its native-born citizens. 

Whereas, One of the greatest necessi- 
ties of the age, in a political, commercial, 
postal, and military point of view, is a 
8j)eedy commnnication between the Pa- 
cific and Atlantic coasts ; therefore, be it 

Eesolved, That the Democratic party do 
hereby pledge themselves to use every 
means in their power to secure the passage 
of some bill, to the extent of the constitu- 
tional authority of Congress, for the con- 
struction of a Pacific railroad from the 
Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, at 
the earliest practicable moment. 



1864.— Radical Platform. 

Cleveland, May 31. 

1. That the Federal Union shall be pre- 
served. 

2. That the constitution and laws of 
the United States must be observed and 
obeyed. 

3. That the Eebellion must be sup- 
pressed by force of arms, and without com- 
promise. 

4. That the rights of free speech, free 

f)re83 and the haJbeas corpus be held invio- 
ate, save in districts Avhere martial law 
has been proclaimed. 

5. That the Rebellion has destroyed 
slaveiy ; and the federal constitution 
should be so amended as to prohibit its 
re-establishmcnt, and to secure to all men 
absolute equality before the law. 

6. That integrity and economy are de- 
manded, ?t all times in the administration 
of the government, and that in time of 
war the want of them is criminal. 

7. That the right of asylum, except for 
crime and subject to law, is a recognized 
principle of American liberty ; and that 
any violation of it can not be overlooked, 
and must not go unrebuked. 

8. That the national policy known as 
the " Monroe Doctrine " has become a re- 
cognized principle ; and that the estab- 
lishment of an anti-republican govern- 
ment on this continent by any foreign 
power can not be tolerated. 

9. That the gratitude and support of 
the nation are due to the faithful soldiers 
and the earnest leaders of the Union army 
and navy, for their heroic achievements 
and deathless valor in defense of our im- 
periled country and of civil liberty. 

10. That the one-term policy for the 
pre-idency, adoi)tcd by the people, is 
strengthened by the force of the existing 
crisis, and sliould be maintained by con- 
stitutional amendment. 

11. That tlie constitution should be so 
amended that the President and Vice- 



President shall be elected by a direct vote 
of the people. 

12. That the question of the reconstruc- 
tion of the rebellious states belongs to the 
people, through their representatives in 
Congress, and not to the Executive. 

13. That the confiscation of the lands of 
the rebels, and their distribution among 
the soldiers and actual settlers, is a mea- 
sure of justice. 



18C4:.— Republican Platform. 

Baltimore, June 7. 

Resolved, That it is the highest duty 
of every American citizen to maintain, 
against all their enemies, the integrity of 
the union and the paramount authority of 
the constitution and laws of the United 
States ; and that, laying aside all difier- 
ences of political opinions, we pledge our- 
selves, as Union men, animated by a com- 
mon sentiment and aiming at a common 
object, to do everything in our power to 
aid the government in quelling, by force 
of arms, the Rebellion now raging against 
its authority, and in bringing to the pun- 
ishment due to their crimes the rebels and 
trait(n-s arrayed against it. 

Resolved, That we approve the determi- 
nation of the government of the United 
States not to compromise with rebels, nor 
to offer them any terms of peace, except 
such as may be based upon an " uncondi- 
tional surrender " of their hostility and a 
return to their allegiance to the constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States ; and 
that we call upou the government to main- 
tain this position, and to prosecute the 
war with the utmost possible vigor to the 
complete suppression of the Rebellion, in 
full reliance upon the self-sacrificing pa- 
triotism, the heroic valor, and the undying 
devotion of the American people to the 
country and its free institutions. 

Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, 
and now constitutes the strength, of this 
Rebellion, and as it must be always and 
everj'where hostile to the principles of re- 
publican government, justice and the na- 
tional safety demand its utter and com- 
plete extirpation from the soil of the Re- 
public ; and that we uphold and maintain 
the acts and proclamations by which the 
government, in its own defense, has aimed 
a death-blow at the gigantic evil. We are 
in favor, furthermore, of such an amend- 
ment to the constitution, to be made by 
the people in conformity with its provis- 
ions, as shall terminate and forever pro- 
hibit the existence of slavery within the 
limits or the jurisdiction of the United 
States. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Amer- 
ican people are due to the soldiers and 
sailors of the army and navy, who have 
periled their lives in defense of their 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



4-j 



country and in vindication of the honor of 
its flag ; that the nation owes to thciii 
some permanent recognition of tlieir i)a- 
triotism and their vaior, and junple and 
permanent provision for those of tlieir 
survivors who liave received disahling iind 
honorable wounds in the service of the 
country; and that the memories of those 
who have fallen in its defense shall be 
held in grateful and everlasting remem- 
brance. 

liesolvcd, That we approve and applaud 
the practical wisdom, the unselfish patri- 
otism, and the unswerving fidelity to the 
constitution and the principles of Ameri- 
can liberty with which Abraham Lincoln 
h:is discharged, uiuler circumstances of 
unuarallelcd dilhculty, the great duties 
and responsibilities of the presidential 
olfice ; that we ajiprove and indorse, as 
demanded by the emergency and essential 
to the preservation of the nation, and a-s 
within the provisions of the constitution, 
the me:isurcs and acts which he has adopt- 
ed to defend the nation against its open 
and secret foes; that we approve, especial- 
ly, the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
and the emjiloyment, as Union soldiers, 
of men heretofore held in slavery ; and 
that we have full conlidence in his deter- 
mination to carry these, and all other con- 
stitutional measures essential to the salva- 
tion of the country, into full and complete 
effect. 

Resolved, That we deem it essential to 
the general welfare that harmony should 
prevail in the national councils, and we 
regard as worthy of public confidence and 
ofiicial trust those only who cordially in- 
dorse the principles proclaimed in these 
resolutions, and which should characterize 
the administration of the government. 

Resolved, That the government owes to 
all men employed in its armies, without 
regard to distinction of color, the full pro- 
tection of the laws of war ; and that any 
violation of these law.-", or of the usages of 
civilized nations in the time of war, by 
the rebels now in arms, should be made 
the subject of prompt and full redress. 

Resolved, That foreign immigration, 
which in the past has added so much to 
the wealth, development of resources, and 
increase of power to this nation — the asy- 
lum of the oppressed of all nations — should 
be fostered and encouraged by a liberal 
and just policy. 

Resolved, That we are in favor of the 
speedy construction of the railroad to the 
Pacific coa.st. 

Resolved, That the national faith, pledged 
for the redemption of the public debt, must 
be kept inviolate ; and that, for this pur- 
pose, we recommend economy and rigid 
responsibility in the public expenditures 
and a vigorous and just system of taxa- 
tion ; and that it is the duty of every loyal 



state to sustain the credit and promote the 
use of the national curreney. 

Jiesolved, 'Ihat we iijiiirovc the position 
taken by the government, that the peoj)Io 
of the Lnited States eim nciver regard with 
inditference the attempt of any Eurojiean 
power to overthrow by foree, or t/i sup- 
plant by fraud, the institutions of any re- 
l)ublican governmertt on the western con- 
tinent, and tliat they will view with ex- 
treme jealousy, as menacing to the {)ca<'e 
and inde^>endence of this, o.ir country, the 
efi'orts ol any such power to obtain new 
footholds for monarchical governments, 
sustained by a foreign military force, ia 
near proximity to the United States. 



ISC'!.— 'Democratic Platform. 

Chicago, Augu$t 'JO. 

Resolved, That in the future, as in tho 
past, we will adhere with unswerving fidel- 
ity to the Union under the constitution, 
as the only solid foundation of our 
strength, security, and happiness as a poo- 
ple, and as a frame-work of government 
equally conducive to the welfiire and j)ro3- 
perity of all the states, both northern and 
southern. 

Resolved, That this convention does ex- 
plicitly declare, as the sense of the Ameri- 
can people, that after four years of failure 
to restore the Union by the experiment of 
war, during which, under the pretense of 
a military necessity of a war power higher 
than the constitution, the constitution it- 
self has been disregarded in every j>art, 
and public liberty and private right alike 
trodden down, and the material prosperity 
of the country essentially impaired, justice, 
humanity, liberty, and the public welfare 
demand that immediate eflbrts be made 
for a cessation of hostilities, with a view 
to an ultimate convention of all the states, 
or other peaceable means, to the end that, 
at the earliest practicable moment, peace 
may be restored on the basis of the federal 
union of all the states. 

Resolved, That the direct interference of 
the military authority of the United Suites 
in the recent elections held in Kentucky, 
Marjland, Missouri, and Delaware, w;is a 
shameful violation of the con.stltution ; 
and the repetition of such acts in the ap- 
proaching election will be held as revolu- 
tionary, and resisted with all the means 
and power under our contrel. 

Resolved, That the aim ami object of the 
Democratic party is to jjrcserve the Fede- 
ral L^nion and the rights of the state? un- 
impaired ; and they hereby declare that 
they consider the administrative usurpa- 
tion of extraordinary and dangerous pow- 
ers not granted by the constitution, the 
subversion of the civil by the military law 
in states not in insurrection, the arbitrary 



46 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and 
sentence of American citizens in states 
where civil law exists in full force, the 
buppressiou of freedom of speech and of 
the press, the denial of the right of asy- 
lum, the open and avowed disregard of 
state rights, the employment of unusual 
tost-oaths, and the interference with and 
denial of the right of the people to 
bear arms in their defense, as calculated 
to prevent a restoration of the Union and 
the perpetuation of a government deriving 
its just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned. 

Resolved, That the shameful disregard of 
the administration to its duty in respect to 
our fellow-citizens who now are, and long 
have been, prisoners of war, in a suflTering 
condition, deserves the severest reproba- 
tion, on the score alike of public policy 
and common humanity. 

Resolved, That the sympathy of the De- 
mocratic party is heartily and earnestly 
extended to the soldiery of our army and 
the sailors of our navy, who are and have 
been in the field and on the sea under the 
flag of their country ; and, in the event of 
our attaining power, they will receive all 
the care and protection, regard and kind- 
ness, that the brave soldiers of the Kepub- 
lic have so nobly earned. 



186S. RepHbllcaii Platform. 

Cliicago, May 20. 

1. We congratulate the country on the 
assured success of the reconstruction poli- 
cy of Congress, a.s evinced by the adoption, 
in the majority of the states lately in rebel- 
lion, of constitutions securing equal civil 
and political rights to all ; and it is the 
duty of the government to sustain those 
institutions and to prevent the people of 
such states from being remitted to a state 
of anarcliy. 

2. The guarantee by Congress of equal 
suffrage to all loyal men at the south was 
demanded by every consideration of pub- 
lic safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and 
must be maintained ; while the question of 
suffrage in all the loyal states properly be- 
longs to the people of those states. 

3. Wc denounce all forms of repudiation 
aa a national crime ; and the national 
honor requires the payment of the public 
indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to 
all creditors at home and abroad, not only 
according to the letter but the spirit 
of the laws under which it was con- 
tracted. 

4. It is due to the labor of the nation 
that taxation should be equalized and re- 
duced as rapidly as the national faith will 
permit. 

5. The national debt, contracted as it 



has been for the preservation of the Union 
for all time to come, should be extended 
over a fair period for redemption ; and it is 
the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of 
interest thereon whenever it can be honest- 
ly done. 

6. That the best policy to diminish our 
burden of debts is to so improve our credit 
that capitalists will seek to loan us money 
at lower rates of interest than we now pay, 
and must continue to pay, so long as re- 
pudiation, partial or total, open or covert, 
is threatened or suspected. 

7. The government of the United States 
should be administered with the strictest 
economy ; and the corruptions which have 
been so shamefully nursed and fostered by 
Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical re- 
form. 

8. We profoundly deplore the tragic 
death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the 
accession to the presidency of Andrew 
Johnson, who has acted treacherously to 
the people who elected him and the cause 
he was pledged to support ; who has usurped 
high legislative and judicial functions; 
who has refused to execute the laws ; who 
has used his high office to induce other 
officers to ignore and violate the laws; 
who has employed his executive powers to 
render insecure the property, the peace, 
liberty, and life of the citizen ; who has 
abused the pardoning power ; who has 
denounced the national legislature as un- 
constitutional ; who has persistently and 
corruptly resisted, by every means in his 
power, every proper attempt at the recon- 
struction of the states lately in rebellion ; 
who has perverted the public patronage 
into an engine of wholesale corruption ; 
and who has been justly impeached for 
high crimes and misdemeanors, and pro- 
perly pronounced guilty thereof by the 
vote of^thirty-five Senators. / 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and 
other European powers, that because a 
man is once a subject he is always so, must 
be resisted at every hazard by the United 
States, as a relic of feudal times, not au- 
thorized by the laws of nations, and at war 
with our national honor and independence. 
Naturalized citizens are entitled to pro- 
tection in all their rights of citizenship aa 
though they were native-born ; and no 
citizen of the United States, native or na- 
turalized, must be liable to arrest and im- 
prisonment by any foreign power for acta 
done or words spoken in this country ; 
and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is 
the duty of the government to interfere in 
his behalf. 

10. Of all who were faithful in the trials 
of the late war, there were none entitled to 
more s])ecial honor than the brave soldiers 
and seamen who eodured the hardships of 
cami)aign and cruise, and imperiled their 
lives in the service of the country. The 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



47 



bountiea and pensions pmvided by the 
laws for tlit'sc lirave tlolciKU-rs of tlie na- 
tion are oblijrations never to be forjijotten ; 
the widowrt and orphans of the gallant 
dead are tiie wards of the people — asucred 
legacy be(iueatlied to the nation's protect- 
ing; care. 

IL Foreign immigration, which in the 
past luus added so nuieh to the wealth, de- 
velopment, and resonrees, and increase of 
power to tills Rcpul)lic, the asylnin of the 
oppressed of all nations, should be fostered 
and encouraged by a liberal and just 
policy. 

12. This convention declares itself in 
sympathy with all oppressed people who 
are struggling for their rights. 

13. That we highly commend the spirit 
of magnanimity and forbearance with 
which men who have .served in the Rebel- 
lion, but who now frankly and honestly 
co-operate with us in restoring the peace 
of the country and reconstructing the 
southern state governments upon the basis 
of impartial justice and equal rights, are re- 
ceived back into the communion of the 
loyal people ; and we favor the removal of 
the disqualifications and restrictions im- 
posed upon the late rebels, in the same 
measure ius the spirit of disloyalty shall die 
out, ami as may be consistent with the 
safety of the loyal people. 

14. That we recognize the great princi- 
ples laid down in the immortal Declara- 
tion of Independence, as the true founda- 
tion of democratic government ; and we 
hail with gladness every eflbrt toward 
making lhe.se principles a living reality on 
every inch of American soil. 



1868.— Democratic Platform. 

New York, July 4. 

The Democratic party, in national con- 
vention a.ssembled, reposing its trust in 
the intelligence, patriotism, and discrimi- 
nating justice of the people, standing upon 
the constitution as the foundation and 
limitation of the powers of the government 
and the guarantee of the liberties of the 
citizen, and recognizing the questions of 
slavery and secession as having been set- 
tled, for all time to come, by the war or 
voluntary action of the southern states in 
constitutional conventions a.ssembled, and 
never to be revived or reagitated, do, with 
the return of peace, demand — 

1. Immediate restoration of all the states 
to their rights in the Union under the con- 
stitution, and of civil government to the 
American people. 

2. Amnesty for all past political offenses, 
and the regulation of the elective franchise 
in the state.s by their citizens. 

3. Payment ot all the public debt of the 
United States oa rapidly aa practicable — 



all money drawn from the people by taxiu 
tion, e.xei'pt .so much as is rc(piivitf fur tho 
necessities of the government, ei'on<imii-allv 
ailministired, being honestly applied to 
such j)ayment; and where the obligation!! 
of the g<tveriiment do not eX])reMsly Mtato 
upon their face, or the law under wliieh 
they were i.ssued d"te.s not providt; that 
they shall be jiaid in er)iii, they ought, in 
right and injustice, to be paid in the law- 
ful money of the United Stales. 

4. Equal taxation of every species of 
promrty according to its real value, in- 
cluding government bonds and other pub- 
lic securities. 

5. One currency for the government and 
the peo|)le, the laborer and the olhee- 
holder, the pensioner and the soldier, tho 
producer and the bondholder. 

G. Economy in the administration of tho 
government ; the reduction of the .standing 
army and navy ; the abolition of the Freed- 
men's Bureau and all political instrumen- 
talities designed to secure negro sujirema- 
cy ; simplification of the system and dis- 
continuance of inquisitorial modes of as- 
.sessing and collecting internal revenue; 
that the burden of taxation may be equal- 
ized and lessened, and the credit of the 
government and the currency made gof)d ; 
the repeal of all enactments for enrolling 
the state militia into national forces in 
time of peace ; and a tariff for revenue 
upon foreign imports, and such equal taxa- 
tion under the internal revenue laws ^aa 
will afford incidental protection to domes- 
tic manufactures, and as will, without im- 
})airing the revenue, impose the lea.st bur- 
den u{)on, and best promote and encourage, 
the great industrial interests of the coun- 
try. 

7. Reform of abases in the administra- 
tion ; the expulsion of corrupt men from 
oflice ; the abrogation of useless ofliccs ; 
the restoration of rightful authority to, 
and the independence of, the executive and 
judicial departments of tlu; government; 
the subordination of the military to tho 
civil power, to the end that the usurpa- 
tions of Congress and the despotism of tlio 
sword may cea^e. 

8. Equal rights and protection fir na- 
turalized and native-born citizens, at home 
and abroad; the a.«sertion of American na- 
tionality which shall command the re- 
spect of foreign powers, and furnish an 
example and encouragement to people 
struggling for national integrity, constitu- 
tional liberty and individual right.-^; and 
(he maintenance of the riglits of natural- 
ized citizens against the ab.solute doctrine 
of immutable allegiance and the claims of 
foreign powers U> puni.sh them for alleered 
crimes committed beyond their jurisilic- 
tion. 

In demanding these measures and re- 
forms, we arraign the Kadi':al party for its 



48 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



disregard of right and the unparalleled 
oppression and tyranny which have 
marked its career. After the most solemn 
and unanimous pledge of botli Houses of 
Congress to prosecute the war exclusively 
for the maintenance of the government 
and the j)rescrvation of the Union under 
tlie constitution, it has repeatedly violated 
the most sacred pledge under which alone 
was rallied that noble volunteer army 
which carried our flag to victory. Instead 
of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in 
its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten 
states, in time of profound peace, to mili- 
tary despotism and negro supremacy. It 
has nullified there the right of trial by 
jur}-^; it has abolished the habeas corpus, 
that most sacred writ of liberty ; it has 
overthrown the freedom of speech and 
press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures 
and arrests, and military trials and secret 
star-chamber inquisitions, for the consti- 
tutional tribunals ; it has disregarded, in 
time of peace, the right of the people to be 
free from searches and seizures ; it has 
entered the post and telegraph offices, and 
even the private rooms of individuals, and 
seized their private papers and letters, 
without any specific charge or notice of 
affidavit, as required by the organic law. 
It has converted the American capitol 
into a bastile ; it has established a system 
of spies and official espionage to which no 
constitutional monarchy of Europe would 
now dare to resort. It has abolished the 
right of appeal, on important constitutional 
questions, to the supreme judicial tribu- 
nals, and threatens to curtail or destroy 
its original jurisdiction, which is irrevoca- 
bly vested by the constitution ; while the 
learned Chief Justice has been subjected 
to the most atrocious calumnies, merely 
because he would not prostitute his high 
office to the support of the false and parti- 
san charges preferred against the Presi- 
dent. Its corruption and extravagance 
have exceeded anything known in history; 
and, by its frauds and monopolies, it has 
nearly doubled the burden of the debt 
created by the war. It has stripped the 
President of his constitutional power of 
■appointment, even of his own cabinet. 
Under its repeated assaults, the pillars 
of the government are rocking on their 
base ; and should it succeed in November 
next, and inaugurate its President, we will 
meet, as a subjected and comiucred people, 
amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered 
fragments of the constitution. 

And we do declare and resolve that 
ever since the people of the United States 
threw off all subjection to the British 
crown, the privilege and trust of sufirage 
have belonged to the several states, and 
have been granted, regulated, and con- 
trolled exclusively by the political power 
of each state respectively ; and that any 



attempt by Congress, on any pretext what- 
ever, to deprive any state of this right, oi 
interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant 
usurpation of power which can find no 
warrant in the constitution, and, if sanc- 
tioned by the people, will subvert our 
form of government, and can only end in a 
single, centralized, and consolidated, gov- 
ernment, in which the separate existence 
of the states will be entirely absorbed, and 
an unqualified despotism be established in 
place of a federal union of co-equal statc-s. 
And that we regard the construction acts 
(so called) of Congress as usurpations, and 
unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void. 

That our soldiers and sailors, Avho car- 
ried the flag of our country to victory 
against the most gallant and determined 
foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, 
and all the guarantees given in their favor 
must be faithfully carried into execution. 

That the public lands should be dis- 
tributed as widely as possible among the 
people, and should be disposed of either 
under the pre-emption of homestead lands 
or sold in reasonable quantities, and to 
none but actual occupants, at the minimum 
price established by the government. 
When grants of public lands may be al- 
lowed, necessary for the encouragement of 
important public improvements, the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of such lands, and not 
the lands themselves, should be so applied. 

That the President of the United States, 
Andrew Johnson, in exercising the power 
of his high office in resisting the aggres- 
sions of Congress upon the constitutional 
rights of the states and the people, is en- 
titled to the gratitude of the whole Ameri- 
can people ; and, on behalf of the Demo- 
cratic party, we tender him our thanks for 
his patriotic eiforts in that regard. 

Upon this platform, the Democratic 
party appeal to every patriot, including all 
the conservative element and all who de- 
sire to support the constitution and restore 
the Union, forgetting all past differences 
of opinion, to unite with us in the present 
great struggle for the liberties of the peo- 
ple ; and that to all such, to whatever 
party they may have heretofore belonged, 
we extend the right hand of fellowship, 
and hail all such, co-operating with us, as 
friends and brethren. 

Resolved, That this convention sympa- 
thizes cordially Avith the workingmen of 
the United States in their efibrts to protect 
the rights and interests of the laboring 
classes of the country. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the con- 
vention are tendered to Chief Justice 
Salmon P. Ch.ase, for the justice, dignity, 
and impartiality with which he presided 
over the court of impeaclunent on the 
trial of President Andrew Johnson. 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



49 



187!3.— IiiiT>or Rrform Platform. 

C'oluuihtu, t'lhruiiry 21. 

We hold that all pulitical power is in- 
herent in the people, and free "Government 
founded on their authority and estahlished 
for their beiu>lit ; that all citizens are eipial 
in politieal ri^dit--^, entitled to the lar^'est 
reli<j;iouH and political lil)erty compatible 
with the jrood order of society, :is also the 
use and enjoyment of the fruit,s of their 
labor and talents ; and no man or set of 
men is entitled to exclusive separable en- 
dowments and privileged or immunities 
from the government, but in consideration 
of public services ; and any hiws destruc- 
tive of these fundamental principles are 
without moral binding force, and should 
be repealed. And believing that all the 
evils resulting from unju.st legislation now 
art'ecting the industrial classes can be re- 
xuoved by the adoption of the principles 
contained in the following declaration : 
therefore, 

licsolved, That it is the dutj' of the gov- 
ernment to establish a just standard of 
distribution of capital and labor, by provid- 
ing a purely national circulating medium, 
baied on the faith and resources of the na- 
tion, issued directly to the people without 
the intervention of any system of banking 
corporations, which money shall be legal 
tender in the payment of all debts, public 
and private, and interchangeable, at the 
option of the holder, for government 
bonds bearing a rate of interest not to ex- 
ceed 3.65 per cent., subject to future legis- 
lation by Congress. 

2. That the national debt should be paid 
in good fiiith, according to the original 
contract, at the earliest option of the gov- 
ernment, without mortgaging the property 
of the people or the future exigencies of 
Jabor to enrich a few capitalists at home 
bnd abroad. 

3. That justice demands that the burdens 
of government should be so adjusted as to 
bear equally on all classes, and that the 
exemption from taxation of government 
bonds bearing extravagant rates of inter- 
est, is a violation of all just principles of 
revenue laws. 

4. That the public lands of the United 
States belong to the people, and should 
not be sold to individuals nor granted to 
corporations, but should be held as a sa- 
cred trust for the benefit of the people, and 
should be granted to landless settlers only, 
in amounts not exceeding one hundred and 
sixty acres of land. 

5. That Congress .should modify the 
tariff so as to admit free such articles of 
common use a.s we can neither produce nor 
grow, and lay duties for revenue mainly 
u])nn articles of luxury and upon such ar- 
ticles of manufacture as will, we having 
the raw materials, assist in further develop- 
ing the resources of the country. 



0. Tlmt the presence In our country of 
Chinese laborers, imported i>y capitalist^i 
in large luimlurs for servile use Ih hii evi! 
entailing want and iUs attendant train of 
misery and crime on all chiMsi's of the 
.Vmerican i>eople, and should be prohib- 
ited by legislation. 

7. That we a.sk for the enactment of a 
law by which all mechanics and dav-la- 
borcrs employed l)y or on bclialf ol' tlie 
government, whether directly or indirectly, 
through piTsons, firms, or corjiorations, 
contracting with the state, shall conform 
to the reduced standard of eight hours a 
day, recently adojjted by (.'ongress for na- 
tional employes; and also for an amend- 
ment to the acts of incorporation for cities 
and towns, by which all laborers and me- 
chanics employed at their expense shall 
conform to the same number of hours. 

8. That the enlightened sjiirit of the age 
demands the abolition of the system of 
contract labor in our prisoiLs and other re- 
formatory institutions. 

9. That the jirotection of life, liberty, 
and property are the three cardinal prin- 
ciples of government, and the first two 
are more sacred than the latter; therefore, 
money needed for prosecuting wars should. 
a« it is required, be assessed and collectea 
from the wealthy of the country, and not 
entailed as a burden on posterity. 

10. That it is the duty of the govern- 
ment to exercise its power over railroads 
and telegraph corporations, that th«y shall 
not in any case be privileged to exact such 
rates of freight, transportation, or charges, 
by whatever name, as may bear unduly or 
unequally upon the producer or consumer. 

11. That there should be such a reform 
in the civil service of the national govern- 
ment as will remove it beyond all partisan 
influence, and place it in the charge and 
under the direction of intelligent and com- 
petent business men. 

12. That as both history and experience 
teach us that power ever seeks to perpetu- 
ate itself by every and all means, an(l that 
its prolonged possession in the hands of 
one person is always dangerous to the in- 
terests of a free people, and believing that 
the spirit of our organic laws and the sta- 
bility and .safety of our free institutions are 
best obeyed on the one hand, and .secured 
on the other, by a regular constitutional 
change in the chief of the country at each 
election ; therefore, we are in favor of 
limiting the occupancy of the presidential 
chair to one term. 

13. That we are in favor of granting 
general amne-sty and restoring the Union 
at once on the basis of equality of rights 
and privileges to all, the impartial adminis- 
tration of justice being the only true bond 
of union to bind the states together and re- 
store the government of the people. 

14. That we demand the subjection of 



50 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



the military to the civil authorities, and 
the confinement of its operations to nation- 
al purposes alone. 

15. That we deem it expedient for Con- 
gress to supervise the patent laws so as to 
give labor more fully the benefit of its own 
ideas and inventions. 

IG. That fitness, and not political or per- 
sonal considerations, should be the only 
recommendation to public office, either ap- 
pointive or elective ; and any and all laws 
looking to the establishment of this prin- 
ciple ai"e heartily approved. 



1873.- Prohibition Platform. 

Columbus, Ohio, February 22. 

The preamble recites that protection and 
allegiance are reciprocal duties ; and every 
citizen who yields obediently to the full 
commands of government should be pro- 
tected in all enjoyment of personal security, 
personal liberty, and private property. 
That the traflic in intoxicating drinks 
greatly impairs the personal security and 
personal liberty of a great mass of citizens, 
and renders private property insecure. 
That all political parties are hopelessly un- 
willing to adopt an adequate policy on this 
question : Therefore, as a national conven- 
tion, we adopt the following declaration of 
principles: 

That while we acknowledge the pure 
patriotism and profound statesmanship of 
those patriots who laid the foundation of 
this government, securing at once the 
rights of the states severally and their in- 
separable union by the federal constitution, 
we Avould not merely garnish the sepulchres 
of our republican fathers, but we do hereby 
renew our pledges of solemn fealty to the 
imperishable principles of civil and reli- 
gious liberty embodied in the Declaration 
of Independence and our federal constitu- 
tion. 

That the traffic in intoxicating beverages 
is a dishonor to Christian civilization, a 
political wrong of unequalled enormity, 
subversive of ordinary objects of govern- 
ment, not capable of being regulated or re- 
strained by any system of license whatever, 
and imperatively demands, for its suppres- 
sion, effective legal prohibition, both by 
state and national legislation. 

That there can be no greater peril to a 
nation than existing party competition for 
the liquor vote. That any party not op- 
posed to the traffic, experience shows will 
engage in this competition — will court the 
favor of criminal classes — will barter away 
the public morals, the purity of the ballot, 
and (;very object of good government, for 
party success. 

That, Jis prohibitionists, we will individ- 
ually use all cflbrta to persuade men from 



the use of intoxicating liquors ; and we in- 
vite all persons to assist in this movement. 

That competence, honesty, and sobriety 
are indispensable qualifications for holding 
oflice. 

That removals from public office for 
mere political diflerences of opinion are 
wrong. 

That fixed and moderate salaries of pub- 
lic officers should take the places of fees and 
perquisites ; and that all means should be 
taken to prevent corrugation and encourage 
economy. 

That the President and Vice-President 
should be elected directly by the people. 

That we ore in favor of a sound national 
currency, adequate to the demands of bus- 
iness, and convertible into gold and silver 
at the will of the holder, and the adoption 
of every measure compatible with justice 
and public safety to appreciate our present 
currency to the gold standard. 

That the rates of ocean and inland post* 
age, and railroad telegraph lines and 
water transportation, should be made as 
low as possible by law. 

That we are opposed to all discrimination 
in favor of capital against labor, as well as 
all monopoly and class legislation. 

That the removal of the burdens imposed 
in the traffic in intoxicating drinks will 
emancipate labor, and will practically pro- 
mote labor reform. 

That suffrage should be granted to all 
persons, without regard to sex. 

That the fostering and extension of com- 
mon schools is a primary duty of the gov- 
ernment. 

That a liberal policy should be pursued 
to promote foreign immigration. 



1873.— Liberal Republican Platform. 

Cincinnali, May 1. 

We, the Liberal Republicans of the 
United States, in national convention as- 
sembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the follow- 
ing principles as essential to just govern- 
ment. 

1. We recognize the equality of all men 
before the law, and hold that it is the duty 
of government, in its dealings with the 
people, to mete out equal and exact justice 
to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or 
persuasion, religious or political. 

2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the 
union of these states, emancipation, and 
enfranchisement, and to oppose any re- 
opening of the questions settled by the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- 
ments of the constitution. 

3. We demand the immediate and abso- 
lute removal of all disabilities imposed on 
accountof theRebellion, which was finally 
subdued seven years ago, believing that 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



51 



univeraal amnesty will result in complete 
pacilication in all sections of the coimfry. 

4. Local self-,:r'>veriinioiit, witli iinimrtial 
sudrage, will guard the rights of all citi- 
zens more securely than any central i/.ctl 
power. The public welfare reipiires tin- 
supremacy of the civil over the military 
authority, and the freedom of person under 
the protection of the fnibais corpus. We 
demand for the individual the largest lih- 
erty consistent with i)ul)lic onler, for the 
state self-government, and lor the nation a 
return to the methods of peace and the 
constitutional limitations ot power. 

5. The civil service of the government 
has become a mere instrument of partisan 
tyranny and ])ersonal ambition, and an ob- 
ject of selfish greed. It is a scandal and 
reproach upon free institutions, and breeds 
a demoralization dangerous to the per- 
petuity of republican government. We, 
therefore, regard a thorough reform of tlie 
civil service as one of the most pressing 
necessities of the hour ; that honesty, ca- 
pacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid 
claims to public employment; that the of- 
fices of the government cease to be a mat- 
ter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, 
and that public station shall become again 
a post of honor. To this end, it is impera- 
tively required that no President shall be 
SL candidate for re-election. 

6. We demand a system of federal taxa- 
tion which shall not unnecessarily interfere 
with the industry of the people, and which 
shall provide the means necessarj' to pay 
the expenses of the government, economi- 
cally administered, the pensions, the inter- 
est on the public debt, and a moderate re- 
duction annually of the principal thereof; 
and recognizing that there are in our midst 
honest but irreconcilable differences of 
opinion with regard to the respective sys- 
Items of protection and free trade, we remit 
fthe discussion of the subject to the people 

in their congressional districts and the de- 
cision of Congress thereon, wholly free 
from Executive interference or dictation. 

7. The public credit must be sacredly 
maintained, and we denounce repudiation 
in every form and guise. 

8. A speedy return to specie payment is 
demanded alike by the highest considera- 
tions of commercial morality and honest 
government. 

9. We remember with gratitude the hero- 
ism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic ; and no act of ours shall 
ever detract from their justly earned fame 
or the full rewards of their patriotism. 

10. We are opposed to all further grants 
of lands to railroads or other corporations. 
The public domain should be held sacred 
to actual settlers. 

11. We hold that it is the duty of the 
government, in its intercourse with foreign 
nations, to cultivate the friendships of 



peace, by treating with all on fair and equal 
terms, reganling it alike dishonorublo 
either to ilrmaiid what i.i not rigiit or sub- 
mit to what is wrong. 

12. For the promotion and success of 
the.se vital jirinciplcs and tlic supi)ort of 
the candidates nominated by this conven- 
tion, we invite and cordially welcome tho 
co-operation of a'l patriotic citizens, with- 
out regard to previous political alliliatioua. 



187!3.— Democratic Platfonn, 

BiUlimore, July 0. 

We, the Democratic electors of the 
United States, in convention assembled, 
do present the following princi{)les, already- 
adopted at Cincinnati, as cs.sential to jost 
government : 

[Here followed the "Liberal Republican 
Platform ;" which see above.] 



1873.— Republican Platform, 

PhiladelphUt, June 5. 

The Republican party of the United 
States, assembled in national convention 
in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 
6th days of June, 1872, again declares its 
foith, appeals to its history, and announces 
its position upon the questions before tho 
country"- ; 

1. During eleven years of supremacy it 
has accepted, with grand courage, the sol- 
emn duties of the time. It suppressed a 
gigantic rebellion, emancipated four mil- 
lions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship 
of all, and established universal sutlrage. 
Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it 
criminally punished no man for political 
offenses, and warmly welcomed all who 
proved their loyalty" by obeying the laws 
and dealing justly with their neighbors. 
It has steadily decreased, with firm hand, 
the resultant disorders of a great war, and 
initiated a wise and humane policv toward 
the Indians. The Pacific railroad and 
similar vast enterprises have been gener- 
ously aided and successfully conducted, the 
public lands freely given to actual settlers, 
immigration protected and encouraged, 
and a full acknowledgment of the natural- 
ized citizen's rights .secured from European 
powers. A uniform national currency has 
been provided, ref)udiation frowned down, 
the national credit sustained under the 
most extraordinary burdens, and new 
bonds negotiated at lower rates. The rev- 
enues have been carefully collected and 
honestly applied. Despite annual large 
reductions of the rates of taxation, the 
public debt has been reduced during Gen- 
eral Grant's jiresidcncy at the rate of a 
hundred millions a year, great tiuanci;U 



62 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



crises have been avoided, and peace and 
plenty prevail throughout the land. Me- 
nacing lorcign difficulties have been peace- 
fully and honorably compromised, and the 
honor and power of the nation kept in 
high respect throughout the world. This 
glorious record of the past is the party's 
best pledge for the future. We believe the 
people will not intrust the government to 
any party or combination of men composed 
chietly of those who have resisted every 
step of this beneficent progress. 

2. The recent amendments to the national 
constitution should be cordially sustained 
because they are right, not merely tolerated 
because they are law, and should be carried 
out according to their spirit by appropriate 
legislation, the enforcement of which can 
safely be intrusted only to the party that 
secured those amendments. 

3. Complete liberty and exact equality 
in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and 
public rights should be established and 
effectually maintained throughout the 
Union by efficient and appropriate state 
and federal legislation. Neither the law 
nor its administration should admit any 
discrimination in respect to citizens by 
reason of race, creed, color, or previous 
condition of servitude. 

4. The national government should seek 
to maintain honorable peace with all na- 
tions, protecting its citizens everyAvhere, 
and sympathizing with all peoples who 
strive for greater liberty. 

5. Any system of civil service under 
which the subordinate positions of the 
government are considered rewards for 
mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing ; 
and we, therefore, favor a reform of the 
system, by laws which shall abolish the 
evils of patronage, and make honesty, 
efficiency, and fidelity the essential quali- 
fications for public positions, without prac- 
tically creating a life tenure of office. 

6. We are opposed to further grants of 
the public lands to corporations and mo- 
nopolies, and demand that the national 
domain be set apart for free homes for the 
people. 

7. The annual revenue, after paying cur- 
rent expenditures, pensions, and the inter- 
est on the public debt, should furnish a 
moderate balance for the reduction of the 
principal ; and that revenue, except so 
much as may be derived from a tax upon 
tobacco and liquors, should be raised by 
duties upon importations, the details of 
which should be so adjusted as to aid in 
securing remunerative wages to labor, and 
promote the industries, prosperity, and 
growth of the whole country. 

8. We hold in undying honor the sol- 
diers and sailors whose valor saved the 
Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt 
of the nation, and the widows and orphans 
of thoae who died for their country are en- 



titled to the care of a generous and grate- 
lul people. We favor such additional legis- 
lation as will extend the bounty of the 
government to all our soldiers and sailors 
who were honorably discharged, and who 
in the line of duty became disabled, with- 
out regard to the length of service or the 
cause of such discharge. 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and 
other European powers concerning alle- 
giance — "once a subject always a subject" — 
having at last, through the efforts of the 
Republican party, been abandoned, and 
the American idea of the individual's right 
to transfer allegiance having been accepted 
by European nations, it is the duty of our 
government to guard with jealous care the 
rights of adopted citizens against the as- 
sumption of unauthorized claims by their 
former governments, and we urge contin- 
ued careful encouragement and protection 
of voluntary immigration. 

10. The franking privilege ought to be 
abolished, and a way prepared for a speedy 
reduction in the rates of postage. 

11. Among the questions which press for 
attention is that which concerns the rela- 
tions of capital and labor ; and the Re- 
publican party recognizes the duty of so 
shaping legislation as to secure full pro- 
tection and the amplest field for capital, 
and for labor, the creator of capital, the 
largest opportunities and a just share of 
the mutual profits of these two great ser- 
vants of civilization. 

12. We hold that Congress and the 
President have only fulfilled an imperative 
duty in their measures for the suppression 
of violence and treasonable organizations 
in certain lately rebellious regions, and for 
the protection of the ballot-box ; and, 
therefore, they are entitled to the thanks 
of the nation. 

13. We denounce repudiation of the 
public debt, in any form or disguise, as a 
national crime. We witness with pride 
the reduction of the principal of the debt, 
and of the rates of interest upon the bal- 
ance, and confidently expect that our ex- 
cellent national currency will be perfected 
by a speedy resumption of specie payment. 

14. The Republican party is mindful of 
its obligations to the loyal women of 
America for their noble devotion to the 
cause of freedom. Their admission to 
wider fields of usefulness is viewed with 
satisfaction ; and the honest demand of 
any class of citizens for additional rights 
should be treated with respectful considera- 
tion. 

15. We heartily approve the action of 
Congress in extending amnesty to those 
lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth 
of peace and fraternal feeling throughout 
the land. 

16. The Republican party proposes to 
respect the rights reserved by the people to 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



53 



themselves as carefully as the powers dele- 

f;atocl by them to the states ami to the 
ederal government. It disapproves of the 
resort to unconstitutional laws for the pur- 
pose of removinf^ evils, by interference 
with rifihts not surrendered by tlie peojjle 
to either tlie state or national government. 

17. it is the duty of the general govern- 
ment to adopt such measures iia may tend 
to encourage and restore American com- 
merce and sliip-building. 

18. We believe that tbe modest patriot- 
ism, the earnest purpose, the sound judg- 
ment, the practical wisiloin, the incorrupti- 
ble integrity, and the illustrious .services 
of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him 
to the heart of the American people; and 
with him at our head, we start to-day upon 
a new march to victory. 

19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the 
Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land 
from the early days of the great struggle 
for liberty as an indefatigable laborer in 
all campaigns, an incorruptible legislator 
and representative man of American insti- 
tutions, is worthy to associate with our 
great leader and share the honors which 
we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon 
them 



187!3.— Democratic (Stralght-oiit) Platform, 

Louisville, Ky., Sepletnher 3. 

Whereas, A frequent recurrence to first 
principles and eternal vigilance against 
abuses are the wisest provisions for liberty, 
which is the source of progress, and fidelity 
to our constitutional system is the only 
protection for either : therefore. 

Resolved, That the original basis of our 
whole political structure is consent in every 
part thereof. The people of each state 
voluntarily created their state, and the 
states voluntarily formed the Union ; and 
each state provided by its written constitu- 
tion f )r everything a state could do for the 
protection of life, liberty, and property 
within it; and each state, jointly with the 
others, provided a federal union for foreign 
and inter-state relations. 

Resolved, That all governmental powers, 
whether state or federal, are trust powers 
coming from the people of each state, and 
that they are limited to the written letter 
of the constitution and the laws passed in 
pursuance of it; which powers must be 
exercised in the utmost good faith, the 
constitution itself stating in what manner 
thev may be altered and amended. 

Resolved, That the interests of labor and 
capital should not be permitted to conflict, 
but should be harmonized by judicious 
legislation. While such a conflict con- 
tinues, labrr, which is the parent of wealth, 
is entitled to paramount consideratioo. 



Resolvedj That we prorhiim to tlic world 
that f)rinci|iii' is to be prefcrn-d to jiower; 
that the Di-mocratic j)arly is held together 
by the coiiesion of time-honored jirinci- 
ples, which tluy will never surrender in 
exchange for all the odicos whirh Presi- 
dents can confer. The pangs of tiiu mi- 
norities arc doubtless excruciating; i»ut 
we welcome an eternal minority, under the 
banner insrribed with our jirincipii-s, 
rather than an almighty ami ever];Lstiug, 
majority, i)ur(li:Lsed by their abandonment. 

Jifsolrrd, That, having been betraye<l at 
Baltimore into a false creecl ami a falso 
leadership by the convention, we repudiate 
l)oth, and appeal to the people to approve 
our platform, and to rally to the \xi\U and 
support tlie true i)latform and the candi- 
dates who embody it. 



1875.— The American National Platform^ 

Adopted ill ^lass Meeting, PUUOurg, June 'J. 

We hold : 

1. That ours is a Christian and not a 
heathen nation, and that the CJod of the 
Christian Scriptures is the author of civil 
government. 

2. That God requires and man needs a 
Sabbath. 

3. That the prohibition of the importa- 
tion, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating 
drinks as a beverage, is the true policy on 
the temperance question. 

4. Tlie charters of all secret lodges 
granteil by our federal and state legisla- 
tures sliould be withdrawn, and their 
oaths proliibited by law. 

5. That the civil equality secured to all 
American citizens by articles 1.3th, 14th, 
and loth of our amended constitution 
should 1)6 preserved inviolate. 

6. That arbitration of diflerences with 
nations is the most direct and sure method 
of securing and perpetuating a permanent 
peace. 

7. That to cultivate the intellect without 
improving the morals of men is to make 
mere adepts and experts: therefore, the 
Bible should be associated with books of 
science and literature in all our educa- 
tional institutions. 

8. That land and other monopolies 
should be discountenanced. 

9. That the government should furnish 
the jicople witli an amj)le and sound cur- 
rency and a return to specie payment, as 
soon as practicable. 

10. That maintenance of the public 
credit, protection to all loyal citizens, and 
justice to Indians are e>y=ential to the honor 
and safety of our nation. 

11. And, finally, we demand for the 
American people the abolition of electoral 
colleges, and a direct vote for President 

, and Vice-President of the Unit«ii States, 



54 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



[Their cnndidates were James B. Walker, 
Whcaton, Illinois, for President: and Don- 
ald Kirkputrick, Syracuse, New York, for 
Vice-Presideut.J 



1876.— Prolilbltlon Reform Platform, 

CUeeliuid, Ohio, May 17. 

The Prohibition Reform party of the 
United States, organized in the name of 
the people, to revive, enforce, and perpet- 
uate in tlie government the doctrines of 
the Declaration of Independence, submit, in 
this centennial year of the republic, for the 
Buffrages of all good citizens, the following 
platform of national reforms and measures : 

First. The legal prohibition in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, the territories, and in 
every other place subject to the laws of 
Congress, of the importation, exportation, 
manufacture, and traffic of all alcoholic 
beverages, as high crimes against society ; 
an amendment of the national constitu- 
tion, to render these prohibitory measures 
universal and permanent ; and the adoj)- 
tion of treaty stipulations with foreign 
powers, to prevent the importation and 
exportation of all alcoholic beverages. 

Second. The abolition of class legisla- 
tion, and of special privileges in the gov- 
ernment, and the adoption of equal suffrage 
and eligibility to office, without distinction 
of race, religious creed, property, or sex. 

Third. The appropriation of the public 
lands, in limited quantities, to actual set- 
tlers only ; the reduction of the rates of 
inland and ocean postage ; of telegraphic 
communication ; of railroad and water 
transportation and travel, to the lowest 
practical point, by force of laws, wisely 
and justly framed, with reference, not only 
to the interest of capital employed, but to 
the higher claims of the general good. 
, Fourth. The suppression, by laws, of 
'lotteries and gambling in gold, stocks, pro- 
duce, and every form of money and pro- 
perty, and the penal inhibition of the use 
of the public mails for advertising schemes 
of gambling and lotteries. 

Fifth. The abolition of those foul enor- 
mities, polygamy and the social evil ; and 
the protection of purity, peace, and hap- 

fiiness of homes, by ample and efficient 
egislation. 

^Sixth. The national observance of the 
Christian Sabbath, established by laws 
prohibiting ordinary labor and business 
in all departments of public service and 
private employment (works of necessity, 
charity, and religion excepted) on that day. 
Seventh. The establishment, by manda- 
tory provisions in national and state con- 
stitutions, and by all necessary legislation, 
of a system of free public schools for the 
universal and forced education of all the 
youth of the land. 



Eighth. The free use of the Bible, not 
as a ground of religious creeds, but as a 
text-book of the purest morality, the best 
liberty, and the noblest literature in our 
public schools, that our children may grow 
up in its light, and that its spirit and prin- 
ciples may pervade our nation. 

Ninth, The separation of the govern- 
ment in all its departments and institu- 
tions, including the public schools and all 
funds for their maintenance, from the con- 
trol of every religious sect or other asso- 
ciation, and the protection alike of all 
sects by equal laws, with entire freedom of 
religious faith and worship. 

Tenth. The introduction into all treaties 
hereafter negotiated with foreign govern- 
ments of a provision for the amicable set- 
tlement of international difficulties by 
arbitration. 

Eleventh. The abolition of all barbar- 
ous modes and instruments of punishment; 
the recognition of the laws of God and 
the claims of humanity in the discipline 
of jails and prisons, and of that higher 
and wiser civilization worthy of our age 
and nation, which regards the reform of 
criminals as a means for the prevention of 
crime. 

Twelfth. The abolition of executive and 
legislative patronage, and the election of 
President, Vice-President, United States 
Senators, and of all civil officers, so far as 
practicable, by the direct vote of the peo- 
ple. 

Thirteenth. The practice of a friendly 
and liberal policy to immigrants from all 
nations, the guaranty to them of ample 
protection, and of equal rights and privi- 
leges. 

Fourteenth. The separation of the money 
of government from all banking institu- 
tions. The national government, only, 
should exercise the high prerogative of 
issuing paper money, and that should be 
subject to i^rompt redemption on demand, 
in "gold and silver, the only equal stand- 
ards of value recognized by the civilized 
world. 

Fifteenth. The reduction of the salaries 
of public officers in a just ratio with the 
decline of wages and market prices ; the 
abolition of sinecures, unnecessary offices, 
and official fees and perquisites ; the prac- 
tice of strict economy in government ex- 
penses ; and a free and thorough investi- 
gation into any and all alleged abuses of 
public trusts. 



1876.— Independent (GreenbacU) Platform* 

Indianapolis, hid.. May 17. 

The Independent party is called into 
existence by the necessities of the people, 
whose industries are prostrated, whoss 
labor is deprived of its just reward by a 



POLITICAL PL A T F () R M S . 



55 



ruinous policy which the Kcpublican uiul 
Democnitic imrtics refuse to i liaii^'e ; ami, 
in view of the t'aihire of tiiesi" |)arties to 
funiisli relief to the ilepressetl iiuhistries 
of tiie eoiintry, tlierehy disappoiiitiiif^ the 
just hopes and e.\j)etlations of tlie siill'er- 
ing people, we delare our prineiides, and 
invite all iiideiieiident and patriotic ineii 
to join our ranks in this niovenuMit for ii- 
nancial reform and industrial enianeipation. 

Firal. We demand the immediate and 
unconditional repeal of the specie resump- 
tion act of January 14, 187;'), and the res- 
cue of our industries from ruin and disas- 
ter resultinjr from its enforcement; and \ye 
call upon all patriotic men to orj,^anize in 
every contJiressional district of the country, 
with a view of elcetiniz; representatives to 
Congress who will carry out the wishes of 
the people in this regard and stop the 
present suicidal and destructive policy of 
contraction. 

Second. We believe that a United States 
note, issued directly hy the government, 
and eonvertihle, on ^Jemand, into United 
States obligations, bearing a rate of inter- 
est not exceeding one cent a day on each 
one hundred dollars, and exchangeable for 
United States notes at par, will afford the 
best circulating medium ever devised. 
Such United States notes should be full 
legal tenders tor all purposes, except for 
the payment of such ooligations as are, by 
existing contracts, especially made paya- 
ble in coin ; and we hold that it is the 
duty of the government to provide such a 
circulating medium, and insist, in the 
language of Thomas Jefferson, th;it " bank 

t taper must be suppressed, and the circu- 
ation restored to the nation, to whom it 
belongs." 

Third. It is the paramount duty of the 
government, in all its legislation, to keep 
in view the full development of all legiti- 
mate business, agricultural, mining, manu- 
facturing, and commercial. 

Fourlk. We most earnestly protest 
against any further issue of gold bonds for 
sale in foreign markets, by which we 
would be made, for a long period, " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water " to Ibr- 
eigners, especially as the American ])eople 
would gladly and ])romptly take at par all 
bonds the government may need to sell, 
provided they are made payable at the op- 
tion of the holder, and bearing interest at 
3.65 per cent, per annum or even a lower 
rate. 

Fifth. We further protest against the 
sale "of government bonds for the purpose 
of purchasing silver to be used as a sub- 
stitute for our more convenient and less 
fluctuating fractional currency, which, al- 
though well calculated to enrich owners of 
silver mines, yet in operation it will still 
further oppress, in taxation, an already 
overburdened people. 
24 



lN7n.-Ui'|itibIlrRn Platform, 

f.'iMcinfuj/i, i_>hiuf June 14, 

When, in the economy of Providence, 
this land was to be purged of liuman 
slavery, and wlieii the strength of the gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people, and 
for the people, was to be demonstrated, iho 
Republican party came into power. lU 
deeds have p: ssed into history, and we 
look back to them with pride. Incited by 
their memories to high aims for the good 
of our country a'ld mankind, ami locking 
to the future with unfaltering courage, 
hope, and purpcse, we, the representatives 
of the party, in national convention a.s- 
semblcd, make the following declaration 
of princii)les : 

\. The United States of America is a 
nation, not a league. By the combined 
workings of the national and state govern- 
ments, under their respective constitu- 
tions, the rights of every citizen are se- 
cureil, at home and abroad, and the com- 
mon welfare promoted. 

2. The Republican party has pre-^erved 
these governments to the hundredth anni- 
versary of the nation's birth, and they are 
now embodiments of the great truths spo- 
ken at its cradle — '' That all men are cre- 
ated er^ual ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness; that for the at- 
tainment of these ends governments have 
been instituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned." Until these truths are cheerfully 
obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced, 
the "work of the Republican party is un- 
finished. 

3. The permanent pacification of the 
southern section of the Union, and the 
complete protection of all its citizens in the 
free enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty 
to which the Republican party stands sa- 
credly pledged. The power to provide for 
the enforcement of the princijjles embodied 
in the recent constitutional amendments ia 
vested, bv those amendments, in the Con- 
gress of the United States; and we declare 
it to be the solemn obligation of the legis- 
lative and executive departments of the 
government to put into immediate and 
vigorous exercise all their constitutional 
l)owers for removing any just causes of 
discontent on the part of any class, and 
for securing to every American citizen 
complete liberty and exact equality in the 
exercise of all "civil, political, and public 
rights. To this end we imiHTatively de- 
mand a Congress and a Chief Executive 
whose courage and fidelity to these duties 
shall not falter until these results are 
phued bevond dispute or recall. 

4. In the first act of Congress signed by 
President Grant, the national government 
assumed to remove anv doubt of iis pur- 



56 



AMERICAN rOLITICS. 



pose to discharge all just obligations to 
the public creditors, and "solemnly pledged 
its lailh to make provision at the earliest 
practicable period for tlie redemption of 
the United States notes in coin." Com- 
iuerclal prosperity, }>ublie morals, and na- 
tional credit demand that this promise be 
fuifilled by a continuous and steady pro- 
gress to specie payment. 

5. Under the constitution, the President 
and heads of departments are to make 
nominations for office, the Senate is to ad- 
vise and consent to appointments, and the 
House of Representatives is to accuse and 
prosecute faithless officers. The best in- 
terest of the public service demand that 
these distinctions be respected; that Sena- 
tors and Representatives who may be 
judges and accusers should not dictate ap- 
pointments to office. The invariable rule 
in appointments should have reference to 
the hone;;ty, fidelity, and capacity of the 
appointees, givii5g to the party in power 
those ])laces where harmony and vigor of 
administration require its policy to be rep- 
resented, but permitting all others to be 
tilled by persons selected with sole refer- 
ence to the efficiency of the public service, 
and the right of all citizens to share in the 
honor of rendering faithful service to the 
country. 

6. We rejoice in the quickened con- 
science of tiie people concerning political 
aflairs, and will hold all public officers to 
d rigid responsibility, and engage that the 
prosecution and punishment of all who be- 
tray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, 
and unsparing. 

7. The public school system of the several 
states is the bulwark of the American Re- 
public ; and, with a view to its security 
and permanence, we recommend an amend- 
ment to the constitution of the United 
States, forl)idding the application of any 
public funds or property for the benefit of 
any scliools or institutions under sectarian 
control. 

8. The revenue necessary for current 
exjiciiditures, and the obligations of the 
public debt, must be largely derived from 
duties upon importations, which, so far as 
possible, should be adjusted to promote 
the interests of Anu'rican labor and ad- 
vance the prosperity of tlie whole country. 

9. We reaffirm our opjiosition to further 
grants of ijie public lands to corporations 
and monojiolies, and demand that the na- 
tional domain be devoted to free homes 
for the peojile. 

10. It is the imperative duty of the gov- 
ernment so to modify existing treaties with 
European governments, that the same pro- 
tection shall be afforded to the adopted 
American citizen that is given to the na- 
tive-born; and that all necessary laws 
should be passed to protect emigrants in 



the absence of power in the states for that 
purpose. 

11. It is the immediate duty of Con- 
gress to fully investigate the effect of the 
immigration and importation of Mongo- 
lians upon the moral and material in- 
terests of the country. 

12. The Republican party recognizes, 
with approval, the substantial advances 
recently made towards the establishment 
of equal rights for women by the many 
important amendments effected by Repub- 
lican legislatures in the laws which con- 
cern the personal and property relations 
of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the 
appointment and election of women to the 
superintendence of education, charities, 
and other public trusts. The honest de- 
mands of this class of citizens for addi- 
tional rights, privileges, and immunities, 
should be treated with resjjectful consider- 
ation. 

13. The constitution confers upon Con- 
gress sovereign power over the territories 
of the United States for their government; 
and in the exercise of this power it is the 
right and duty of Congress to j.mhibit and 
extirjiate, in the territories, that relic of 
barbarism — polygamy; and we demand 
such legislation as shall secure this end 
and the supremacy of American institu- 
tions in all the territories. 

14. The pledges which the nation has 
given to her soldiers and sailors must be 
fulfilled, and a grateful people will always 
hold those who imperiled their lives for 
the country's preservation in the kindest 
remembrance. 

15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional 
feeling and tendencies. We, therefore, 
note with deep solicitude that the Demo- 
cratic party counts, as its chief hope of 
success, upon the electoral vote of a united 
south, secured through the efforts of those 
who were recently arrayed against the na- 
tion ; and we invoke the earnest attention 
of the country to the grave truth that a 
success thus achieved would reopen sec- 
tional strife, and imperil national honor 
and human rights. 

16. We charge the Democratic party 
with being the same in chnracterand spirit 
as when it sympathized with treason ; with 
making its control of the Hou^se of Repre- 
sentatives the triumph and opportunity of 
the nation'3 recent foes ; with reasserting 
and ajiplauding, in the national capital, 
the sentiments of unrepentant rebellion ; 
with sending Union soldiers to the rear, 
and promoting Confederate soldiers to the 
front ; with deliberately proposing to repu- 
diate the plighted faith of the government; 
with being equally false and imbecile upon 
the overshadowing financial questions; 
with thwarting the ends of justice by its 
partisan mismanagement and obstruction 
of investigation; with proving itself 



rOLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



57 



throiip:li the period of its ascendeney in 
the hiwor house of Congress, utterly in- 
competent to udniiniHter tiie p>vernnient ; 
and we \v irn tiie eountry ap^ainst trustinir 
a party thus alilie unworthy, reereant, and 
in -apable. 

17. The national administration merits 
eo nmeiuiat On for its iionorable worlc in 
the manatrenient of domestie and foreign 
affairs, and ['resident (Jrant deserves the 
continued hearty gratitude of the Ameri- 
can people lor iiis patriotism and his emi- 
nent scrviees in war and in peace. 

18. We present, as our eandichites for 
President and Viee-Presitk'nt of the United 
States, two distinsruislied statesmen, ol 
eminent ability and character, and con- 
spicuously fitted for those hitrh oHices, and 
we confiilently appeal to the American 
j)eople to intrust the administration of 
their public affairs to Rutherford li. Hayes 
and William A. Wheeler. 



1870.— Democratic Platform. 

.S(. Louis, Mo., June 27. 

We, the delegates of the Democratic 
party of the I'nited States, in national con- 
vention assembled, do hereby declare the 
administration of the Federal government 
to be in uri;ent need of immediate reform ; 
do hereby enjoin upon the nominees ol 
this convention, and of the Democratic 
party in each state, a zealous effort and co- 
operation to this end ; and do hereby ap- 
peal to our fellow-citizens of every former 
political connection to undertake, with us, 
this first and most pressing patriotic duty. 

For the Democracy of the whole coun- 
try, we do here reaffirm our faith in the per- 
manence of the Federal Union, our devo- 
tion t') the constitution of the United States, 
with its amendments universally accepted 
as a final settlement of the controversies 
that engendered civil war, and do here re- 
cord our steadfast confidence in the per- 
petuity of republican self-government. 

In absolute acquiescence in the will of 
the majority — the vital principle of repub- 
lics; in the supremacy of the civil over the 
military authority ; in the total separation 
of chureh and state, for the sake alike oi 
civil and religious freedom ; in the equal- 
ity of all citizens before just laws of their 
own enactment ; in the liberty of indi- 
vidual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary 
laws; in the faithful education of tlie ris- 
ing generation, that they may preserve, 
enjoy, and transmit these best conditions 
of human happiness and hope — we behold 
the noblest products of a hundred years of 
changefid history; but while upho'ding 
the bond of our I'nion and great charter 
of these our rights, it behooves a free peo- 
ple to practice also that eternal vigilance 
which is the price of liberty. 



Reform is necessary to rebuild and e«- 
tablisb in the hcartu of the wiiole peop!o 
the Union, ek'v»n yearw ago hapj»ily nw- 
cue(l fnnu the danger of a seeession of 
states, but now to i)t* saved from a corrupt 
centralism which, after inflicting up<in tea 
states the rapacitv of carpet-bag tvranny. 
has lioney-condted the offices of the I'Vderal 
government itself, with incapacity, wiwte, 
and frauit ; infected states ami miitncipali* 
ties witli the contagion of misrule; and 
locked fast the j)rosj)erity of an imln.strioue 
people in the paralysis of" hard times." 

Reform is necessary to establish a sound 
currency, restore the piddic credit, and 
maintain the national honor. 

We flenounce the failure, for all these 
eleven years of peace, to make good the 
promise of the legal tender notes, which 
are a changing standard of value in the 
hands of the people, and the n')n-paymcnt 
of which is a aisregard of the plighted 
faith of the nation. 

We denounce the improvidence which, 
in eleven years of peace, has taken from 
the people, in federal taxes, thirteen times 
the whole amount of the legal-tender notes, 
and squandered four times their .sum in 
useless expense without accumulating any 
reserve for their redemption. 

We denounce the financial imbecility 
and immorality of that party which, dur- 
ing eleven years of peace, has made no ad- 
vance toward resumption, no preparation 
for resumption, but, instead, has obstructed 
resumption, by wasting our resources and 
exhausting all our surplus income; and, 
while annually professing to intend a 
speedy return to specie payments, ha.s an- 
nually enacted fresh hinderances thereto. 
As such hinderance we denounce the re- 
sumption clause of 1875, and we here de- 
mand its repeal. 

We demand a judicious system of prejKi- 
ration, by public economies, by oflieial re- 
trenchments, and by wise finance, which 
sliall enable the nation soon to assure the 
whole world of its perfect ability and of its 
pertect readiness to meet any of its pro- 
mises at the call of the crediti»r entitle<l to 
payment We believe such a .system, well 
devised, and, above all, intrusted to com- 
petent hands for execution, creating, at no 
time, an artificial scarcity of currency, and 
at no time alarming the pulilie mind into 
a withdrawal of that va.ster machinery of 
credit by which ninety-five jut cent, of all 
business transactions are performed. A 
sy.stcm open, public, and inspiring general 
confidence, would, from the day of it« 
adoption. l)rintr healing on its win^s to all 
our hara.ssed industries — set in motion the 
wheels of commerce, manufactures, and the 
mechanic arts — restore employment to la- 
bor— and, renew, in nil its natural sources, 
the prosperity of the j»eople. 

Le.orm is nece-ssarv iu the sura and 



58 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



modes of federal taxation, to the end that 
capital may be !*et free from distrust aud 
labor lijihtly burdened. 

AVe denounce the present tariff, levied 
upon nearly four thousand articles, as a 
masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and 
false pretence. It yields a dwindling, not 
a yearly rising, revenue. It has impover- 
ished many industries to subsidize a few. 
It prohibits imports that might purchase 
the products of American labor. It has 
degraded American commerce from the 
fir.--t to an inferior rank on the high seas. 
It has cut down the sales of American 
manufactures at home aud abroad, and 
depleted the returns of American agri- 
culture — an industry followed by half our 
people. It costs the people five times 
more than it produces to the treasury, ob- 
structs the processes of production, and 
wastes the fruits of labor. It promotes 
fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dis- 
honest officials, and bankrupts honest 
merchants. We demand that all custom- 
house taxation shall be only for revenue. 

Reform is necessary in the scale of public 
expense — federal, state, and municipal. 
Our federal taxation has swollen from sixty 
millions gold, in 1860, to four hundred and 
fifty millions currency, in 1870 ; our ag- 
gregate taxation from one hundred and fifty- 
four millions gold, in 18G0, to seven hun- 
dred and thirty millions currency, in 1870 
— or, in one decade, from less than five 
dollars per head to more than eighteen 
dollars per head. Since the peace, the 
people have paid to their tax-gatherers 
more than thrice the sum of the national 
debt, and more than twice that sum for the 
Federal government alone. We demand 
a rigorous Irugality in every department 
and I'rom every otficer of the government. 

Reform is necessary to put a stop to the 

Srofligate waste of public lands, and their 
iversion from actual settlers, by the party 
in power, which has squandered 200,000,000 
of acres upon railroads alone, and, out of 
more than thrice that aggregate, has dis- 
posed of less than a sixth directly to tillers 
of the soil. 

Rel'orm is necessary to correct the omis- 
sion of a Republican Congress, and the 
errors of our treaties and our diplomacy 
which have stripped our iellow-citizens of 
foreign birth and kindred race, recrossing 
the Atlantic, of the shield of American 
citizenship, and have exposed our brethren 
of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a 
race not sprung from the same gri'at ])arent 
stock, and in fact now, by law, denied 
citizenship through naturalization, as being 
neither accustomed to the traditions of a 

firogressive civilization nor exercised in 
iberty under equal laws. We denounce 
the policy which thus discards the liberty- 
loving German and tolerates a revival of 
the coolie trade in Mongolian women, im- 



ported for immoral j>urposcs, and Mongolian 
men, held to ])erlorm servile labor contracts 
and demand such modification of the treaty 
with the Chinese Empire, or such legisla- 
tion within constitutional limitations, as 
shall prevent further importation or immi- 
gration of the Mongolian race. 

Reform is necessary, and can never be 
elTected but by making it the controlling 
issue of the elections, and lifting it above 
the two false issues with which the office- 
holding class aud the party in power seek 
to smother it : 

1. The false issue with which they would 
enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the 
public schools, of which the establishment 
and support belongs exclusively to the 
several states, and which the Democratic 
party has cherished from their foundation, 
and is resolved to maintain, without preju- 
dice or preference for any class, sect, or 
creed, and without largesses from the trea- 
sury to any, 

2. The false issue by which they seek to 
light anew the dying embers of sectional hate 
between kindred peoples once estranged, 
but now reunited in one indivisible re- 
public and a common destiny. 

Reform is necessary in the civil service. 
Experience proves that efficient, economical 
conduct of the governmental business is 
not possible if its civil service be subject 
to change at every election, be a prize 
fought for at the ballot-box, be a brief re- 
ward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor 
assigned for proved competency, and held 
for fidelity in the public employ ; that the 
dispensing of patronage should neither be a 
tax upon the time of all our public men, 
nor the instrument of their ambition. 
Here, again, prosniscs, falsified in the per- 
formance, attest that the party in power 
can work out no practical or salutary re- 
form. 

Reform is necessarv^ even more, in the 
higher grades of the public service. Presi- 
dent, Vice-President, Judges, Senators, 
Representatives, Cabinet officers — these, 
and all others in authority — are the people's 
servants. Their offices are not a private 
perquisite ; they are a public trust. When 
the annals of this Republic show the dis- 
grace and censure of a Vice-President ; a 
late Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives marketing his rulings as a presiding 
officer ; three Senators profiting secretly by 
their votes as law-makers ; five chairmen 
of the leading committees of the late House 
of Representatives exposed in jobbery ; a 
late Secretary of the Treasury forcing ba- 
lances in the public accounts; a late At- \ 
torney-General misappro])riating public \ 
funds ; a Secretary of the Navy enriched, , 
or enriching friends, by percentages levied . 
off the profits of contractors with his de- 
partment ; an Ambassador to England con- 
cerned in a dishonorable speculation ; the 



POLITICAL r L A T F U U M S . 



President's private se(Tct;iry barely esoap- 
iii<r ('(tiivic'tion upon trial for ^.^lilty coiiipli- 
city in frauds upon tiu- ri'vrnuc; a St h' ro- 
tary of War inipeatdied for liiudi crinics 
and niisdenieanors — the denionstration is 
complete, that tlii' first step in rrforiu must 
be the prople's rhoiee of honest men from 
anotlu'r i>arty, lest the disease of one poli- 
tical orLrani/.ati(»n infeet the body politic, 
and lest by niakini; no ehanjxe of men or 
parties we jiet no change of measures and 
no real ref(U"m. 

All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes — 
the product of sixteen years' ascendency of 
the liepunlican party — create a necessity 
for reform, confessed by the Republicans 
themselves; but their reformers are voted 
down in convention and displaced from the 
cabinet. The party's mass of honest voters 
is powerless to resist the 80,000 office-hold- 
ers, its leaders and guides. 

Reform can only be had by a peaceful 
civic revolution. We demand a change 
of system, a change of administration, a 
change of parties, that we may have a 
change of measures and of men. 

Resolved, That this convention, repre- 
senting the Democratic party of the United 
States, do cordially indorse the action of 
the present House of Representatives, in re- 
ducing and curtailing the expenses of the 
Federal government, in cutting down sa- 
laries and extravagant appropriations, and 
in abolishing useless offices and places not 
required by the public necessities; and we 
shall trust to the firmness of the Democra- 
tic members of the House that no commit- 
tee of conference and no misinterpretation 
of the rules will be allowed to defeat these 
wholesome measures of economy demanded 
by the country. 

Rcsah-ed, That the soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic, and the widows and or- 
phans of those who have fallen in battle, 
have a just claim upon the care, protection, 
and gratitude of their fellow-citizens. 



1878. -National Platform. 

Toledo, OhiofFtbrmiry 22. 

Whereas^ Throughout our entire country 
the value of real estate is depreciated, in- 
dustry paralyzed, trade depressed, business 
incomes and wages reduced, unparalleled 
distress inflicted upon the poorer and mid- 
dle ranks of our people, the land fdled 
with fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy, 
crime, suffering, pauperism, and starvation ; 
and 

Whereax, This state of things has been 
brought about by legislation in the interest 
of, and dictated by, money-lenders, bankers 
and bondholders ; and 

Whprea.t, While we recognize the fact 
that the men in Congress connected with 



(he old political [>arties liavo stood up man- 
fully for the ri'/hts of the ])cople, and met 
(he threats of the money jiower, and th<! 
ridicule of an i^'iiorant and tuibsidized 
press, yet neitlier tiie Republican nor the 
Democratic parties, in their jiolicies, pro- 
pose ri'incdit's Ibr the existing evils; and 

inicrra.i, The Independent CJreenback 
[)arty, and other associations more or Ichu 
edectivi", have beeti unable, liitherto, to 
make a (brmidable opposition to rjld party 
organizations; and 

Whereas, The limiting of the legal-tender 
quality of the greenbacks, the chantring of 
currency bonds into coin bonds, the de- 
monetization of the silver dollar, the ex- 
empting of bonds from taxation, the con- 
traction of the circidating medium, tho 
proposed forced resumption of specie pay- 
ments, and the prodigal waste ol' the public 
lands, were crimes against the peoi)le; and, 
as far as possible, tiie results of these cri- 
minal acts must be counteracted by judi- 
cious legislation : 

Therefore, We assemble in national con- 
vention and make a declaration of our 
principles, and invite all patriotic citizens 
to unite in an eflbrt to secure financial re- 
form and industrial emancipation. The 
organization shall be known as the "Na- 
tional Party," and under this name we will 
perfect, without delay, national, state, and 
local as.sociations, to secure the election to 
office of such men only as will pledge 
themselves to do all in their power to es- 
tablish these ])rinciples: 

First. It is the exclusive function of the 
general government to coin and create 
money and regulate its value. All bank 
issues designed to circulate as money .should 
be suppressed. The circulating inediun^, 
whether of metal or paper, shull be issued 
by the government, and made a full legal- 
tender for all debts, duties, and taxes in 
the United iStates, at its stamped value. 

Second. There shall be no privileged 
class of creditors. Official salaries, pensions, 
bonds, and all other debts and oljligations, 
public and private, shall be discharged in 
the legal-tender money of the I'nited 
States strictly according to the stipidations 
of the laws under which they were con- 
tracted. 

Third. The coinage of silver shall be 
placed on the same footing as that of gold. 

Fourth. Congress shall provide said 
money adequate to the full employment of 
lai)or, the equitable distribution of its pro- 
duct.s, and the retjuirement of business, 
fixing a minimum amount }>er capita of the 
I)0[)ulation as near as may be, and other- 
wise regulatin;; its value by wise and equi- 
table provisions of law. so that the rate of 
interest will secure to labor its ju-t reward. 

Fifth. It is inconsistent with the genius 
of popular government that anv a;iecies of 
private property should be exempt frcm 



60 



AMERICAN rOLITICS. 



bearing i;s proper share of the public 
burdeus. Govenunent bon(L-i uiid money 
should be 'axed precisely as other jn-operty, 
and a graduated income tax should be 
levied lor the sup])ort of the government 
and the payment of its debts. 

Sixth. I'u'olic lands are the common 
property of the wlude people, and should 
not be sold to speculators nor granted to 
railroads or other corporations, but should 
be donated to actual settlers, in limited 
quantitie-;. 

Seventh. The government should, by gen- 
eral enac'.meuts, encourage the develop- 
ment of our agricultural, mineral, mecha- 
nical, manufacturing, and commercial re- 
sources, to the end that labor may be fully 
and profitably employed ; but no monopo- 
lies should be legalized. 

Eighth. All useless offices should be abol- 
ished, the mo.jt rigid economy favored in 
every branch of the public service, and 
severe punishment inflicted upon public 
officers who betray the trusts reposed in 
them. 

Ninth. As educated labor has devised 
means for multiplying productions by in- 
ventions and discoveries, and as their use 
requires the exercise of mind as well as 
body, such legislation should be had that 
the number of hours of daily toil will be 
reduced, giving to the working classes more 
leisure for mental improvement and their 
several enjoyments, and saving them from 
premature decay and death. 

Tenth. The adoption of an American 
monetary system, as proposed herein, will 
hariuonize all differences in regard to tariff 
and federal taxation, reduce and equlize 
the cost of transportation by land and 
water, distribute equitably the joint earn- 
ings of capital and labor, secure to the 
f>roducer3 of wealth the results of their 
abor and skill, and muster out of service 
the vast army of idlers, who, under the 
existing system, grow rich upon the earn- 
ings of others, that every man and woman 
may, by their own efforts, secure a compe- 
tency, so that overgrown fortunes and ex- 
treme poverty will be seldom found within 
the limits of our re}aiblic. 

Eleventh. lioth national and state govern- 
ments should establish bureaus of labor 
and industrial statistics, clothed with the 
power of gathering and publishing the 
same. 

Twelfth. That the contract system of em- 
ploying labor in our prisons and reforma- 
tory institutions works great injustice to 
our mechanics and artisans, and should be 
prohibited. 

l^.iirtecnih. The importation of servile 
labor into the United States irom China is 
a problem of the most serious importance, 
and we recommend legislation looking to 
its suppreSvsion. 

Fourteenth. We believe in the supremacy 



of law over and above all perishable ma- 
terial, and in the necessity of a party of 
united people that will rise above old party 
lines and itrcjudiccs. We will not affiliate 
in any degree with any of the old parties, 
but, in all cases and localities, will organize 
anew, as united National men — nominate 
for office and official positions onlj"^ such 
persons as are clearly believers in and 
identified with this our sacred cause ; and, 
irrespective of creed, color, place of birth, 
or past condition of political or other serv- 
itude, vote only for men who entirely 
abandon old party lines and organizations. 



1879.— National Liberal Platform. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, Septemlwr 14. 

1. Total separation of Church and State, 
to be guaranteed by amendment of the 
United States constitution ; including the 
equitable taxation of church property, se- 
cularization of the public schools, abroga- 
tion of Sabbatarian laws, abolition of chap- 
laincies, prohibition of public appropria- 
tions for religious purposes, and all mea- 
sures necessary to the same general end. 

2. National protection for national citi- 
zens in their equal civil, political, and re- 
ligious rights, to be guaranteed by amend- 
ment of the United States constitution 
and alTorded through the United States 
courts. 

3. Universal education, the basis of uni- 
versal suffrage in this secular Republic, to 
be guaranteed by amendment of the United 
States constitution, requiring every state to 
maintain a thoroughly secularized public 
school system, and to permit no child 
within its limits to grow up without a good 
elementary education. 



1880.— Independent Republican Principles. 

I. Independent Republicans adhere to 
the republican principles of national supre- 
macy, sound finances, and civil service re- 
form, expressed in the Republican plat- 
form of 1876, in the letter of acceptance of 
President Hayes, and in his nnssnge of 
1879; and they seek the reali/:ation of 
those principles in practical laws and their 
efficient administration. This requires, 

1. The continuance on the statute-book 
of laws protecting the rights of voters at 
national elections. Cut national supre- 
macy affords no pretext for interference 
with the local rights of communities; and 
the development of the south from its pre- 
sent defective civilization can be secured 
only under constitutional methods, such aa 
those of President Hayes. 

2. The passage of laws which shall de- 
prive greenbacks of their legal-tender 
quality, as a first step toward their ulti- 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



Gl 



mate witlulrawal and canct'Uatinn, and 
shall iriaiiitaiii all coins made kj^al tender 
at siuh weij^ht and fineness as wdl enabU- 
tiiem to 1h' used witliout <liseoiiiit in tlie 
comnirreial transaetions of tlie world. 

8. The repeal of the aets whieh limit tlie 
terms of olliee of eertain government olli- 
cials to four years; tlie rej)eul of thr 
tenurc-of-.illiee aet-s, whieli limit the powi r 
of the exeeiitive to remove lor cause; the 
establishment of a i)ermaiK'nt civil service 
cnmiiiis.ion, or equivalent mea.sures to as- 
cert:i!n, by open compi'tition, and certil'y 
to the ['resident or other appoint inj; power 
the ti!nes< of a;>f>iieaiits for noiuiiiatitm or 
appointment to all non-political oflices. 

II. Independent Republicans believe 
that local issues should oe indei)endent of 
l)arty. The words Kepub'.iean and Demo- 
crat should have no weight in detenuining 
whether a school or city shall be adminis- 
tered on business principles by capable 
men. With a view to this, legislation is 
asked which shall prescribe for the voting 
for local and for state officers upon sepa- 
rate ballots. 

III. Independent Rcimblicans assert 
that a political party is a co-operatioa of 
voters to secure the ])ractical enactment 
into legislation of political convictions set 
forth as its [>latl'orm. Every voter accejit- 
ing that platlbrni is a member of that 
party; any rejjrcscntativeof that party op- 
posing the principles or evading the pro- 
mises of it.5 platform forfeits the support 
of its voters. No voter should be held by 
the action or nomination of any caucus or 
convention of his party against his private 
judgment. It is his duty to vote against 
bad mea Hires and unfit men, as the only 
means of obtaining good ones; and if his 
party no biiiger represents its professed 
princii)les in its practical workings, it is 
his duty to vote against it. 

IV. Independent Republicans seek good 
nominations through participation in the 
primaries and through the defeat of bad 
nominees ; they will labor for the defeat of 
any local Republican candidate, and, in 
co-operation with those holding like views 
elsewhere, for the defeat of any general 
Republican candidate whom they do not 
deem tit. 



18S0. Repnbllcan Platform. 

ChiC(ujo, lUinoU, June2. 

The Republican party, in national con- 
Tention assembled, at the end of twenty 
years since the Federal government was 
first committed to its charge, submits to 
the poojilc of the United States its brief 
report of its administration : 

It sun])ressed a rebellion which had 
armed nearly a million of men to subvert 
the national authority. It reconstructed 
the union of the states with freedom, in- 



stead of slavery, as it« corner-st-ono. It 
transformed f<mr million of huinaii beings 
from tile likeness of thiiigs U) the rank o:' 
citizens. It relieved CungriAs from the in- 
tamous work of hunting fugitive hIuvcs, 
and charged it to see that slavery docs not 
exist. 

It has raised the value of our paper cur- 
••ency from thirty-eigiit per cent, to tlie, 
par of g(dd. It has restored, upon u solid 
oasis, payment in coin for all tiie national 
obligations, and has given us a currency 
absolutely good and etpial in every part (<f 
our extemleil country. It has lifu<l the 
credit of the nation from the point where 
8ix per cent, bonds .sold at eiirhty-six to 
that where four jht cent, bonds are eagerly 
sought at a i remium. 

Under its administration railways have 
increased from 81,000 miles in hSIJO, lu more 
than 82,000 miles in 1879. 

Our foreign trade has increased from 
$700,000,000 to $1,1.'>0,000,000 in the same 
time ; and our exports, whiL'h were !^20,- 
000,000 less than our imports in \W), were 
$2G4,000,000 more than our imports in 
1879. 

Without resorting to loans, it has, since 
the war closed, defrayed the ordinary ex- 
penses of government, besides the accruing 
interest on the public debt, and disbursed, 
annually, over $30,000,000 for soldiers' 
pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the 
I)ublic debt, and, by refunding the balance 
at lower rates, has reduced the annual 
interest charge from nearly :f-lol,(;U0,000 
to less than $89,000,000. 

All the industries of the country have 
revived, labor is in demand, wages have 
increased, and throughout the entire coun- 
try there is evidence of a coming prosperity 
greater than we have ever enjoyed. 

Upon this record, the Republican party 
asks for the continued confidence and sup- 
port of the people; and this convention 
submits for their approval the following 
statement of the i)rinciples and ])urposc3 
which will continue to guide and inspire 
its efforts : 

1. We affirm that the work of the last 
twenty years has been such as to com- 
mend itself to the favor of the nation, and 
that the fruits of the costly victories whieh 
we have achieved, through immense diffi- 
culties, should lie preserved; that the peace 
regained should be cherished; that the 
dissevered Union, now ha]>i>ily restored, 
should be perpetuated, and that the liber- 
ties secured to this generation should be 
transmitted, undiminished, to future gene- 
rations; that the order established and the 
credit acquired should never be impaired; 
that the pensions promised shonhl be paid; 
that the debt so much reduced .should be 
extinguished by the full payment of every 
ilollar thereof; that the revivimr industrica 
should be further promoted ; and that the 



62 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



commerce, already so great, should be 
steadily encouraged. 

2. The constitution of the United States 
is a supreme law, and not a mere contract ; 
out ol' confederate states it made a sove- 
reign nation. Some powers are denied to 
the nation, while others are denied to 
states ; but the boundary between the pow- 
ers delegated and those reserved is to be 
determined by the national and not by the 
state tribunals. 

3. The work of popular education is one 
left to the care of the several states, but it 
is the duty of the national government to 
aid that work to the extent of its constitu- 
tional ability. The intelligence of the na- 
tion is but the aggregate of the intelligence 
in the several states ; and the destiny of 
the nation must be guided, not by the 
genius of any one state, but by the aver- 
age genius of all. 

4. The constitution wisely forbids Con- 
gress to make any law respecting an es- 
tablishment of religion; but it is idle to 
hope that the nation can be protected 
against the influences of sectarianism while 
each state is exposed to its domination. We, 
therefore, recommend that the constitution 
be so amended as to lay the same prohibi- 
tion upon the legislature of each state, to 
forbid the appropriation of public funds to 
the iiupport of sectarian schools. 

5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in 
187G, that the duties levied for the pur- 
pose of revenue should so discriminate as 
to favor American labor ; that no further 
grant of the public domain should be made 
to any railway or other corporation ; that 
slavery having perished in the states, its 
twin barbarity — polygamy — must die in 
the territories ; that everywhere the pro- 
tection accorded to citizens of American 
birth must be secured to citizens by Ameri- 
can adoption. That we esteem it the duty 
of Congress to develop and im[irove our 
v.'a'er-courses and harbors, but insist that 
further subsidies to private persons or cor- 
porations must cease. That the obliga- 
tions of the republic to the men who pre- 
served its integrity in the day of battle 
are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen 
years since their final victory — to do them 
perpetual honor is, and shall forever be, 
the grateful privilege and sacred duty of 
the American people. 

6. Since the authority to regulate immi- 
gration and intercourse between the United 
States and foreign nations rests with the 
Congress of the United States and its 
treaty-making powers, the Republican 
))arty, rejrarding the unrestricted immigra- 
tion of the Chinese as an evil of great 
magnitude, invoke the exercise of that 
power to restrain and limit that immigra- 
tion by tlieenactmentof such just, humane, 
SI nd reasonable provihious as will j^roduce 
that result. 



That the purity and patriotism which 
characterized the early career of Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which 
guided the thoughts of our immediate pre- 
decessors to select him for a presidential 
candidate, have continued to inspire him 
in his career as chief executive, and that 
history will accord to his administration 
the honors which are due to an efiicient, 
just, and courteous discharge of the public 
business, and will honor his interposition 
between the people and proposed partisan 
laws. 

8. We charge iipon the Democratic party 
the habitual sacrifice of j^atriotism and 
justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for 
office and patronage. That to ol:)tain pos- 
session of the national and state govern- 
ments, and the control of place and position, 
they have obstructed all effi)rts to promote 
the purity and to conserve the freedom of 
suffrage ; have devised fraudulent certifi- 
cations and returns ; have labored to un- 
seat lawfully-elected members of Congress, 
to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a ma- 
jority of the states in the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; have endeavored to occupy, by 
force and fraud the places of trust given to 
others by the people of Maine, and rescued 
by the courageous action of jNIaine's pa- 
triotic sons ; have, by methods vicious in 
principle and tyrannical in practice, at- 
tached partisan legislation to apjiropria- 
tion bills, upon whose passage the very 
movements of government depend ; have 
crushed the rights of the individual; have 
advocated the principle and sought the 
favor of rebellion against the nation, and 
have endeavored to obliterate the sacred 
memories of the war, and to overcome its 
inestimably valuable results of nationality, 
personal freedom, and individual equality. 
Equal, steady, and complete enforcement 
of the laws, and protection of all our citizens 
in the enjoymetit of all privileges and im- 
munities guaranteed by the constitution, 
are the first duties of the nation. The dan- 
ger of a solid south can only be averted by 
the faithful performance of every promise 
which the nation made to the citizen. The 
execution of the laws, and the punishment 
of all those who violate them, are the only 
safe methods by which an enduiing peace 
can be secured, and genuine pn^perity es- 
tablished throughout the south. What- 
ever promises the nation makes, the na- 
tion must perform ; and the nation can not 
with safety relegate this duty to the states. 
The solid south must be divided by the 
peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all 
opinions must there find free expression ; 
and to this end honest voters must be pro- 
tected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. 
And we affirm it to be the duty and the 
purpose of the Republican party to use all 
legitimate means to restore all the states of 
this Union to the most perfect harmony 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



03 



which may be practicable ; and we submit to 
the |.ractiLal. soiisible people of tliu United 
St.it(.-s to say wlietlier it would not l>e dan- 
gerous t I the dearest interests of our eoun- 
try, at this time to surrender tlie adminis- 
tration ot" tlu' national [government to a 
jKirty which si-eks to overthrow the exist- 
injij polie/, under which we are so prosper- 
ous, and thus bring distrust and contusion 
where there is now order, conhdence, and 
hope. 

1>. The Repu')liean ]>:'rty, ailhering to a 
princ'ple atiirmeil by its last national vnn- 
vention, of respect for the constitutional 
rule eovering appointments to oiiiee, atlopts 
the declaration of President Hayes, tiiat 
the ref irm of tlic civil service sliould be 
thorough, radical, j\nd complete. To this 
end it dem.iiuls the co-operation of the 
legislative with the executive dejiartment 
of the government, and that Congress shall 
so legislate tliat fitness, ascertained by 
proper i)ractical tests, shall admit to the 
public service ; and that the power of re- 
moval for cause, with due responsibility 
for the good conduct of i-uhordinates, shall 
accompany the power of appointment. 



18S0.— National (Greriiljack) Platform, 

CViMdjo, IUiiioL\. June 9. 

The civil gnvernnienc should guarantee 
the divine right of every laborer to the re- 
sults of his toil, thus enabling the pro- 
ducers of wealth to provide themselves 
with the means for physical comtbrt, and 
facilities for mental, social, and moral cul- 
ture; and we condemn, as unworthy of our 
civilization, the barbarism which imposes 
upon wealth-producers a state of drudgery 
as the price of a bare animal existence. 
Notwithstanding the enormous increase of 
productive power by the universal intro- 
duction of labor-saving machinery and the 
discovery of new agents for the increase of 
wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely 
lightened, the hours of toil are but little 
shortened, and tew producers are lilted 
from jtoverty into comtbrt and pecuniary 
indepen lence. The associated monopolies, 
the international syndicates, and other in- 
come classes demand dear money, cheap 
labor, and a strong government, and, hence, 
a weak people. Corporate control of the 
volume of money has been the means 
of dividing society into hostile classes, of 
an unjust distribution of the products of 
labor, and of buildin<^ up monopolies of 
associat^'d capital, endowed with power to 
confiscate private property. It has kept 
money scarce ; and the scarcity of money 
enforces debt-trade, and public and cor- 
porate loans ; debt engenders usury, and 
usury ends in the bankrui)tcy of the bor- 
rower. Other results are — deranged mar- 
kets, uncertainty in manufacturing enter- 



prises ami agriculture, precarious and 

intermitient ini|doymeiit for tiie lahopT. 
indu-ifrial war, increasing pauperism and 
crime, and tlie eonseipu-nt intimid.ition 
ami dislVanchisemeiit oi' tlie producer, and 
a rapid deelensifiu into corporate feudalism. 
Tlierefore, we d'clare — 

Firxt. That the right to make and issue 
money is a sovereign power, to be main- 
taimtl by the people tor tiieir common 
heiieht. The delegation of thi.s right to 
corporations is a surrender of the central 
attrihnle of sovereignty, void of constitu- 
tional sanction, and conferring u|)on a sub- 
ordinate and irresponsilile power an abso- 
lute dominion over industry and commerce. 
All money, whether metallic or paper, 
should be issued, and its volnme c<)ntrolled, 
liy till' government, and not by or through 
haidcing corjiorations ; ami, when so issuetl, 
slKuUd be a full legal tender for all debts, 
public and private. 

Srcfuid. That the bonds of the United 
States should not be refunded, but jiaid as 
rapi<lly as practicable, according to con- 
tract. To enable the government to meet 
these obligations, legal-tender currency 
should be substituted for the notes of the 
national banks, the national banking sy.s- 
tem abolished, and the unlimited coinage 
of silver, as well as gold, established by 
law. 

Third. That labor should be so pro- 
tected by national and state authority as to 
equalize its burdens and insure a just dis- 
tribution of its results. The eight hour 
law of Congress should be enforced, the 
sanitary condition of industrial establish- 
ments placed under the rigid control, the 
comjoetition of contract convict labor abol- 
ished, a bureau of labor statistics estab- 
lished, factories, mines, and workshops in- 
spected, the employment of childrc'i under 
f)urteen years of age forbidden, and wages 
paid in cash. 

Fourth. Slavery being simply cheap 
labor, and cheap labor being simply sla- 
very, the importation and presence of 
Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize 
and degrade American labor; therefore, 
immediate steps should be Uiken to ab- 
rogate the P.urlingame treaty. 

yiflh. llailroaii land grants forfeited by 
reason of non-fulfillment of contractshould 
be immediately reclaimed by the govern- 
ment, and, henceforth, the public domain 
reserved exclusively as homes for actual 
settlers. 

Sixth. It is the duty of Congress to reg- 
ulate inter-state commerce. All lines of 
communication and transportation should 
be brought under such legislative control 
as shall secure moder.ite, fair, and uniform 
rates for passenger ami freight trafTi'-. 

Seventh. We denounce as destructive to 
r)roperty :uid dangerous to liberty the ac- 
tion of the old parlies in fostcriug and 3ue« 



64 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



taming gigantic land, railroad, and money] 
corporations, and monopolies invested with : 
and exercising powers belonging to the | 
government, and yet not responsible to it 
tor the manner of their exercise. 

Eiijhtk. That the constitution, in giving 
Congress tin; power to borrow money, to 
declare war, to raise and support armies, 
to provide and maintain a navy, never in- 
tended that the men who loaned their 
money for an interest-consideration should 
be prelerred to the soldiers and sailors who 
periled their lives and shed their blood on 
land and sea in defense of their country ; 
and we condemn the cruel class legislation 
of the Eepublican party, which, while pro- 
fessing great gratitude to the soldier, has 
most unjustly discriminated against him 
and in favor of the bondholder. 

Ninth. All property should bear its just 
proportion of taxation, and we demand a 
graduated income tax. 

2>nth. ^Ve denounce as dangerous the 
efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the 
right of sutfrage. 

Eleventh. We are opposed to an increase , 
of the standijig army in time of peace, and 
the insidious scheme to establish an enor- 
mous military power under the guise of 
militia laws. 

Ticelfth. We demand absolute democra- 
tic rules for the government of Congress, 
placing all representatives of the people 
upon an equal footing, and taking away 
from committees a veto power greater than 
that of the President. 

Thirteenth. AVe demand a government of 
the people, by the people, and for the peo- 
ple, instead of a government of the bond- 
holder, by the bondholder, and for the 
bondholder; and we denounce every at- 
tempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to 
conceal monstrous crimes against the people. 

Fourteenth. In the furtherance of these 
ends we ask the co-operation of all fair- 
minded people. We have no quarrel with 
individuals, wage no war on classes, but 
only against vicious institutions. ^V^e are 
not content to endure further discipline 
from our present actual rulers, who, having 
dominion over money, over transportation, 
over land and labor, over the i>ress and the 
machinery of government, wield unwar- 
rantable power over our institutions and 
over life and property. 



ISSO.— Prohibition Reform Platform, 

Cliyveland, Ohio, Jnne 17. 

The prohibition Ileform party of the 
United States, organized, in the name of 
the iieople, to revive, enforce, and perpetu- 
ate in the government the doctrines of the 
Declaration of Independence, submit, for 
tin* suffrage of all good citizens, the follow- 



ing platform of national reforms and mea- 
sures : 

In the examination and discussion of the 
temperance question, it has been proven, 
and is an accepted truth, that alcoholic 
drinks, whether iermented, brewed, or dis- 
tilled, are poisonous to the healthy human 
body, the drinking of which is not only 
needless but hurtful, necessarily tending to 
form intemperate habits, increasing greatly 
the lumiber, severity, and fatal termina- 
tion of diseases, weakening and deranging 
the intellect, polluting the atfectious, hard- 
ening the heart and torruijting the morals, 
depriving many of reason and still more of 
its healthful exercise, and annually bring- 
ing down large numbers to untimely graves, 
producing, in the children of many who 
drink, a predisposition to intemperance, 
insanity, and various bodily and mental 
diseases, causing diminution of strength, 
feebleness of vision, fickleness of purpose, 
and premature old age, and inducing, in 
all future generations, deterioration of 
moral and physical character. Alcoholic 
drinks are thus the implacable foe of man 
as an individual. 

First. The legalized importation, manu- 
facture, and sale of intoxicating drinks 
ministers to their use, and teaches the erro- 
neous and destructive sentiment that such 
use is right, thus tending to produce and 
perfietuate the above mentioned evils. 

Second. To the home it is an enemy — • 
proving itself to be a disturber and de- 
stroyer of its peace, prosperity, and happi- 
ness ; taking from it the earnings of the 
husband ; depriving the dependent wife 
and children of essential food, clothing, 
and education ; bringing into it profanity, 
abuse, and violence ; setting at naught the 
vows of the marriage altar; breaking up 
the family and sundering the children from 
the parents, and thus destroying one of 
the most beneficent institutions of our Cre- 
ator, and removing the sure foundation of 
good government, national j^rosperity, and 
welfare. 

Third. To the community it is equally 
an enemy — producing vice, demoralization, 
and wickedness ; its places of sale being 
resorts of gaming, lewdness, and debauch- 
ery, and the hiding-jjlace of those who 
})rey upon society ; counteracting the 
efficacy of religious effort, and of all means 
of intellectual elevation, moral purity, 
social hap])iness, and the eternal good of 
mankind, without rendering any counter- 
acting or comj)ensating benefits; being in 
its inlluence and effect evil and only evil, 
and that continually. 

Fourth. To the state it is equally an 
enemy— legislative inquiries, judicial inves- 
tigations, and official reports of all penal, 
reformatory, and dependent institutions 
showing that the manufacture and sale of 
such beverages is the promoting cause o£ 



I'ljLmCAL PL ATI' oil M.S. 



65 



iiitein;>"rimi'0, criino, and ])au]>iri>in, ami ni' 
(L'liianls upon pulilic ami private charily, 
i:nj)()>in,j: tlio larj^i-r part of taxation, jiara- 
ly/.ing tnrift, industry, inanulactures, and 
ciiinnit'rcial lilt", wliicli, Init tor it, would 
be unnecessary ; di>iurliin<^ the peace ni 
streets and highways; filling prisons and 
poor-houses; corrupting politics, legisla- 
tion, anil the execution (jl'thc laws; short- 
ening lives; diniinishing healtii, industry, 
and productive power in nianulacturcs and 
art; and is manifestly unjust as well as 
injurious to the cunununity upon which it 
is imposed, and is contrary to all just 
views ot" civil liberty, as well as a violation 
of the fundamental maxim of our common 
law, to use your own proi)erty or liberty 
so as not to injure otliers. 

Fiftk. It is neither right nor politic for 
the state to afford legal protection to any 
traffic or any system which tends to waste 
the resources, to corrupt the social habits, 
and to destroy the heauii and lives of ihe 
people; that tiie importation, manufacture, 
au'l sale of intoxicating beverages is 
proven to be inimical to the true interests 
of the individual home, community, and 
state, and destructive to the order and wel- 
fare of society, and ought, tlierefore, to be 
classed among crimes to be prohibited. 

Sixth, In this ti;no of profound peace at 
home and abroad, the entire separation of 
the general govemnii-nt from the drink- 
traffic, and its prohibition in the District 
of Columbia, territories, and in all places 
and ways over which, under the constitu- 
tion, Congress has control and power, is a 
political issue of the lirst importance to the 
peace and prosperity of the nation. There 
can be no stable peace and protection to 
personal liberty, lif?, or property, until 
secured by national or state constitutional 
provisions, enforced by adequate laws. 

Seventh. All legitimate industries require 
deliverance from the taxation and loss 
which the liquor traffic imposes upon them ; 
and financial or other legislation could not 
accomplish so much to increase production 
and cause q demand for labor, and, as a 
result, for the comforts of living, as the 
suppression of thi^ traffic would bring to 
thousands of homes as one of its blessings. 

Eighth. The administration of the gov- 
ernment and the execution of the laws are 
through piditical parties ; iind we arraign 
the Republican party, which has been in 
continuous power in tlic nation for twenty 
years, as being false to d'.it}% as fal>e to 
loudly-proclaimed principles of equal jus- 
tice to all and special favors to n me, and 
of protection to the we ik and dependent, 
insensible to the mischief which the trade 
in liquor has constantly inflicted upon in- 
dustry, trade, commerce, and the social 
happiness of the people ; that 5,6")2 dis- 
tilleries, 3,830 breweries, and ir5,"Jtj(3 places 
for the sale of these poisonous liquors, in- 



volving an annual waste to th" nttion of 
one million live huiulred thousan<l dollar.n, 
and the sacrifice of one hundred tliousunu 
livc-t, have, under its legislation, grown up 
and been fostered as a legitimate Hturcc of 
revenue; that iluriiig its history, six tcrri- 
toiies havi' been organized and live hlales 
been admitt'tl into the I'nion, with consti- 
tutions provided and approved by Con- 
gn-ss, but the prohibition of this debasing 
aad destructive traffic has not been pro- 
vided, nor even the peoj)le given, at the 
time of adnu.s.sion, power to forb.d it in 
any one of them. Its liistory furtlioi 
shows, that not in u single in>tancc has an 
original prohibitory law been pa-wed by 
any state that was controlled by it, while 
in four states, so governed, the laws f<>ua(l 
on its advint to jjower have been repealed. 
.\t its national cnnvention in 1.S72, it de- 
clared, as part <d" its party faith, tiiat "it 
disapproves of the resort to unconstitu- 
tional laws for the purpose of removing 
evils, by interference with r'ghts not sur- 
rendered by the people to eith-^r the state 
or national government," whlcb, the au- 
thor of this J lank says, was adopted by 
the platform committee wiih the full and 
implicit understanding that its purf)ose 
was the discountenancing (d" all so-called 
temperance, prohibitory, and Sunday law.s. 

Xiiith. We arraign, also, the Democra- 
tic party as unfaithful and unw-rthy of 
reliance on this question; for, although 
not clothed with jjower, but occupying the 
relation of an opposition parfy durinij 
twenty yeai"s jiast, strong in numliers and 
organization, it h.is allied itself with 
liquor-traflickers. and become, in all the 
states of the Union, thcT special political 
defenders, and in its national convention 
in 187(5, as an article of its political faith, 
declared against prohibition and just law.s 
in restraint of the trade in drink, by say- 
ing it was opposed to what it was i)lease«i 
to call "all sumptuary laws." The Na- 
tional party has been dumb on this ques- 
tion. 

Tenth. Drink-traffickers, having the hi.s- 
tory and experienci> of all ages, climes, an 1 
conditions of men, declaring their bu.siness 
destructive of all good — finding no support 
in the Bible, morals, or reason — aj)i)cal to 
misapplied law for their justification, and 
intrench themselves behind the evil cle- 
menta of politic-al party for defen.se, party 
tactics and party inertia become battling 
forces, pr.tectlng this evil. 

Eleventh. In view of the foregoing f.'.cts 
■ind history, we cordially invite all voters, 
without regard to former party affiliations, 
to unite with lis in the use of the billot f'r 
the alxditionof the dripking .system, under 
the authority of our national and st:ite 
governments. We also dcjnand, as a right, 
that women, having the privileges of citi- 
zens in other respecti, be clothed with the 



66 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



ballot for their protection, and as a rightful 
means for the proper settlement of the 
liquor question. 

Ihceljih. To remove the apprehension of 
some wlu) allege that a loss oi public rev- 
enue wuuld follow the suppression of the 
direct tj-ade, we confidently point to the 
experience of governments abroad and at 
home, which sliows that thrift and revenue 
from tiie consumption of legitimate manu- 
lactures and commerce have so largely fol- 
lowed the abolition of drink as to fully 
su]i[>ly all loss of liquor taxes. 

Tidrtcenth. We recognize the good provi- 
dence of Almighty God, who has preserved 
and prospered us as a nation ; and, asking 
lor His Spirit to guide us to ultimate suc- 
cess, we all look for it, relying upon His 
omnipotent arm. 



1880.— Democratic Platform, 

Cincinnali, Ohio, June 22. 

The Democrats of the United States, in 
onvetition assembled, declare : 

First. We pledge ourselves anew to the 
constitutional doctrines and traditions ot 
the Democratic party, as illustrated by the 
teachings and examples of a long line of 
Democratic statesmen and patriots, and 
embodied in the platform of the last na- 
tional convention of the party. 

Second. Opposition to centralization, 
and to th.'it dangerous spirit of encroach- 
ment which tends to consolidate the powers 
of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, whatever the forn; of government, 
a real despotism ; no sumptuary laws ; 
separation of the church and state for the 
good of each ; common schools fostered 
and protected. 

Tiiird. Home rule; honest money, con- 
sisting of gold and silver, and paper, con- 
vertible into coin on demand ; the strict 
maintenance of the public faith, state and 
national ; and a tariff for revenue only ; 
the subordination of the military to the 
civil power ; and a general and thorough 
reform of the civil service. 

Fnurih. The right to a free ballot is a 
right preservative of all rights ; and must 
and shnll be maintained in every part of 
the United States. 

Fifth. The existing administration is the 
rei")resentativc of conspiracy only ; and its 
claim of right to snrround the ballot-boxes 
•with troops and deputy marshals, to in- 
timidate and obstruct the elections, and 
the unjirecedented use of tlie veto to main- 
tiiin its corrupt and despotic jtower, insults 
the people and imperils their institutions. 
We execrate the course of this iidministra- 
tion in making f)laces in the ( ivil service a 
reward for political crime ; and demand a 
reform, by statute, which shall make it for- 



ever impossible for a defeated candidate to 
bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by 
billeting villains U2)on the peoi)le. 

Sixth. The great fraud of 187G-7, by 
which, upon a false count of the electoral 
votes of two states, the candidate defeated 
at the polls was declared to be President, 
and, for the first time in American history, 
the will of the })e()i)le was set aside under 
a threat of military violence, struck a 
deadly blow at our system of representa- 
tive government. The Democratic party, 
to preserve the country irom the horrors of 
a civil war, submitted for the time, in the 
firm and patriotic belief that the people 
would iiunish the crime in 1880. This is- 
sue precedes and dwarfs every other. It 
imposes a more sacred duty upon the people 
of the Union than ever addressed the con- 
sciences of a nation of freemen. 

Scoenth. The resolution of Samuel J. 
Tilden, not again to be a candidate for the 
exalted place to which he was elected by 
a majority of his countrymen, and from 
which he was excluded by the leaders of 
the Itcpublican party, is received by the 
Democrats of the United States with deep 
sensibility ; and they declare their confi- 
dence in his wisdom, patriotism, and in- 
tegrity unshaken by the assaults of the 
common enemy ; and they further assure 
him that he is followed into the retirement 
he has chosen for himscli by the sympathy 
and respect of his fellow-citizens, who re- 
gard him as one Avho, by elevating the 
standard of the public morality, and adorn- 
ing and purifying the public service, merits 
the lasting gratitude of his country and 
his [tarty. 

Eighth. Free ships, and a living chance 
for American commerce upon the seas ; 
and on the land, no discrimination in favor \J 
of transportation lines, corporations, or 
monopolies. 

Ninth. Amendments of theBurlingame 
treaty ; no moi"e Chinese immigration, ex- 
cept for travel, education, and foreign com- 
merce, and, therein, carefully guarded. 

Tenth. Public money and public credit 
for public purposes solely, and public land 
for actual settlers. 

Eleventh. The Democratic party is the 
friend of labor and the laboring man, and 
pledges itself to protect him alike against 
the cormorants and the commune. 

Twelfth. We congratulate the country 
upon the honesty and thrift of a Demo- 
cratic Congress, which has reduced the 
public expenditure $10,000,000 a year; 
upon the continuation of prosjierity at 
home and the national honor abroad; and, 
above all, upon the promise of such a 
change in the administration of the govern- 
ment as shall insure a genuine and lasting 
refonn in every department of the public 
service. 



POLITICAL P L A T F I : M S . 



67 



Virginia Republican. 

[Adopted Auffwit 11.] 

Whereas, It is proper tluit wlu'ii tho 
people a.-4sonil)lo in convention they .^lii^uld 
uvow distinctly the principles of govern- 
ment on which they stund ; now, thurutbrc, 
he it, 

licnoh'cd. That wo, tlie Piepublicans of 
Virginia, horcl)y make a declaration of onr 
allegiance and adhesion to the princijiles 
of the Jvcpnhlican party dI' the conntry, 
and our determination to stand s(juarely by 
the oriianization of the Kennblican party 
of Virginia, always defemling it against 
the assaults of all persons or parties what- 
soever. 

Sccand. That amongst the principles of 
the Kepublican ]>arty none is of more vital 
importance to tlie welfare and interest of 
the country in all it,s parts than that which 
pertains to the sanctity of Government 
contracts. It therefore becomes the special 
duty and j)rovince of the Republican party 
of Virginia to guard and protect the credit 
of our time-honored .State, which has been 
besmirched with repudiation, or received 
with distrust, by the gross mismanagement 
of various factions of the Democratic 
party, which have controlled the legisla- 
tion of the State. 

Third. That the Republican party of 
Virginia liereby pledges itself to redeem 
the State from the discredit that now hangs 
over her in regard to her just obligations 
for moneys loaned her for constructing her 
internal improvements and charitable in- 
stitutions, which, permeating every quarter 
of the State, bring benefits of far greater 
value th m their cost to our whole people, 
and we in the most solemn form pledge the 
Republican party of the State to the full 
payment of the whole debt of the State, less 
the one-third set aside as justly falling on 
"West Virginia ; that the industries of the 
country sliould be fostered through ])ro- 
tective laws, so as to develop our own re- 
sources, employ our own labor, create a 
home market, enhance values, and promote 
the happiness and prosperity of the people. 

Fi>iir(h. That the public school system 
of Virginia is the creature of the Repub- 
iicaa party, and we demand that every 
dollar the Constitution dedicates to it shall 
be sacredly applied thereto as a means of 
educating the children of the State, with- 
out reg.ird to condition or race. 

Fifth. That tiie elective franchise as an 
equal right should be based on manhood 
qualification, and that we favor the repeal 
of the re<juirements of the prepayment of 
the capitation tax as a prerequisite to the 
franchise as opposed to the Constitution of 
the United States, and in violation of the 
conditio'.i whereby the State was read- 1 
mitted as a member of our Constitutional 
Union, as well as against tho spirit of the . 



Constitution ; ])Ut demand the imposition 
of the capitation tax as a source i>f revenue 
for the support of the public ttchuold with* 
out its disfranchising ell'ect.s. 

Stxlh. That we fav(»r the repeal of tho 
disciualilication for tlie elective franchise 
by a convicti(jn of petty larceny, and of 
the infamous laws which place it in tlie 
power of a single justice ot the peace (ofl- 
tiines being more corrupt than the criminal 
before him) to disfranchise his fellow-man. 

SWcnfh. Finally, that we urge the repeal 
of the barbarous law permitting tjie im- 
position of strijjcs as degrading and inhu- 
man, contrary to the genius of a true an<l 
enlightened people, and a relic of bar- 
barism. 

[The Convention considered it inexpe- 
dient to nominate candidates for State 
oliicers. 1 



Virginia Rcadjuster. 

[Adopted Jnne 2.j 

First. "We recognize our obligation to 
su[)port the institution for the deaf, dumb 
and blind, the lunatic asylum, the jmblic 
free schools and the Government out of 
the revenues of the State ; and we depre- 
cate and denounce that policy of rinij rule 
and subordinated sovereignty whic-li for 
years borrowed money out of banks at high 
rates of interest for the discharge of these 
paramount trusts, while our revenues were 
left the prev of commercial exchanges, 
available to tho State only at the optioQ 
of speculators and syndicates. 

^Second. Wo reassert our purpose to settle 
and adjust our State obligations on the 
principles of the " Bill to re-establish pub- 
lic credit," known as the "Riddleberger 
bill," passed by the last General Assembly 
and vetoed by the Governor. "We main- 
tain that this measure recognizes the just 
debt of Virginia, in this, that it assumes 
two-thirds of all the money Virginia bor- 
rowed, and sets aside the other third to 
West Virginia to be dealt with by her in 
her own way and at her own pleasure; that 
it places those of her creditors who have 
received but G per cent, instalments of in- 
terest in nine years upon an exact eijuality 
with those who by corrupt agencies were 
enabled to absorb and monopolize our 
means of payment ; that it agrees to pay 
such rate of interest on our securities as 
can with certainty be met out of the rev- 
enues of the State, ami that it contains all 
the essential features of finality. 

Third. We reassert onr adherence to the 
Constitutional requirements for the " equal 
and uniform" taxation of jironerty, ex- 
empting none except that specified by the 
Constitution and used exclusively for "re- 
ligious, charitable aud educational pur- 
poses." 



68 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



Fourth. We reassert that the paramount 
obligation of the various works of internal 
improvement is to the people of the State, 
by whose autliority they were created, by 
whose money they were constructed and 
by whose gnice they live ; and it is enjoin- 
ed upcni our representative and executive 
oflicers to enforce the discharge of that 
duty ; to insure to our jjeople such rates, 
facilities and connections as will protect 
every industry and interest against dis- 
crimination, tend to the development of 
our agricultural and mineral resources, en- 
courage the investment of active capital in 
manulactnres and the profitable employ- 
ment of labor in industrial enterprises, 
grasp for our city and our whole State those 
advantages to which by their geographical 
position they are entitled, and fultil all the 
great public ends for which they were de- 
signed. 

Fifth. The Readjusters hold the right to 
a free ballot to be the right preservative of 
all rights, and that it should be maintained 
in every State in the Union. We believe 
the cajjitation tax restriction upon the suf- 
frage in Virginia to be in conflict with the 
XlVth Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States. We believe that it is a 
violation of that condition of reconstruc- 
tion wherein the pledge was given not so 
to amend our State Constitution as to de- 
prive any citizen or class of citizens of a 
tight to vote, except as punishment for 
such crimes as are felony at common lav/. 
We believe such a pi-erequisite to voting to 
be contrary to the genius of our institu- 
tions, the very foundation of which is re- 
presentation as antecedent to taxation. 
We know that it has been a failure as a 
measure for the collection of revenue, the 
pretended reason for its invention in 187G, 
and we know the base, demoralizing and 
dangerous uses to which it has been pros- 
tituted. We know it contributes to the 
increase of monopoly power, and to cor- 
rupting the voter. For these and other 
reasons we adhere to the purpose hitherto 
expressed to provide more effectual legisla- 
ti(m for the collection of this tax, dedicated 
by tlie Constitution to tlie public free 
schools, and to abolish it as a qualification 
ibr and restriction upon sulTrage. 

Sixth. The Readjusters congratulate the 
whole people of Virginia on the progress 
of the last few years in developing mineral 
resources and promoting manufacturing 
enterprises in the State, and they declare 
iht;ir j)ur[)()se to aid these great and grow- 
ing industries by all proper and essential 
legislation, State and Federal. To this end 
they will c<mtinue their efforts in behalf 
of more cordial and fraternal relations be- 
tween the sections and States, and espe- 
cially for that concord and harmony which 
will nuikc the country to know how earn- 
estly and sia>„crely Virginia invites all men 



into her borders as visitors or to become 
citizens without fear of social or jjolitical 
ostracism ; that every man, from whatever 
j section of country, shall enjoy the fullest 
freedom of thought, speech, politics and 
religion, and that the State which first 
formulated these principles as fundamental 
in free government is yet the citadel for 
their exercise and j)rotcction. 



Virginia Democratic. 

[Adopted August 4.j 

The Conservative Democratic party of 
Virginia — Democratic in its Federal rela- 
tions and Conservative in its State policy — 
assembled in convention, in view of the 
present condition of the Union and of this 
Commonwealth, for the clear and distinct 
assertion of its political principles, doth 
declare that we adopt the following articles 
of political faith : 

First. Equality of right and exact jus- 
tice to all men, special privileges to none; 
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
and freedom of the person under the pro- 
tection of the habeas corpus ; of trial by 
juries impartially selected, and of a pure, 
upright and non-partisan judiciaiy ; elec- 
tions by the people, free from force or fraud 
of citizens or of the military and civil of- 
ficers of Government ; and the selection 
for public offices of those who are honest 
and best fitted to fill them ; the support of 
the State governments in all their rights as 
the most competent administrations of our 
domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks 
against anti-republican tendencies ; and 
the preservation of the General Govern- 
ment in its whole constitutional vigor as 
the best sheet-anchor of our peace at home 
and our safety abroad. 

Second. That the maintenance of the 
public credit of Virginia is an essential 
means to the promotion of her prosperity. 
We condemn repudiation in every shape 
and form as a blot upon her honor, a blow 
at her permanent welfare, and an obstacle 
to her progress in wealth, influence and 
power ; and that we will make every effort 
to secure a settlement of the public debt, 
with the consent of her creditors, which is 
consistent with her honor and dictated by 
justice and sound public policy; that it is 
eminently desirable and proper that the 
several classes of the debt now existing 
should be unified, so that equality, which 
is equity, may control in the annual pay- 
ment of interest and the ultimate redemp- 
tion of principal ; that, with a view of se- 
curing such equality, wc pledge our party 
to use all lawful authority to secure a settle- 
ment of the State debt so that there shall 
be but one class of the public debt; that 
we will use all lawful and constitutional 
means in our power to secure a settlement 



POLITICAL I'LATl-'ORMS. 



69 



of the State debt upon the basis of a 3 per 
cent, bund, and that the Couservative- 
Deinocratic party ph'd;jjes itself, as a part 
of its polity, ni)t to increase the present 
rate ol' taxation. 

Third. Tliat we will Uphold, in its full 
constitutional inte>:;rity and ellicieney, our 
j)ul)lic-seh()ol system lor the education of 
i)oth white and colored children — a system 
inaui^uraled by the Constitution of the 
State and established by the action of the 
Conservative party years before it was re- 

auired by the Constitution ; and will take 
le most effectual means for the faithful 
execution of the same by applyinji^ to its 
support all the revenues set apart for that 
object by the Constitution or otherwise. 

Fourth. Uj)on this declaration of prin- 
ciples we cordially invite the co-operation 
of all Conservative Democrats, whatever 
may have been or now are their views 
upon the public debt, in the election of the 
nominees of this Convention and in the 
maintenance of the supremacy of the 
Democratic party in this State. 

Resnh-cd, fnrther, That any intimation, 
coming from any (Quarter, that the Con- 
.servative-D.'mocratic party of Virginia has 
been, is now, or proposes to be, opposed to 
an honest ballot and a fair count, is a 
calumiy upon the State of Virginia asun- 
fountled in fact as it is dishonorable to its 
authors. 

That special efforts be made to foster and 
encourage the agricultural, mechanical, 
mining, manufacturing and other indus- 
trial interests of the State. 

That, in common with all good citizens 
of the Union, we reflect with deep abhor- 
rence u,ion the crime of the man who 
aimed a blow at the life of the eminent 
citizen wlio was called by the constitutional 
voice of fifty millions of people to be the 
President of the United States ; and we 
tender to him and to his friends the sym- 
pathy and respect of this Convention and 
of those we represent, in this great calam- 
ity, and our hearty desire for his complete 
restoration to health and return to the dis- 
charge of his important duties, for the wel- 
fare and honor of our common country. 



COMPARISON OF PLATFORM PLANRS ON GREAT 

POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

General Part}' Doctrine*. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1806— That the 
liberal principles 
embodied by Jeffer- 
son in the Declara- 
tion of Independ- 
ence, and sanctioned 
in the Constitutii>n, 
which makes ours 



REPUBLICAN. 

1856— That the 
maintenance of the 
principles promul- 
gated in the Decla- 
ration of Independ- 
ence and embodied 
in the Federal Con- 
stitution, is essential 



PEMOrUATIC. 

Uie land of liberty 
and the axijhim of 
the oppressed o f 
every nation, have 
ever been cardin:il 
principles in t h c 
Democratic faith; 
ami every attempt to 
abri<l:;e the j)reseiit 
jirivilege of becom- 
ing citizens and the 
ownersof soil among 
us ought to be re- 
sisted with the same 
spirit which swept 
the alien and sedi- 
tion laws from our 
statute books. 

[Plank 8. 



ed. 



1860— Reaffirm- 



lS64— 
18(58— 

1872— "We recog- 
nize the ecpiality of 
all men bef)re the 
law, and hold that 



REPl'ni.K'AJI. 
to the preservation 
of our Kepulilican 
institution.-;, and 
that t!ie Federal 
Constitution, tho 
rights of the Slates, 
and the uidon (jf tijo 
States shall I.e pre- 
served; tiiatwiih our 
Hepublican I'atlierH, 
we hold it t/) be a 
self-evident truth 
that all men are en- 
dowed with the in- 
nlietiable rights to 
ni'e, liberty, and the 
j)ursuit of haj)!)!- 
ness, and that the 
j)rimary object and 
ulterior design of 
our Fe(leral CJovern- 
ment were to secure 
these rights to all 
persons within its 
exclusive jurisdic- 
tion. [Plank 1. 

18G0— That t h e 
maintenance of the 
principles promul- 
gated in the Decla- 
ration of Independ- 
ence and embodied 
in the Federal Con- 
stitution. " That all 
men are created 
equal ; that they are 
endowed by their 
Creator with certain 
inalienable rights ; 
that among these 
are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of hap- 
piness ; that to se- 
c u r e these rights 
governments are in- 
stituted among men, 
deriving their just 
p o w e r s from the 
consent of the gov- 
erned," is essential 
to the jireservation 
of our Republican 
institutions; and 
that the Federal 
Constitution, t h e 
rights of the States, 
and the Union of 
the States must and 
shall be preserved. 
[Plank 2. 

1864— 

i.s(;8— 

1S72 — Complete 
libertv and exact 
e<iuality in the en- 
joyment of all civil, 



70 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

it is the duty of Gov- 
ernment in its deal- 
ings with the peo- 
ple to mete out 
equal and exact jus- 
tice to all, of what- 
ever nativity, race, 
color, or persuasion, 
religious or politi- 
cal. [Plank 1. 



1876— 



1880 — Opposi- 
tion to centraliza- 
tionism, and to that 
dangerous spirit of 
encroachment 
which tends to con- 
solidate the powers 
of all the depart- 
ments in one, and 
thus to create, what- 
ever be the form of 
Government, a real 
dea'^otism. 

LPlank 2. 



REPUBLICAN^. 

political and public 
rights should be cs- 
tablishc'l and elfec- 
tuaUy maintained 
throughout the Un- 
ion by etHeient and 
appropriate State 
and Federal Legis- 
lation. Neither the 
law nor its adminis- 
tration should ad- 
mit any discrimina- 
tion in respect ol' 
citizens by reasons 
of race, creed, color 
or previous condi- 
tion of servitude. 

(Plank 3. 
1S7 G~The United 
States of America is 
a Na t i o n not a 
league. By the com- 
bined Workings oi 
the National and 
{State Governments, 
under their respec- 
t i V e constitutions, 
the rights of every 
citizen are secured 
at home or abroad, 
and the common 
welfare promoted. 

1880— 2%e consti- 
tution of the United 
States is a sn])reme 
law and not a mere 
contract. Out of 
confederate States it 
made a sovereign 
nation. Some pow- 
ers are denied to the 
nation, while others 
are denied to the 
States, but the 
boundary between 
the powers dele- 
gated and those re- 
served is to be dc 
termined by the Na- 
tional, and not b} 
the State tribunal. 
[Cheers.1 
[Plank 2. 



The Rebellion. 



DEMOCRATIC. 
18(J4— That this 
convention does ex- 
plicitly declare, as 
the sense of the 
American people, 
that after Jour ij ears 
of failure to restore 
the Union by the ex- 



REPUBLICAN. 

1864— That it is 
the highest duty of 
every American cit- 
izen to maintain 
against all their 
enemies the integ- 
rity of the Union 
and the paramount 



DEMOCRATIC. 
periment of war, 
during which, un- 
der the pretense of 
a military necessity 
or war-power higher 
than the Constitu- 
tion, the Constitu- 
tion itself has been 
disregarded in every 
part, and public lib- 
erty a n d private 
right alike trodden 
down, and the ma- 
terial prosperity of 
the country essen- 
tially impaired, jus- 
tice, humanity, lib- 
erty, and tlie public 
welfare demand that 
i^nmediate efforts be 
made for a cessation 
of hostilities, with a 
view to the ultimate 
convention of the 
States, or other 
peaceable means, 
to the end that, at 
the earliest practi- 
cable moment peace 
may be restored on 
the basis of the Fed- 
eral Union of the 
States. 

[1st resolution. 



REPUBLICAN. 

authority of the 
Constitution and 
laws of the United 
States ; and that lay- 
ing aside all difler- 
e n c e s of political 
opinions, we pledge 
ourselves as Union 
men, animated by 
a common s e n t i- 
ment, and aiming at 
a common object, to 
d o everything i n 
our power to aid the 
Government, in 
quelling by ibrce of 
arms the rebellion 
now raging against 
its authority, and in 
bringing to the pun- 
ishment due to their 
crimes the rebels 
and traitors arrayed 
against it. 

That we approve 
the determination 
of the Government 
of the United States 
not to compromise 
with rebels, or to 
offer them any terms 
of peace, except 
such as may be 
based upon an un- 
conditional sur- 
render of their hos- 
tility and a return 
to their just allegi- 
ance to the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the 
United States; and 
that we call upon 
the Government to 
maintain this posi- 
tion and to prose- 
cute the war with 
the utmost possible 
vigor to the com- 
plete suppression of 
the rebellion, in full 
reliance upon the 
self-sacrificing pa- 
triotism, the heroic 
valor, and the un- 
dying devotion o f 
the American peo- 
ple to the country 
and its free institu- 
tions. 

[1st and 2d resolu- 
tions.] 



nome Rule. 

DEMOCRATIC. REPUBLICAN. 

1856— That we 1856— * * _♦ 
recot^nize the right The dearest consti- 



POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 



71 



DEMOCRATIC. 

of the people in all 
the Territoriea, iu- 
cludinj!; KanMiw and 
Nebraska, a c ting 
througii the legally 
and I'airly expressed 
will of a majority of 
actual residents, 
and wherever the 
number of their in- 
habit^uits justifies it, 
to form a constitu- 
tion * * * and 
be admitted into the 
Union upon terms 
of perfect equality 
with the other 
States. 



KEiniBLICAX. 
tutional r igh ts of 
the peoj)le of Kan- 
sas have been fraud- 
ulently and violent- 
ly taken from them ; 
their territory has 
been invaded by an 
armed force; spur- 
ious and pretended 
legislative, judicial, 
and executive of- 
ficers have lieen set 
over them, by whose 
usurped authority, 
sustained by tjie 
military power of 
the Government, 
tyrannical and un- 
constitutional laws 
have been enacted 
and enforced ; the 
right of the people 
to keep and bear 
arms has been in- 
fringed ; test-o.aths 
of an extraordinary 
and entangling na- 
ture have been im- 
posed as a condition 
of exercising t h e 
right of suffrage 
and holding office ; 
the right oi an ac- 
cused person to a 
speedy and public 
trial by an impartial 
jury has been de- 
nied ; the right of 
the people to be se- 
cure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers, 
and effects against 
unreasonable 
searches and seiz- 
ures, has been vio- 
lated ; they have 
been deprived of life, 
liberty, and prop- 
erty without due 
process of law ; that 
the freedom of 
speech and of the 
press has been 
abridged ; the right 
to choose their rcp- 
resentatives has 
been made of no 
effect ; murders, rob- 
beries, and arsons 
have been instigated 
and encouraged, 
and the offenders 
have been allowed 
to go unpunished ; 
that all these things 
have been done 



DEMOCKATia 



25 



I860— That when 
the settlers in a Ter- 
ritory, having an ad- 
equate population, 
form a State Consti- 
tution, the right of 
sovereignty com- 
mences, and, being 
consummated by ad- 
mission into the Un- 
ion, they stand on 
an equal footing with 
the people of other 
States ; and the State 
thus organized ought 
to be admitted into 
the Federal Union, 
whether its consti- 
tution prohibits or 
recognizees the insti- 
t u t i o n of slavery. 
[Plank 3, Breckin- 
ridge, Dem. 



1864— 

1868 — After the 
most solemn and 
unanimous pledge of 
both Houses of Of)n- 
gress to prosecute the 
war exclusively for 
tlu^ maintenance of 
the ( rovernment and 
the preservation of 
the Union under the 
Constitution, it [the 
Republican party] 
has reix'atedly vio- 



REI'lini.ICAN. 

with the knowledge, 
sanction, and pro- 
curement o f the 
present Adiiiinis- 
tration, and that for 
this high crime 
against the Consti- 
tution, the Union, 
and hunumity, we 
arraign the .\dmiii- 
istration, the Presi- 
dent, his advisers, 
agents, suiiportcrs, 
apologists, and ac- 
cessories, either be- 
fore or ajler the fact, 
before the country 
and before the 
world ; and that it 
is our fixed purpose 
to bring the actual 
perpetrators of these 
atrocious outrages 
and their accom- 
plices to a sure and 
condign p u n ish- 
ment. (Plank 3. 

1.S60 — That the 
maintenance invio- 
late of the rights of 
the States, and espe- 
cially the right of 
each State to order 
and control its own 
domestic institutions 
according to its own 
judgment exclusive- 
ly, is essential to that 
balance of power on 
which the i)erfection 
and ciiduninceof our 
political fabric de- 
pends; and we de- 
nounce the lawless 
inviLsion by armed 
force of the soil of 
any State or Terri- 
tory, no matter un- 
der what pretext, as 
among the gravest 
of crimes. 

[Plank 4. 

1864— 

1868 — We con- 
gratulate the coun- 
try on the assured 
success of the recon- 
struction policy of 
Congress, as evinced 
by the adoption, in 
the majority of the 
States lately in re- 
bellion, of constitu- 
tions securing equal 
civil and political 
rights to all ; and it 



72 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



DEMOCRATIC, 
lated that most sa- 
cred pledge under 
which alone was ral- 
lied that noble vol- 
unteer aroiy which 
carried our flag to 
victory. Instead of 
restoring the Union, 
it has, so far as in its 
power, dissolved it, 
and subjected ten 
States, in time of 
profound peace, to 
military despotism 
and negro suprema- 
cy. It has nullified 
there the right of 
trial by jury; it has 
abolished the habeas 
corpus, that most sa- 
cred writ of liberty ; 
it has overthrown the 
freedom of speech 
and the press ; it has 
substituted arbitrary 
seizures and arrests, 
and military trials 
and secret star-cham- 
ber inquisitions for 
the constitutional 
tribunals ; it has 
disregarded in time 
of peace the right of 
the people to be free 
from searches and 
seizures ; it has en- 
tered the post and 
telegraph offices, and 
even the private 
rooms of individuals, 
and seized their pri- 
vate papers and let- 
ters without any spe- 
cific charge or notice 
of affidavit, as re- 
quired by the or- 
ganic law ; it has 
converted the Amer- 
can Capitol into a 
bastile ; it has estab- 
lished a system of 
spies and official es- 
pionage to which no 
constitutional mon- 
archy of Europe 
would now dare to 
resort; it has abol- 
ished the right of 
appeal on important 
constitutional ques- 
tions to the supreme 
judicial tribunals, 
and threatens to cur- 
tail or destroy its 
original jurisdictioi^ 
which is irrevocably 



REPUBLICAN. 

is the duty of the 
Government to sus- 
tain those institu- 
tions and prevent 
the people of such 
States from being 
remitted to a state 
of anarchy. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

vested by the Con- 
stitution, while the 
learned Chief Jus- 
tice has been sub- 
jected to the most 
atrocious calumnies, 
merely because he 
would not prostitute 
his high office to the 
support of the false 
and partisan charges 
preferred against the 
President. * * * 
Under its repeated 
assaults the pillars 
of the Government 
are rocking on their 
base, and should it 
succeed in Novem- 
ber next and inaugu- 
rate its President, we 
will meet as a sub- 
jected and conquered 
people, amid the 
ruins of liberty and 
the scattered frag- 
ments of the Consti- 
tution. 

1872— Local self- 
government, with 
impartial suff'rage, 
will guard the rights 
of all citizens more 
securely than any 
centralized power. 
The public welfare 
requires the supre- 
macy of the civil 
over the military au- 
thority, and freedom 
of persons under the 
protection of the ha- 
beas corpus. We de- 
mand for the indi- 
vidual the largest 
liberty consistent 
with public order ; 
for the State self- 
government, and for 
the nation a return 
to the methods of 
peace and the con- 
stitutional limita- 
tions of power. 

[Plank 4. 

1880—* * " Home 
Rule." [Plank 3. 



BEPIJBLICAlf. 



1872 — We hold 
that Congress and 
the President have 
only fulfilled an im- 
perative duty in 
their measures for 
the suppression of 
violent and treason- 
able organizations in 
certain lately rebel- 
lious regions, and for 
the protection of the 
ballot-box; and, 
therefore, they are 
entitled to the thanks 
of the nation. 

[Plank 12L 



1880— 



Internal Improvements* 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1856— That the 
Constitution does 
not confer upon the 
general Government 
the power to com- 



REPUBLICAN. 

1856— That ap- 
propriations by con- 
gress for the im- 
provement of rivem 
and harbors of a na- 



POLITICAL P L A T F RMS. 



7t 



DEMOCRATIC, 
mence and carry on 
a general system of 
internal improve- 
ments. [Plank 2. 



1860— Reafllrmed. 



RICrUBLICAN. 
tional charartiT, rt-- 
quind for the ac- 
commodation and 
security of our exist- 
ing commerce, are 
authorized by the 
Constitution and 
justified by the obli- 
gation of (Joveni- 
ment to nrotect the 
lives anu i)ro{)erty 
of it.s citizens. 

(Plank 7. 
ISGO— That ap- 
propriations by Con- 
gress for river and 
harbor improve- 
ments of a national 
character, requiretl 
for the accommoda- 
tion and security of 
an existing com- 
merce, are author- 
ized by the Constitu- 
tion and justified by 
the obligation of 
Government to pro- 
tect the lives and 
property of its citi- 
zens. [Plank 15. 

1864r— 

1868— 

1872— 

1870— 

1880— * * * That 
we deem it the duty 
of Congress to de- 
velop and improve 
our seacoast and 
harbors, but insist 
that further subsi- 
dies to private per- 
sons or corporations 
must cease. 



Vb» National Debt and lutrrest, thie Public 
Credit* Repudiation, etc. 

DEMOCRATia REPUBLICAN. 



1864— 

1868— 
1872— 
1876— 

1880— Plank 2 of 
1856 reaffirmed. 



1864— 



1864— That the 
National faith, 
pledged for the re- 
uempticm of the 
public debt, must be 
kept inviolate, and 
that for this purpose 
we recommend eco- 
nomy and rigid re- 
sponsibility in the 
public expenditures, 
and a vigorous and 
just system of taxa- 
tion ; and that it is 
the duty of every 



DEMOCRATIC. 



1 8(18— Payment of 
the public del)t of 
till' Tiiited Slates as 
rapidly as jiractica- 
ble; all moneys 
drawn from the peo- 
ple by taxation, ex- 
cept so much as is 
re(iuisite for the ne- 
cessities of the Gov- 
ernment, economi- 
cally administered, 
being honestly ap- 
plied to such pay- 
ment, and whore the 
obligations of the 
Government do not 
expressly stiite upon 
their face, or the law 
under which they 
were issued does not 
j)rovide that they 
shall be paid in coin, 
they ought, in right 
and in justice, to be 
paid in the lawful 
inonei/ of the United 
States. [ Plank 3. 

Equal taxation of 
every species of pro- 
perty according to 
its real value, in- 
cluding Government 
bonds and other 
public securities. 

[Plank 4. 



1872 — "We de- 
mand a system of 
Federal t a x a t ion 
which shall not un- 
nece.ssarily interfere 
with the industrie.s 
of the people, and 



KF.IMIU.ICAN. 
loyal State toHUstaio 
the credit and pro- 
mole the use of the 
National currency. 
[Plank 10. 
1868 — We de- 
nounce all forms of 
repudiation as a Na- 
ticjual crime; and 
the National h(jnor 
recjuires the pay- 
ment of the ijublic 
indebtedness in the 
uttermost pMxl faith 
to all creditors at 
home and abroad, 
not only according 
to the letter, but the 
spirit of the laws 
under which it waa 
contracted. 

[Plank 3. 
It is due to the 
labor of the nation 
that taxation should 
be equalized and re- 
duced as rapidly as 
the national faith 
will permit. 

(Plank 4. 
The national debt, 
contracted as it has 
been for the preser- 
vation of the Union 
for all time to come, 
should be extended 
over a fair jteriod for 
redemption ; and it 
is the duty of Con- 
gress to reduce the 
rate of interest 
thereon whenever it 
can be hone.stly 
done. [Plank 5. 

That tne best jk)- 
licy to diminish our 
burden of debt Ls to 
80 improve our cred- 
it that capitalists 
will seek to loan us 
money at lower rates 
of interest than we 
now pay and must 
continue to pay so 
long a-s repudiation, 
partial or total, open 
or covert, is threat- 
ened or suspected. 
[Plank 6. 
1872— * ♦ * A 
uniform national 
curri'ncy has been 
jirovided. rej)udia- 
tion frowned down, 
the national credit 
sustained under the 



74 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

which shall provide 
the means necessa- 
ry to pay the expen- 
ses of the Govern- 
ment, economically 
administered, the 
pensions, the inter- 
est on the public 
debt, and a mode- 
rate reduction an- 
nually of the princi- 
pal thereof. * * * 

The public credit 
must be sacredly 
maintained, and we 
denounce repudia- 
tion in every form 
and guise. [Plank 7. 

1876 — Reform is 
Hecessary to estab- 
lish a sound curren- 
cy, restore the pub- 
lic credit, and main- 
tain the national 
honor. 



1880— *** Hon- 
est m o n e y — ^t h e 
strict maintenance 
of the public faith 
— consisting of gold 
and silver, and pa- 
per convertible into 
coin on demand ; 
the strict mainte- 
nance of the public 
faith, State and na- 
tional. [Plank 3. 



REPUBLICAN. 

most extraordinary 
burdens, and new 
bonds negotiated at 
lower rates. * * 
[Plank 1. 
We denounce re- 
pudiation of the 
public debt, in any 
form of disguise, as 
a national crime. 
We witness with 
pride the reduction 
of the principal of 
the debt, and of the 
rates of interest upon 
the balance. 

[Plank 18. 

1876— In the first 
act of Congress 
signed by President 
Grant, the National 
Government as- 
sumed to remove 
any doubts of its 
purpose to discharge 
all just obligations 
to the public credi- 
tors, and " solemnly 
pledged its faith to 
make provision at 
the earliest practica- 
ble period for the 
redemption of the 
United States notes 
in coin." Commer- 
cial prosperity, pub- 
lic morals, and na- 
tional credit demand 
that this promise be 
fulfilled by a con- 
tinuance and steady 
progress to specie 
payment. [Plank 4. 

1880— It [the Re- 
publican party] has 
raised the value of 
our paper currency 
from 38 per cent, to 
the par of gold [ap- 
plause] ; it has re- 
stored, upon a solid 
ba.sis, payment in 
coin of all national 
obligations, and ha.s 
given us a currency 
absolutely good and 
equal in every part 
of our extended 
country [applause] ; 
it has lifted the 
credit of the nation 
from the point of 
where 6 per cent, 
bonds sold at 86, to 
that where 4 per 



DEMOCRATIC. 



REPUBLICAN. 

cent, bonds are 
eagerly sought at a 
premium. 

[Preamble. 



Resmnptlon. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1872 — A speedy 
return to specie pay- 
ment is demanded 
alike by the highest 
c o n s i d e rations of 
commercial morali- 
ty and honest gov- 
ernment. 

[Plank 8. 

1876 — We de- 
nounce the financial 
imbecility and im- 
morality of that 
party, which, during 
eleven years of 
peace, has made no 
advance toward re- 
sumiDtion, no jirepa- 
ration for resump- 
tion, but instead has 
obstructed resimiiJ- 
tion, by wasting our 
resources and ex- 
hausting all our sur- 
plus income ; and, 
while annually pro- 
fessing to intend a 
speedy return to 
specie payments, 
has annually enac- 
ted fresh hindrances 
thereto. As such 
hindrance we de- 
nounce the resump- 
tion clause of the act 
o/'1875, and we here 
demand its repeal. 

1880—* * * Hon- 
est money, * * * 
consisting of gold, 
and silver, and pa- 
per convertible into 
coin on demand. 



REPUBLICAN. 

1872—* * * Our 
excellent national 
currency will be 
perfected by a spee- 
dy resumption of 
specie payment. 
[Plank 13. 



1876— In the first 
act of Congress 
signed by President 
Grant, the National 
Government as- 
sumed to remove 
any doubts of its 
purpose to discharge 
all just obligations 
to the public credi- 
tors, and solemnly 
pledged its faith . 
to make provision 
at the "earliest 
practicable period 
for the redemption 
of the United States 
notes in coin." Com- 
mercial prosperity, 
public morals and 
national credit de- 
mand that this pro- 
mise be fulfilled hy 
a continuous and 
steady progress to 
specie payment. 

1880— * * * It 
[the Republican 
party] has restored, 
upon a solid basis, 
payment in coin oJF 
all National obli- 
g a t i o n s , and has 
given us a currency 
absolutely good and 
equal in every part 
of our extended 
country. 



Capital and Labor. 



DEMOCRATIC. 
1868 — Resolved, 
That this conven- 
tion sympathize cor- 
d i a 1 1 y with the 
working men of the 
United States in 



REPUBLICAK, 

1868— 



1' (J J. 1 T I C A L PL A 'J' F () K M S . 



DEMOCIIATIC. 

their eflbrU to pro- 
tect the rights and 
interests of the la- 
boring classes of the 
country. 
1872— 



1880— The Demo- 
cratic party is the 
friend of labor and 
the laboring man, 
and pledges itself to 
protect him alike 
against the cormo- 
rant and the com- 
mune. [Plank 13. 



KEI'UBLK'AN. 



1872 — Among the 
questions wliich 
press for attention is 
that whicli concerns 
the relations of capi- 
tal and labor, and 
the Republican par- 
ty recognizes tlietlu- 
ty of so shaping le- 
gislation aa to secure 
mil protection and 
the amplest Held for 
capital, and for labor, 
the creator of capital 
the largest opportu- 
nities and a just 
share of the mutual 
profits of these two 
great servants of ci- 
vilization. 

[Plank 11. 
1880— 



Tariff; 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1856 — The time 
has come for the 
people of the United 
States to declare 
themselves in favor 
of * * * progressive 
free trade through- 
out the world, by 
solemn manifesta- 
tions, to place their 
moral influence at 
the side of their suc- 
cessful example. 
[Resolve i. 

That justice and 
sound policy forbid 
the Federal Govern- 
ment to foster one 
branch of industry 
to the detriment of 
any other, or to 
cherish the interests 
of one portion to 
the injury of another 
portion of our com- 
mon country. 

[Plank -L 



REPUBLICAN. 
1856— 



DKMOCllATir. 

1860— Reafirraed. 



1864— 

1868— * » * A 
tariff for revenue 
upon foreign im- 
ports, and such equal 
taxation under the 
Internal Revenue 
laws as will aflfbrd 
incidental protec- 
tion to domestic 
manufactures, and 
as will, without im- 
pairing the revenue, 
impose the least 
burden upon and 
best promote and 
encourage the great 
industrial interests 
of the country. 

[Plank 6. 

1872— * * * * Re- 
cognizing that there 
are in our midst 
hone^st hut irrecon- 
cilable dinbrcnces of 
opinion witli regard 
to the respective 
systems of protection 
and free trade, we 
remit the discu.ssion 
of the subject to the 
people in their Con- 
gressional districts, 
and to the decision 
of the Congre-ss 
thereon, wholly free 
truni executive in- 



HKITJil.K AN. 
1H6(» -That, whilo 

f)rf)viding revenue 
or the hupiiort of 
the general ( Jovern- 
ment by dutieM uinm 
imports, s(»un<l j«)li- 
cy re<juires Hueh an 
adjustment of tlu*se 
imposts iis to encour- 
age the development 
or the indusiniil in- 
terests of the whole 
country ; and we 
commend thai poli- 
cy of national ex- 
cnanges which se- 
cures to the work- 
ingmen liberal wa- 
ges, toagrieulture re- 
munerative pricea, 
to mechanics and 
manufacturers an 
ade<iuate reward for 
their skill, labor, and 
enterprise, and to 
the nation commer- 
cial prosperity and 
independence. 

[Plank 12. 
1864— 
1868— 



1872— • » ♦ ♦ 
Revenue except 
so much a-s may 
be derived from a 
tax upon tfibacco 
and li(|Mors, should 
be raised by duties 
upon imj)urtation8, 
the detiiils of wliich 
should be so adjusted 
as to aid in securing 
remunerative wages 
to labor, an<l pro- 
mote the industries, 
prosperity, and 

growth of the whole 
country. [Plank 7. 



76 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

terference or dicta- 
tion. [Plank 6. 

1876— **** We 
demand that all 
custom-house taxa- 
tion shall be only/or 
revenue. 

[Plank 11. 



1880— * * * * A 
tariff for revenue on- 
ly. [Plank 3. 



REPUBLICAN. 



1876— The reve- 
nue necessary for 
current expendi- 
tures and the obliga- 
tions of the public 
debt must be largely 
derived from duties 
upon importations, 
which so far as pos- 
sible, should be ad- 
justed to promote 
the interests of 
American labor and 
advance the prosper- 
ity of the whole 
country. [Plank 8. 

1880— Reaffirmed. 



Education. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1876— The fa,lse 
issue with which 
they [the Republi- 
cans] would enkindle 
sectarian strife in re- 
spect to the public 
schools, of which 
the establishment 
and support belong 
exclusively to the 
several States, and 
which the Democra- 
tic party has cherish- 
ed from their foun- 
dation, and is resolv- 
ed to maintain with- 
out prejudice or 
preference for any 
class, sect, or creed, 
and without larges- 
ses from the Trea- 
sury to any. 

1880— ***Com- 
mon Schools foster- 
ed and protected. 
[Plank 2. 



DEMOCRATIC. 



REPUBLICAK. 

1876— The public 
school system of the 
several States is the 
bulwark of the 
American Republic, 
and with a view to 
its security and per- 
manence we recom- 
mend an Amend- 
ment to the Consti- 
tution of the United 
States, forbidding 
the application of 
any public funds or 
property for the ben- 
efit of any schools or 
institutions under 
sectarian control. 
[Plank 4. 



1880— The work 
of popular education 
is one left to the 
care of the several 
States, but it is the 
duty of the National 
Government to aid 
that work to the ex- 
tent of its constitu- 
tional ability. The 
intelligence of the 
nation is but the 
aggregate of the in- 
telligence in the 
several States, and 
the destiny of the 
Nation must be 



REPUBLICAN. 

guided, not by the 
genius of any one 
State, but by the 
average genius of 
all. [Plank 3. 



Duty to Union Soldiers and Sallora. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1864— That the 
sympathy of the De- 
mocratic party is 
heartily and earnest- 
ly extended to the 
soldiery of our army 
and sailors of our 
navy, who are and 
have been in the field 
and on the sea under 
the flag of our coun- 
try, and, in the event 
of its attaining pow- 
er, they will receive 
all the care, protec- 
tion, and regard that 
the brave soldiers 
and sailors of the 
Republic so nobly 
earned. [Plank 6. 



1868— ******* 
That our soldiers 
and sailors, who car- 
ried the flag of our 
country to victory, 
against a most gal- 
lant and determined 
foe, must ever be 
gratefully remem- 
bered, and all! the 
guarantees given in 
their favor must be 
faithfully carried 
into execution. 



REPUBLICAN. 

1864— That the 
thanks of the Ameri- 
can people are due 
to the soldiers and 
sailors of the army 
and navy, who have 
periled their lives in 
defense of the coun- 
try and in vindica- 
tion of the honor of 
its flag ; that the na- 
tion owes to them 
some permanent re- 
cognition of their pa- 
triotism and their 
valor, and ample and 
permanent provi- 
sion for those of their 
survivors who have 
received disabling 
and honorable 

wounds in the serv- 
ice of the country ; 
and that the memor- 
ies of those who have 
fallen in its defence 
shall be held in 
grateful and ever- 
lasting r e m e m- 
brance. [Plank 4. 

1868— Of all who 
were faithful in the 
trials of the late war, 
there were none en- 
titled to more espe- 
cial honor than the 
brave soldiers and 
seamen who endured 
the hardships of 
campaign and cruise 
and imperiled their 
lives in the service 
of their country ; 
the bounties and 
pensions provided 
by the laws for these 
brave defenders of 
the nation are obli- 
gations never to be 
forgotten ; the wi- 
dows and orphans of 
the gallant dead are 
the wards of the peo- 
ple — a sacred legacy 
bequeathed to the 
nation's care. 

[Plank 10. 



POLITICAL I'LATFUliMS. 



77 



DExMOCRATIC, 

1872—* We re- 
member with grati- 
tude the heroism 
and sacrifices of the 
soldiers and sailors 
of the Ropiiltlic, and 
no act of ours shall 
ever detract from 
their justly earned 
fame for the full re- 
ward of their patriot- 
isnr [Plank 9. 



REl'lTHLICAX. 
1S72— Wehold in 
undying honor the 
soldiers and sailors 
wliose valor saved 
the Union. Their 
l)ensi(nisare asucred 
deht of the nation, 
and the widows and 
orphans of tiiose 
who died for thi'ir 
country are entitled 
to the care of a gen- 
erous and grateful 
people. We favor 
such additional le- 
gislation as will ex- 
tend the hounty of 
the Government to 
all our soldiers and 
sailors who were 
honorahly discharg- 
ed, and who in the 
line of duty became 
disabled, without re- 
gard to the length of 
service or the cause 
of such discharge. 
I Plank 8. 

1876— The pledges 
Avhich the nation 
has given to her 
soldiers and sailors 
must be fulfilled, 
and a grateful jjeople 
will always hold 
those who imperiled 
their lives for the 
country's preserva- 
tion, in the kindest 
remembrance. 

[ Plank 14. 

1880— That the 
obligations of the 
Rei)ublic to the men 
who jireserved its in- 
tegrity in the day of 
battle are undimin- 
ished by the lapse 
of fifteen years since 
their final victory. 
To do them lionor 
is and shall forever 
be the grateful pri- 
vilege and sacred 
duty of the Ameri- 
can people. 



Natitrallzatlou and Allef^ance. 



DEMOCUATIC. 
duty of this CJovern- 
ment to protect the 
naturalized citizen 
in all his rights, 
whether at home or 
in foreign lands, to 
the same e.vtent iis 
'ts native-born ci- 
tizens. [Plank G. 



1876—*** The 
soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic, and 
the widows and or- 
phans of those who 
have fallen in battle, 
have a just claim 
upon the care, pro- 
tection, and grati- 
tude of their fellow- 
citizens. 
[Last resolution. 

1880— 



DEMOCRATIC. 

I860— That the De- 
mocracy of the Uni- 
ted States recognize 
it as the imperative 



REPUBLICAX. 

1860 — The Re- 
publican party is 
opposed to any 
change in our na- 



1864— 

1868 — Equal 
rights and protec- 
tion for naturalized 
and native-born citi- 
zens at home and 
abroad, the assertion 
of American nation- 
ality which shall 
command the re- 
spect of foreign 
powers, and furnish 
an example and en- 
couragement to j^eo- 
ple struggling for 
national integrity, 
constitutional libiT- 
ty, and individual 
rights and the main- 
tenance of the rights 
of naturalized citi- 
zens against the ab- 
solute doctrine of 
immutable allegi- 
ance, and the claims 
of foreign powers to 
punish them for al- 
leged crime com- 
mitted beyond their 
jurisdiction. 

[Plank 8. 



1872— 



UKI'fUMCAV. 
turalizatiun lawn, or 
any State iegi«lation 
by which the rights 
of citizenship liith- 
erto accorded to iin- 
migrants Irom for- 
eign lands shall be 
abridged or impair- 
ed ; and in favor of 
giving a fidl and ef- 
ficient jinHection to 
the right of all clas- 
ses of citizens, 
whether native or 
naturalized, both 
home and abroad. 
[Plank 14. 
1864— 

l«t;,S— The doc- 
trine of (rreat Bri- 
tain and other Euro- 
pean Powers, that 
because a man is 
once a subject he is 
always s(), miLst be 
resisted at every 
hazard by the Uni- 
ted States, as a re- 
lic of feudal times, 
not authorized by 
the laws of nations, 
and at war with our 
national honor and 
independence. Na- 
tural izeil citizens are 
entitled to protec- 
tion in all their 
rights of citizenship 
as though they were 
native-born ; and no 
citizen of the United 
States, native or na- 
turalized, niu.st be 
liable to arrest and 
imi)risonment by 
any foreign power 
for acts done or 
words spoken in this 
country ; and, if so 
arrestt'd and im- 
prisoned, it is the 
duty of the Govern- 
ment to interfere in 
his behalf 

[Plank 9. 
1872 — The doc- 
trine of Great Bri- 
tain and other Eu- 
ropean Powers con- 
cerning allegiance 
— '' once a subject 
always a subject " — 
h a r i n (J at last, 
thrnuf/h the effurts 
of the Rejmhlican 
parti/, Incit aban- 



78 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



DBMOOBATIC. 



1876- 



1880— 



REPUBLICAN. 

doned, and the Ame- 
rican idea of the in- 
dividual's right to 
transfer allegiance 
having been accep- 
ted by European 
nations, it is the 
duty of our Govern- 
ment to guard with 
jealous care the 
rights of adopted 
citizens against the 
assumption of unau- 
thorised claims by 
their former Gov- 
ernments, and we 
urge continued care- 
ful encouragement 
and protection of 
voluntary immigra- 
tion. [Plank 9. 
1876— It is the im- 

Serative duty of the 
rovernment so to 
modify existing trea- 
ties with European 
governments, that 
the same protection 
shall be afforded to 
the adopted Ameri- 
can citizen that is 
given to the native- 
born, and that all 
necessary laws 
should be passed to 
protect emigrants in 
the absence of pow- 
er in the State for 
that purpose. 

[Plank 10. 
1880— * * * * 
Everywhere the pro- 
tection accorded to a 
citizen of American 
birth must be se- 
cured to citizens by 
American adoption. 
[Plank 5. 



The Cliliiese. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1876 — Reform is 
necessary to correct 
the omissions of a 
Republican Con- 
gress, and the errors 
of our treaties and 
our diplomacy, 
which have stripped 
our fellow-citizens 
of foreign birth and 
kindred race re- 
crossing the Atlan- 
tic, of the shield of 
American citizcn- 



REPUBLICAN. 

1876— It is the 
immediate duty of 
Congress to fully in- 
vestigate the effect 
of the immigration 
and importation 
of Mongolians upon 
the moral and ma- 
terial interests of the 
country. 

[Plank 11. 



DEMOCRATIC. 

ship, and have ex- 
posed our brethren 
of the Pacific coast 
to the incursions of 
a race not sprung 
from the same great 
parent stock, and in 
fact now by law de- 
nied citizenship 
through naturaliza- 
tion as being neither 
accustomed to the 
traditions of a pro- 
gressive civili- 
zation nor ex- 
ercised in liberty 
under equal laws. 
We denounce the 
policy which thus 
discards the liberty- 
loving German and 
tolerates a revival of 
the coolie trade in 
Mongolian women 
imported for im- 
moral purposes, and 
Mongolian men held 
to perform sen'ile 
labor contracts, and 
demand such modi- 
fication of the trea- 
ty with the Chinese 
Empire, or such le- 
gislation within con- 
stitutional limita- 
tions, as shall pre- 
vent further impor- 
tation or immigra- 
tion of the Mongo- 
lian race. 

1880 — Amend- 
ment of the Burlin- 
game Treaty. No 
more Chinese immi- 
gration, except for 
travel, education, 
and foreign com- 
merce, and therein 
carefully guarded. 
[Plank 11. 



BEPUBLICAH. 



1880— Since the 
authority to regu- 
late immigration 
and intercourse be- 
tween the United 
States and foreign 
nations rests with 
the Congress of the 
United States and 
the treaty-making 
power, the Republi- 
can party, regarding 
the unrestricted im- 
migration of Chinese 
as a matter of grave 
concernment under 
the exercise of both 
these powers, would 
limit and restrict 
that immigration by 
the enactment of 
such just, humane, 
and reasonable laws 
and treaties as will 
produce that result. 
[Plank 6. 



POLITICA f. I'LATFOKMS. 



79 



DEMOCRATIC. 

1872 — The civil 
service of the gov- 
ernment lias become 
a mere instrument 
of partisan tyranny 
ana personal ambi- 
tion ami an object of 
selfish greed. It is 
a scandal and re- 
proach upon free in- 
stitutions and breeds 
a d e m oral iza- 
tion dangerous to 
the i)erpetuity of 
Republican (xovern- 
ment. We therefore 
regard a thorough 
reform of the civil 
service as one of the 
most pressing neces- 
sities of the hour; 
that honesty, ca- 
pacity and fideli- 
ty constitute the 
only valid claim to 
public employment ; 
and the offices of the 
Government cease 
to be a matter of ar- 
bitrary favoritism 
and patronage, and 
public station be- 
come again a post 
of honor. To this 
end it is imperative- 
ly required that no 
President shall be a 
candidate for re- 
election. 

1876 — Reform is 
necessary in the 
civil service. Ex- 
perience that proves 
efficient, economical 
conduct of Govern- 
mental business is 
not possible if the 
civil service be sub- 
ject to change at 
every election, be a 
prize fought for at 
the ballot-box, be a 
brief reward of party 
zeal, instead of posts 
of honor assigned for 
proved competency, 
and held for fidelity 
in the public em- 



Serrlcc. 

UKPUIIMCAN. 
1872 — Any system 
of the civil service, 
under which the 
subordiiuite posi- 
tions of till- tJovern- 
ment are considered 
rewards for mere 
party zeal is fatally 
tlemoralizing, and 
we therefore favor a 
reform of the system 
by laws which shall 
abolish the evils of 
patronage and make 
honesty, efliciency 
and fidelity the es- 
sential qualifications 
for public positions, 
without practically 
creating a life ten 
ure of office. 

[Plank 5. 



1876— Under the 
Constitu t i o n the 
President and heads 
of Departments are 
to make nomina- 
tions for office ; the 
Senate is to advise 
and consent to ap- 
pointments, and the 
House of Rejjresen- 
tatives to accuse and 
prosecute faithless 
officers. The be-st 
interest of the pub- 
lic service demands 
that these distinc- 
tions be respected ; 
that Senators and 
Representa fives 



DEMOfRATir. 

ploy ; that the dis- 
pensing of patron- 
age should neither 
be a tax upon the 
time of all our pub- 
lic men, nor the in- 
strument of their 
ambition. 



1880— * * Tho- 
rough reform in the 
civil service. 



nKI'l-IU.KAN. 
who may be judgm 
and accusers should 
not dictate appoint- 
nicnt.s t<i oflice. The 
invariable rule in 
a p \)i) i n t m en tM 
shoulil have refer- 
ence to the honesty, 
fidelity and capacity 
of the ap|)oint4'e«, 
piving to the |)arty 
in jiower those 
places where iiarmo- 
ny and vigor of ad- 
ministrati(jn re<]uire 
iU policy to be re- 
presented, but per- 
mitting all others U> 
be filled by persons 
selected witli sole 
reference to the effi- 
ciency of the i)ublic 
service, and the 
right of all citizens 
to share in the honor 
of rendering faith- 
ful service to the 
country. 

[Plank .0. 

1S80 — The Re- 
pul)lican party, ad- 
hering to the nrin- 
ciple.s affirmed by 
its last National 
Convention of re- 
spect for the Consti- 
tutional rules gov- 
erning ap po i nt- 
ments to office, 
adopts the declara- 
tion of President 
Hayes, that the re- 
form of the civil ser- 
vice should be tho- 
rough, radical and 
complete. To this 
end it demands the 
co-operation of the 
legislative with the 
executive d e j) art- 
ments of the Gov- 
ernment, and that 
Congress shall so 
legislate that fitness, 
ascertained by pro- 
per praitical teats, 
shall admit to the 
public service. 



80 



TABULATED HISTORY— ELECTOR AL VOTE. 



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AMERICAN POLITICS. 



81 



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82 



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AMERICAN POLITICS. 



83 





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TABULATED HISTORY— APPORTIONMENT. 



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TABULATED II 1 STO R Y— AM ERIC A N TARIFFS. 



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86 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



STATUTES OF lilMITATIONS. 

State Laws with reference to limitations of actions, show- 
ing the limit of time on which action may be brought. 



States and 
Tebritoeies. 



Yrs 
1 
1 
3 
1 
1 
2 
1 
1 
2 
1 
3 
1 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 
2 
3 
2 
2 
2 
1 
1 
2 
2 

Nevada ] 2,6 

New Hampshire 1 

New Jersey 2 

New Mexico 1 

New York 1 

North Carolina 1 

Ohio 1 

Ontario (U. Canada); 1 

Oregon t 2 

Pennsylvania j 1 

Quebec (L. Canada): 1,2 

Rhode Island ! 1 

South Carolina 2 

Tennessee 1 

Texas 1 

Utah 1 

Vermont i 2 

Virginia ; 6 

Washingron Tertryl 2 

West Virginia 5 

Wisconsin , 2 

Wyoming , 1 



AlabaTia 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Dakota 

Delaware 

Dist. of Columbia.. 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Illinois , 

Indiana , 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky , 

Louisiana. 

Maine , 

Maryland 

Ma.«sachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi , 

Missouri , 

Montana 

Nebraska . 



Yrs. 
3 
3 
2 
2 
6 
6 
3 
3 
5 
4 
2 
5 
6 
5 
3 
5 
3 
6 
3 
6 
6 
6 
3 
4 
2 
6 
6 

6 
3 
6 
3 
6 
5 
1 
6 
5 
6 
6 
6 
2 
2 
6 
5 
3 
5 
6 
6 



Yrs. 

6 

5 

4 

2 

6 

6 

6 

3 

3 

6 

4 
10 
20 
10 

5 

5 

5 
20 

3 
20 

6 

6 

6 

5 

4 
20 
20 

6 
10 
15 
10 
15 

5 

6 

6 

5 

6 

6 

6 

4 

4 
14 

5 

6 

6 

6 
15 



Yrs. 
20 
10 

5 

3 

6 
20 
20 
12 
20 

7 

6 
20 
20 
20 

5 
15 
10 
20 
12 
20 
10 
10 

7 

6 

5 
20 
20 
10 
20 
10 
15 
10 
15 
30 
10 
20 
30 
20 
20 
20 
10 

5 

8 
10 

9 
10 
20 
10 



4* £ 2 



Yrs. 
10 
10 

5 

3 
17 
20 
20 
12 
20 
20 

5 
10 
20 
10 
15 
15 
20 
20 
12 
20 
10 
20 

7 
10 

4 
10 
20 
10 
20 
10 
15 
10 
15 
30 
20 
20 
30 
20 
20 

10 

7 

8 
20 
20 
10 
20 
21 



The Recent American TarlfTs, under Re- 
-vised Statutes, Sec. 3491, et seq. 

COMMODITIES. KATE OF DUTY. 

Ale, porter, and beer — in bottles.... 35 c. per gall. 

" " " in casks 25 c. per gall. 

Aniline dyes or colors {andSS^p.'c.'} 

Animal!), living — cattle, hogs, 

horses, sheep, etc 20 per cent. 

Barley 15 c. per bush. 

Books and other prmted matter.... 25 per cent. 

Hraids of straw .'$0 per cent. 

Brushes 40 per cent. 

Buttons 30 per cent. 

Cheese 4 c. per lb. 

China, porcelain and parian ware, 
plain, white, and not decorated 

in any manner 45 per cent. 

Do. gilded, ornamented or deco- 
rated in any manner 50 per cent. 

Do. other earthen, stone, or crock- 
ery ware, white, glazed, edged, 
printed, or dipped, or cream 

colored 40 per cent. 

Coal, bitumen, and shale 75 c. per ton. 

Corsets and corset-cloth, valued at 

|6 per dozen, or less $2 per doz. 

Do. valued over $fi per dozen 35 per cent. 

Cotton, manufactures of — plain 
bleskched, value 20 cents or less 
pw square y»rd b% c. per sq. yd. 



COMMODFTIES. EATE OF DUTY. 

Do. printed or colored, value 25 ('534 c. per sq. > 
cents or less per square yard \ yd. A 20 p. c. j 

Do. Hosiery 36 per cent. 

Do. LacPB, cords, braids, gimps, 
galloons and cotton laces, colored 
and insertings 35 per cent. 

Do. Thread-yarn, warps, or warp- 
yarn noi wound on spools, valued 
at over 60 and not exceeding 80 f 30 c. per lb.) 
cents per pound 1 and 20 p. c./ 

Cotton, valued at over 80 cents per 140 c. per lb. ) 
pound t and 20 p. c. | 

Do. Velvet, velveteens, velvet bind- 
ings, ribbons, and vestings 35 per cent. 

Currants, Zante, or other 1 c. per lb. 

Diamonds (cut), cameos, mosaics, 
gems, pearls, rubies, and other 
precious stones, not set 10 per cent 

Dolls 35 per cent. 

Embroideries, of cotton or wool.... 35 per cent. 

Fans 35 per cent. 

Feathers, ostrich, cock, and other 
ornamental 25 per cent. 

Feathers and fiowers, artificial and 
ornamental, not otherwise pro- 
vided for 50 per cent. 

Figs 21^0. per lb. 

Fire-crackers, in boxes of 40 packs, 
not exceeding 80 to the pack $1 per box. 

Flax linens, valued at 30 cents or 
less per square yard 35 per cent. 

Do. valued at above 30 cents per 
square yard 40 per cent. 

Do. Burlaps, and like manufac- 
tures of flax, jute, or hemp, of 
which either shall be the com- 

Eonent of chief value (except 
agging for cotton 30 per cent 

Do. Duck, canvas, paddings, cotton 

bottoms, diapers, crash, hucka- 
backs, handkerchiefs (not hem- 
med), lawns, or other manufac- 
tures of flax, jute, or hemp, 

valued at 30 cents or less per 

square j'ard 35 per cent. 

Do. valued at above 30 cents per 

sqnare yard 40 per cent. 

Do. Thread, twine and pack-thread 40 per cent. 
Do. all other manufacture^ of flax 

not otherwise provided for 40 per cent. 

Fruits and nuts : — 

Almonds, not shelled 6 c. per lb. 

" shelled 10 c. per lb. 

Filberts and walnuts 3 c. per lb. 

Prunes 1 c. per lb. 

Raisins 2}4 c. per lb. 

Furs, and manufactures of 20 per cent. 

Glass-ware : — 

Porcelain, Bohemian, cut, en- 
graved, painted, colored, printed, 

stained, silvered, or gilded, not 

including plate-glass silvered, or 

looking-glass plates 40 per cent, 

Plate-glass, east, polished, not 

silvered, above 24 by 30, and not 

above 24 by 60 25 c. per sq. ft. 

Above 24 by 60 50 c per sq. ft. 

Window-glass, cylinder, crown, 

or common, unpolished, above 10 

by 15 and not above 16 by 24 2 c. per lb. 

Above 16 by 24 and not above 24 

by 30 '. 2^ C. per lb. 

Above 24 by 30 3 c. per lb. 

Manufactures of, not otherwise 

specified 40 per cent. 

Hats, bonnets, and hoods, straw.... 40 per cent. 

Hemp, jute, and other fibre:— 

Bflgs, cotton-bags, and bagging 

(except bagging for cotton) 40 per cent. 

.Tute and sunn-hemp 816 per ton. 

Jute butts - »6 per ton. 

Manila, India, and other like sub- 

stitutes for hemp 825 per ton. 

India Rubber, manufactures of:— 

Braces, webbing, etc 35 per cent. 

Iron and steel, manufactures of: — 

In slabs, blooms, loop.s, etc 35 per cent. 

Pig-iron S7 per ton. 

Scrap-iron, old, wrought 88 per ton. 

Manufactures of iron, not other- 
wise provided for 35 per cent 



TABULATED HISTORY— AMERICAN TARIi TS. 



87 



COMMODITIM. tAT« OF DUTT. 

Iron and stocl, riianufaottirea of: — 
Stool, and iniiiuit'aotiirtv* of |H<n- 
knivi-8, jauk-kiiivcs uiid poi-ktit- 

l*i*''«^ 60 per pont. 

All oiheir cutlery, including 8W(ird 

*>'»f<0'' 35 por cent. 

In inijot.M, bars, coils, slicfts. umi 
8t«el-wlro, not less tlian l^ inch 
diamoter, valued at 7 cents por 

pound or loss 214 C- por lb. 

Valued at above 7 CBiit.s and not 

over U cents per pound 3 c. per lb 

Mu^^U^ts, riflea, and other (iro- 

a"""?," ■ 35 per cent. 

lljulway bar, or rails, wholly of 

«t"el Ij^ c. per lb. 

Man utac lures of steel, not other- 
wise provided for 45 per cent 

Jewelry of Rold, silver, or other 

metal, or imitations ol. 25 per cent. 

L^ad, and tnanufaotures of: — 

Piss and bars, ami molten 2 c. per lb. 

Leather, and manufactures of: — 
Calf-skin», tanned, or tanned and 

dres-ed 25 por cent. 

Gloves, of kid or leather, of all 

descriptions 50 per cent. 

Upper leather of all kin<is, and 

skins, dressed and tinished, of all 

kinds, not ot'ierwlse provided for 20 per cent. 

Manufactures of, and articles of 

leather, or of which leather shall 

be a component part, not other- 

wise provided for 35 percent. 

Lemons and oranges 20 per cent. 

Marble, and manufactures of: 

Veined and all other, in block, (."iO c. per cu.) 
rouj^hed or squared, not other- -j ft. A 20 p. c. V 

wise specified ( per cu. ft. j 

Mats of cocoa-nut china, and all 
other floor-matting, of flags, jute, 

or KTixss 30 per cent. 

Metal, manufactures of. not other- 

wise nrovided for 3.5 per cent. 

Musical instruments .30 per cent. 

Oils, olive, salad, in bottles or flasks 8l per gall. 

i>P"<im 81 per lb. 

Opium prepared lor smoking 80 per lb. 

PaiiitiUKS and statuary, not by 

American artl.sts 10 per cent. 

Papier-mache, manufactures, arti- 
cles, and wares of 35 per cent. 

Pickles, sauces, and capers 35 per cent. 

Rice.eleaned 2>^ c. per lb. 

Salt, in bags, sacks, barrels, or 

other packages 12 c. per ino lbs. 

Salt in bulk 8 c. per 100 lbs. 

Sardines and anchovies, packed in 

oil or otherwi.se 4 c. per box. 

Seed», flaxs. or lius. (56 lbs. to bush ) 20 c. per bush. 
Silk : — 
Braids, laces, fringes, galloons, 
buttons, and ornaments, dress 

and piece goods „ 60 per cent. 

velvets CO per cent. 

Ribbons oo per cent. 

Ribbons (edge of cotton) 50 per cent. 

Silk manufactures not otherwise 
provided for, made of silk, or of 
which .'"ilk is the component or 

chief value CO per cent. 

Manufactures of, which have as 
a component thereof 25 per cent., 
or over, In value of cotton, flax, 

wool, or worsted 60 per c^nt. 

Soda caustic li^ c. per lb. 

SoJa ash U c. per lb. 

Spices: 

Cassia, and Cassia Vera 10 o. per Ih. 

Nutmegs 20 c. per lb. 

Pepper, black and white grain ... 5 c. per lb. 
Spirits and wines: — 

Brandy, proof $2 per gall. ' 

Cordials, liqueurs, arrack, ab- 
sinthe, kirschwasser, ratafia 82 per gall. 

Spirits, other, manufactured or 

distilled from grain 82 per gall. 

Spirits, other (except brandv), 
manufa<'tured or distilled from 

other •iiat*>riRls 82 per pall. 

Cologne-wati'r and other pe--- (St per >rall. ) 
funaery, of which alcohol forms -^ and 5o per c. V 
the principal ingredient I. per gall. J 

26 



COMMODITIEa. 

Sugar and moliLsMen:— 

.Molll.HseM 

MolasHBH concentrated, toiik-uVt- 
loiiiM, Hirup of HUKurH:aiio, ni;d 



a*T« or BtTr, 

6 r. plu< •/.■» 

p<'r ci-ni. 



J« r lb. i 

y "'"''"1" t 2.'.V. p.;rlb > 

•^"^'»r: / ix/ ,. ..1... 



All notabove No. 7 Dutch standard 
Above No. 7 and not aboru .Nu. 



lAi 

1 i'< p 



pill* 
p lb 



Aoovo .>o. 7 and not aboru .Nu. f 2 c. p|,i„ -/.i 

\*{ V.--" •, iP- <•. |M.r lb. ■ 

Above No. 7 iind not above .No. ID i ,• p,.r lb 
Above No. l:i and not above No. ('J^i r. pluoi', » 

-p'" ■ I p. e. p..rlb. r 

Tartar, cream of f,j ,. jl^^ n, ' 

Tartar, argols, other than crude..... S c. per lb 

I in, plates or nheets i mo „. p«r"lU 

lobac(!o, and maniifactureH of: - 

Loaf, unmanufactured and not 

"'•""nod 34 e. p*r Ih. 

Cigars, cigarettes, and cherooU.. J and r. p. c. V 

Toys, wooden and other ») pl-r ,.^'„t. 

Watches, of gold or silver 25 pep ceal. 

\\ men, (-'hampagne, and all other 

sparkling, in bottles, cd'htalnina 

not more than 1 pint ea'.-h and 

more than J^ pint 

Wines, Champagne, and all other 

spsrkling, in bottles, contuiiiing 

not more than 1 quart ainl nn.rn 

than 1 pint dozins 

" .Still wines, in casks galls. 

" in bottles, containing each not 

more than 1 quart and not more 

than 1 pint doz. bots. 

Wood : Hoard.i, planks, deals and 

other lumber M. ft. 

" -Manufactures of, not otherwise 

provided for , 

Wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, 

etc. : Raw and manufactured, 

Class No. 1, clothing wool, value 

32 cents or less per lb lbs. 



93 per dozen. 



i<> per <lo». 
•40 c. per Kull. 



$1 60 per dox. 
82 per M. ft, 
36 per cent 

f 10c. per lb.) 
1 * 11 p.c. j" 



' Value 32 cents or less 
pound _ _ 

Value over 32 cents per 

pound '. lbs. 

Class No. 2, value over 32 cents 

per pound lbs. 

Claws No. 3, carpet and other 
similar wools, valued at 12 cents 

or less per lb lbs. 

Value over 12 cents per 

pound lbs. 

Carpets and carpetings of all ( 
kinds, .\ubusson and Axminsler, J 

r ) 



p.. (IOC. p. lb. 4) 

( 10 per c. ) 
/ 12 c. per lb. I 

1 & K. p. c. ; 
} 



I IJ c. per lb. 
( A lu p. c. 



and carpets woven whole for 

rooms «q. yds. 

Brussels carpet wrought by Ilac- 
quard machine nq. yd. 

" Brussels tapestry, printed on 
the warp or otherwise sq. yds. 

" Patent velvet and tapestry vel- 
vet, printed on the w.irp or 
otherwisd sq. yds. 

" Dress goods, women and chil- 
dren's, ancl real or imitation 
Italian cloths, valued at not ex- 
ceeding 20 cents per sq. 
yd sq. yds. 

" Valued at above 20 cents per 
square yil f(\. yds. 

" Dress goods, women and chil- 
dren>, and real or imitation 
Italian cloths, weighing 4 ounces 
and over per square yard lbs. 

" Hosier^', valued at alx)ve 80 
cents per pound lbs. 

" Manufactures not otherwi.xo 
speiMfied, valued at above 80 
cents p«r pound - lbs. 

Wool cloths „..Ib8. 



3 c. per lb. 
8 c. per lb. 

60 per cent, \ 

J 44 c. per sq. ] 
I yd.&.^-.p.c.J 

i2S c. per .-q. i 
yd. A 35 p.c. J 
40 o. per sq 
yd. A 36 p.c. 



! fl c. per sq. I 
yd. A 35 p. c. I 



fs c. per sq. » 
I yd. A 40 p.c. J 

I 50 c. per lb. ! 
1 A 35 p. c. r 

f .Vi p. por lb. I 
1 A 35 p. c. / 

J .Wic. per lb.) 
1 A.T3p. c. j" 

/.Vic. per lb. ) 
1 A.^5p. o { 
f .Vi o. \H'r lb. 
a. i A .15 p. o.. 
(less 10 p. r. 

" Clothing-articles Of wear lbs. | ■'*'A''4,r^'" j.'' 

" Clothing-ready-made lbs. { ^ '40'^.'' c!"' 



Cloths - lb.« 



88 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



OOMMODITIRS. 

Wool, manufactures wholly or in 
part of, not otherwise provided 
for lbs. 

*• Shawls, woolen lbs. 

" Worsted, etc., not otherwise pro- 
vided for lbs. 



BATE OF DUTY. ( COMMODITIES. HATE OF DUTY. 

"Webbings, beltines, bindings, ( ^,^ ,, ) 

braids, galloons, fringes, cord- } ^V;,?®"" ^- > 

buttons, etc lbs! ( * ^^ P" ""■ i 

" Yarns, valued at above 80 cents )50 c. per lb.) 

per pound lbs. \ & 5() p. c. j 

Zinc, in sheets 234 c. per lb. 




THE CUSTOMS TARIFF OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

' No protective duties are now levied on goods imported, Customs duties being charged solely for the sake 
of revenue. Formerly the articles subject to duty numbered nearly a thousand ; now they are only twen- 
ty-two, the chief being tobacco, spirits, tea, and wine. The following is a complete list: 



Articles. Duty. 

£ s. d. 
Ale or beer, spec, gravity not exceeding 

lor,5°, per hl.l 8 

Ale or beer, spec, gravity not exceeding 

1090°, per bbl 11 

Ale or beer, spec, gravity exceeding 1090°, 

per bbl 16 

Beer, Mum, per bbl 110 

Beer, spruce, spec, gravity not exceeding 

1190°, per bbl 110 

Beer, spruce, exceeding 1190°, per barrel.. 14 

Cards, playing, per doz. packs 3 9 

Chickory (raw or kiln-dried), cwt- 13 3 

Chicorv "(roasted or ground), lb 2 

Chloral hydrate, pound 13 

Chloroform, pound 3 

Cocoa, pound 1 

Cocoa, cwt., husks and shells 2 

Cocoa paste and chocolate, pound 2 

Coffee, raw, cwt OHO 

Coffee, kiln-dried, roasted or ground, per 

p und 2 

Collodion, gallon 14 

Essence of spruce, 10 per cent, ad valorem 

Ethyl, iodide of, gallon 13 

Ether, gallon 1 ,5 

Fruit, dried, cwt _ 7 



Articlks. Duty. 
£ s. "s. 

Malt, per quarter 14 9 

Naphtha, purified, gallon 10 5 

Pickles, in vinegar, gallon 1 

Plate, gold, ounce 017 

Plate, silver, ounce 16 

Spirits, brandy, Geneva, rum, etc., gallon. 10 H 

Spirits, rum, from British Colonies, gallon 10 2 

Spirits, cologne water, gallon.. IG 6 

Tea, pound 6 

Tobacco, unmanufactured, 11) 3 1?^ 

Tobacco, containing less tljan ten per ct. 

of moisture, lb 3 6 

Cavendish or Negro head 4 6 

Other manufactured toViacco 4 

Snuff, containicg more than 13 percent. 

of moisture, lb 3 9 

Snuff, less than 13 per cent, of moisture, lb. 4 6 

Tobacco, cigars, ponnd ."i 

Varnish, coniaining alcohol, gallon 12 

Vinegar, gallon 3 

Wine, containing less than 26° proof spi- 
rit, gallon 10 

Wine, containing more than 20° and less 

than 42 spirit, gallon 2 6 

Wine, for each additional degree of 

strength beyond 42°, gallon 3 



PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS. 



Terra 

*1 
2 
3 

4 
5 
6 
7 

8 

9 
10 
H 
12 
13 
14 
14a 

15 
16 

10a 
17 



18 
19 

20 
tOa 

21 

22 

2S 
24 
24a 



PRESIDENTS. 
Name. 



Qualified. 



VICE-PRESIDEETS. 
Name. 



Qualified. 



George Washington April 30,1789 

" " March 4, 1793 

John Adams March 4,1797 

Thomas Jefferson March 4, IBnl 

" " March 4,1805 

James Madison March 4,1809 

" " March 4, 1813 

James Monroe March 4,1817 

" March 5,1821 

John Q. Adams March 4,1825 

Andrew Jackson March 4, 1829 

" " March 4, 1833 

Martin Van Buren March 4,1837 

Wm. H. Harrison March 4,1841 

John Tyler April 6,1841 

James K. Polk March 4, 1845 

Z.achary Tavlor M.areh .5, 1849 

Millard Fillmore July 10,1,1.^.0 

Franklin Pierce March 4, 1853 



JameR Buchanan March 4,18.57 

Abraham Lincoln March 4, ISiU 

" March 4, isr.5 

Andrew Johnson April 15,1805 

Ulysses S. Grant March 4, lsr,9 

" " March 4, 1873 

Rntherford B. Hayes March 5, 1877 

James A. Garfield March 4,1881 

Chester A. Arthur Oct. 20,1881 



John Adams - June 3, 

" " Dec. 2, 

Thomas JefTerson March 4, 

Aaron Burr March 4, 

George Clinton Marcli 4, 

" " March 4, 

Elbridge Gerry March 4, 

John Gaillard Nov. 2.5, 

Daniel D. Tompkins March 4, 

" '• March 5, 

John C. Calhoun March 4, 

" " March 4, 

Martin Van Buren JIarch 4, 

Richard M. Johnson March 4, 

John Tyler March 4, 

•tSamuel L. Southard April 6, 

fWillie P. Mangum May 31. 

George M. Dallas March 4, 

Millard Fillmore March 6. 

tWilliam R. King Inly 11, 

William R. King March 4, 

tDavid R. Atchih-on April 18, 

tJesxo D Bright Dec. 5, 

John C. Breckinridge JIarch 4, 

Hannibal Hamlin March 4, 

Andrew Johnson March 4, 

fLafavette S. Foster April 15, 

tBenfamin F. Wade March 2, 

Schuyler Colfax .-» March 4, 

Henrv Wilson March 4, 

fThofnas W. Ferry Nov. 22. 

William A. Wheeler March 5, 

Che!,t>^r A. Arthur oMarch 4' 

tThomas F. Bayard Oct. 12, 

flJavid Davi.s Oct. 13, 



1789 
1793 
1797 
1801 
1805 
1809 
1813 
1814 
1817 
1821 
1825 
1829 
1S33 
1837 
1841 
1841 
1842 
1S45 
1,140 
18.50 
1853 
1853 

^^■rA 

18,57 
1801 
IXH.i 
1805 
18G7 
181:9 
1873 
1.V75 
1877 
1881 
1881 
1881 



*The figures in this column mark the terms held by the Presidents. 
\ Acting Vice-President and President pro tern, of the Senate, 



TABULATED IIISTO R Y— IM) 1> L' I, A II VoTK. 



89 



SUMMAHY OP POPULAR, A:VI» KI.KiTOHAI. VOTKS IN IMlIiSIDEXTlAl. 
KL.l!:CTIO.\'S, 17HU INNU. 





o 


• 
_ o 

'^ 4) 


Piirty. 


CandidatM. 


1 

3 

CO 


Popular Vote. 


1 

> 

i 


ITS'J 


10 

15 
10 

IG 


73 

135 
133 

138 




Oworgi' WHHlilngtuD 




OS 
9 










■* "■ 






.Idliii Jav 




*****'** 






U U. fliirri'<oii 

.Ii>hn KiitliMluH 




~ J.." 






« 
4 










tteorjjc (,'lititiin 






3 












a 












2 










1 
1 
1 

4 

l.Ti 
















Ivlwiid Telfair 
















' 1792 


Foderalist 










Federalist 








77 




Kepuhlicim 

Rcpulilioaa 








M 










4 












1 








I 


3 


179G 


Fodoralist 


•Tolin Ailatn^ 


1 


71 






1 


C4 




Fi'denilist 








69 












30 












IS 












11 












7 










6 












3 












2 










2 










2 












1 


1800 










73 








J 


73 








1 


63 








1 


M 




Federalist 


John Jay 


t 


1 



1S04 
1308 



1816 



1824 



24 



17fi 



Party. 



For President. 



Republifaii [Thomas .letfeison 15 

Federalist 'Ctias. C. Pinckiiey 2 



Repulilioan. 
Republieaii.. 
Feiloralist ... 



iJames Madison I 12 

Georce Clinton I 

Chas. C Pinctcney ' 5 



Vacancy.. 



Ippuhlioan James Madison I 11 

Federalist JDe Witt Clinton | 7 

' Vacancy 



llepuhliean., 
Federalist. 



.i.Iames Monroe 10 

.iRiifus Kiii« 3 



Vacancies.. 



Republican., 



'v'^pn'ilie'»n.. 
Repiihliem.. 
R'>publiean., 
Republiean. 



James Monroe.. 
John Q- Adams. 



Vaeancie.s., 



,Andrew JneUs'-in.. 
iJMiii Q. Ariams.... 
jWm. ri Crawford. 

Henrv Clay 



24 



Popular 
Vote. 



1.V..R72 
1(15 :»J1 

44,'.'82 
'40,587 



U 



For Vice-President. 



Ifii'GeorKe Cliiilori 



(i'ZiieorKe L,niiii)ri i io'4 

14iRufus King ! U 



122|GeorKe Clinton. 

(iLlames Madison. 

47|Kufii» Kin;: , 

|.li)hn Langdon.. 

James Monroe.. 

1, 



128 Elbridfio Gerrv. 

BOiJared Ingersoll. 

11 



18310. D.Tompkins.. 
34lJolin E. Howard 

I.Iames Ross 

John .Marshall ... 

Roht. O. Harper. 
4 



231 D. D Tompkins— 
lIRieh. Stockton.... 
l>aniol Rodnev .... 
Roht. G. Hirpir.. , 
Richard Rush 



113 
3 
4T 
9 
3 
1 

131 

86 

1 

183 

23 
5 

4 
3 

4 

218 
8 

4 
1 
I 

S 



W> .Tohn C. Cidhotin „..j IW 

^ Nathan Sanfnrd » 

•♦''Nathaniel M'leon ..| " 

'1, \ndrewr Jneksnn _.. !•* 

M. Van Biiren | • 

Henry Clay -.» * 



90 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



SUMMARY OP POPULAR AND EliECTORAL VOTES.— [Continuel.l 



>• 


"o 

IB 


_ o 
'1 


Party. 


For President. 




Popular 
Vote. 


> 
o 

s 


For Vice-President. 


1 
> 










M2S 


24 
24 

20 

20 

26 
30 
31 
31 
33 

30 
37 
37 

33 
38 


201 

28 s 

294 

294 

275 
290 
296 
290 
303 

314 
317 
306 

309 

309 






15 

9 


647,231 

509,097 


178 
83 




171 




Nat. Republican 




Kieliiird R jsIi 


83 








7 


1«^? 


LVmocratic 


Andrew Jackon 


15 
7 

1 
1 


687,50_' 

5; 10, 1 89 

.33,108 


219 

49 

7 

11 




189 




Nat. Republican 


Henrv Clay 




49 




William Wirt 




7 




e 




Henrv Lee 

William Wilkin'^ 


11 








30 










761,549 

[ 736,656 

1,275,017 

1,1-8.702 

7,059 


2 

170 
73 
26 
14 
11 

2.34 
00 




2 


)83G 


Democratic 


Martin Van Buren 

\Vm. H. Harrison 


15 
7 
2 
1 

I 

19 
7 


R. M. Johnson 


147 




Whig 




77 




Huph L. White 

Daniel Webster 


Jchn Tyler.. 


47 






23 












1840 


Whig 




John Tyler 


234 






Martin Van Buren 




48 


















1 . W. Tazewell 


11 














James K. PulL 

Geo M. Dallas 

T. Frelinghuysen. 


1 


1844 






15 
11 


1,33-' ,243 

1,299,068 
62,300 

1.360,101 

1,220, '44 
291,2'J3 

1 601,474 

1.3!-6,.57S 
156,149 

1.838,169 

1,34 1.204 

874,534 

1,860,352 
845,763 

1,375,157 
689,581 

?,21fi,nr,7 

l,s08,726 


170 
105 


170 




Whig 




105 










1848 


Whig 


Zaeharv Taylor 


15 
15 

27 
4 


103 
127 

254 
42 

174 
114 

8 

180 
72 
12 
39 

212 
21 
81 

214 

80 
23 

280 

■■■42 

18 
2 
1 


Millard Fillmore 


103 








Wm. 0. Butler 


127 




Free Soil 


Martin Van Buren 


Chas. F. Adams 




1852 




Wm. R. King 


2.54 




Whig 


Winfield Scott 




42 




Free Democracy 

Democratic 


John P. Hale 


Geo. W. Julian 




185G 




19 
11 
1 

17 
11 
2 
3 

22 
3 
11 

26 
8 
3 

31 

6 


J. C. Breckinriiige 


174 






114 










8 


1860 








ISO 






J. C. Breckinridge 


Joseph Lane 


72 




Democnitic 

•'Const. Union " 




12 




John Bell 


Edward Everett 


39 


1864 


Abraham Lincoln 

Geo. B. McOlellan 


Andrew Johnson 


212 






Geo. H Pendleton 


''I 








81 


1868 




Ulysses S. Grant 


3,015,071 
2,709,013 


Schuvler Colfax 


''U 




Democratic 




F. P. Blair, Jr 


80 








?3 


1872 




Ulvsses S. Orant 


3,597,070 
2.834,079 

29.408 
5,008 




286 




Dem. and Lib. Rep... 






47 






John Q. Adams 












A. H. Colquite 


5 






T. A. Hendricks 




John M. Palmer 


3 






B. Gratz Brown 






Geo. W. Julian 


5 












T. F. Bramlette 


3 












W. 8. Groesbeck 


1 












Willis B. Machen 


1 














N. P. Banks 


1 












17 

185 
184 

214 




14 


1876 




R. B. FTave.'' 


21 

17 


.4.033,950 

4,284. .885 
81.740 
9,5J2 

4,442.9.50 

4,442.035 

3or,,S67 

12.,576 


Wm. A. Whp'ler 


185 




Deinoc'ratic 


S J Tilden 


T. A. Hendrick.-^ 


184 






8. F. Carv 












R. T. Stewart 




18W) 






19 
19 


Chester A. Arthur 


214 






W. S. Hancock, 


155 Wm. H. Enelish 


1,55 










B. J. Chambers 








Scattering 










* Not voting— .Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia. Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 

t Not voting — Mississippi, Texas, and Virgini.a. 

t Seventeen votes reiected, viz. : 3 from Georgia for Horace Greeley (dead), and 8 from Louisiana, and 
6 from Arkansas for U. 8. Grant 



TABULATED II I STO II Y -C A IJ I N KT () I'F 1 C KUS, 



91 



CABIXICT OKPICURM UK TIIK AOMi:VI8TIlATIUaril. 



Gbobqb Wasiiinoton, Prosidont. 

I. and II.; l7.s'J-17U7. 

fie.cretnri/ of State, Thonuii Jflforson, Virninla, 
fiej.UMJil).-r 2r,th, 17v.( ; Kdiiiiiiiil Rundolph, Viruiniii, 
Jrtniiiiry 2d, 17'J4; Timothy I'ii'koiinK. l'<-niiHylvi»niii, 
Deooiniier llllii, 17'.>'). Sfcrrtnn/ of Treaxuni, Ah-.x- 
nndcr Hamilton, N-nv Vork, Soplptiilxir Uili, 178'J; 
Olivi'i- Wolooit, t'oiin.-ctieuij Ki'biiitry 'id, 17'.l.'). 
Sccrtlary of' tViir, Hi-nry Knox, Mus^iiclniMftlH, 
8-pttMiii>or IJtIi, 17*.); Tirnnihy rii'UiTiii);, IVmiii- 
Nylv*i)i:i, .Iiiuimry ".id, I7U.>; Jiimos MniU-iirv, Miiry- 
liind, Iiiiumrv '^701, IT'.W. Altornen Oencnil, fMmuiid 
Kii'iii.)lpi<, VirKiiiiii, S'ptemiior 2r,tli, 17H0; William 
Bradf'ir<l, Peiuisvlvnniii, .liiniiiiry 27th, 17'.it; Chnrlm 
Leo, V'irninia, l)ooninhor lotli, n<ir>. Pu.itnt'tslcr- 
OenernI,* Samui'l Osgood, Massiiohu'^i'tls, Suptt-tn- 
ber 2('.th, 178'j; 'PiiriDi iy Pii-korinit, Pt-nu-ylviinin, 
Au>?UNt 12lh, 17!)1 ; Josepli llubcrtiham, Oeorgiu, 
February 25th, 1795. 

John .Xbams, President. 

III.; 17!)7-1801. 

Secretary of Stale, Timothv Piokerinir, eonlinuftd ; 
Joii'i Marshall, Virgiuiii, .May l;lth, 1800. Sa-retani 
of Trea-surt/, Oliver Woloot contiiiUHii; .Kamiiol 
Dexter, .MiiHsaohusetts. .January 1st, 1801. Sonlan/ 
of Wiir, James MeHiMiry, eoiitinued; Samuel Oex- 
ter, Alivisachusetts, May 13ih, ISki; R.)v;fr (J'iswold, 
Connecticut, February 3d, 18ol. .S'TrcMn/ of iVaix/.t 
George Cahot, Massachusetts, .May 3d, 1798: B^mja- 
min Stod'lert, Maryland, .May 21st, 1798. Attnrru'n- 
Oencral, Charles Lee, continued; The iphilus I'ar- 
Bons, Massachusetts, February 20th, 1801. P^jst- 
master- General, Joseph Habersliam, continued. 

Thomas jErFEnsojJ, President. 

IV. and v.; 1801-1809. 

Serrrtari/nf Slate, James Madi-mn, Vir'.;ini.a, March 
6th, 18(11. '.SVcnyrtn/ of Trcusuni, Saiii'lel I)xtor, 
enntinu' (1; Albert Gallatin, Penn.syl ania, IMay llih, 
1801. Sxrelari/ of War, Henry Pearhorn, Mas-a'-hu- 
petts. March 5th, 1801. Secrctnri/ of Navi/, B'njamin 
Stxddari, eon inued: Robert Smith, Maryland, .Inly 
15th, isoi ; Jac'ibCrowninshield, Massachusetts, May, 
3d, 18'i5. Attorney-Ocneral. Levi Lincoln, Massa- 
chusetts. March 5th, ISoi; Robert Smith, Marylaml, 
March 3d, 1805; John Hreckinridg", Kentucky, 
Au/ust7tu, 1805; Coesar A. Rodnev, Pcnnsvlvani", 
January 2:1tli, 1807. Postmastcr-Oe^iera/' J o:<i'ph 
Habersham, continued; Gideon Granger, Connecti- 
cut, November 28th, 1801. 

James Madisow, President. 

VL and VII. ; 1809-1817. 

Secretary of State, Robert Sf^ith, Maryland, March 
filh, 18iiO;~ James .Monroe, Virginia, April 2d. 1811. 
Secretari/ of Tre^isttn/. .Mbert Gallatin, (continued; 
George W. ("ampbcll, T-mne-isee, Kcbrnnry 9th, 
1814; A. J. D.^llas, P nnsvlvania, October r.th, 1814; 
William II. ( rawfopl, (ieortjis, October 22d, IHKi. 
S-erelnitj of War. William Eusti-', Ma-'sachusott«, 
March 7th, 1809; John Arin-'tr m^. New York, .lanu- 
ary 13th. 1813; James .M mroe, Virciina, September 
i!7th, 18U; William H. Crawford, Georitia, August 
l-'t, 1815. Sccretarii of A'Tri/, Paul Hamilton, South 
Carolin >, March 7th, 1809; Wi Ham Jones, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 12th, 1813; H. W. Cro- ninshield. 
Massachu.sett.s, December 191*), 181 1. Attorncii-f'ieii- 
era', C. A. Rodnev, continu -rl ; William Pincknev, 
Maryland, December lltli, 18il; Richard Rush, 
Peunivlvania, February loih, 181'. P >.ftmaster-Oen- 
eral. Giileon Graniter, contmued; Return J Meig;*, 
Ohio, March 17th, 1814. 



♦Not a Cabinet officer, but a subordinate of tlie 
Trea.sury Department until 1829. 

t N >v:d affairs were under the control of the Sec- 
retary of War until asepnrat'* Navy DepartTii-iit was 
organze i by Act of April .30th, " 179S. T'le A>'ls 
organizing the oihT D-'parlments were of the f>l- 
l^win■4 dates: Slate, Sentember 15th, 17K9: Treaxnrn, 
September 2d, 17W; War, Augu-t 7th, 1789 The 
Attornm'-G^neral's dotie.s were rouulated by the 
JuJiciary Act of September 24th. 1789. 



.Iamm Munboe, PreRtdeDi. 
VIII. and IX ; 1HI7-IH;U. 
Seeretary of State, John Uuliicy Adntnn, Ma* arh» 
«ptts, March 5lh, 1H17. .Sr<Trf/irj/ «/ 7V«j*urv, Wl^ 
liHiii li. Crawford, conlliiued. Stcrctary of Wnr, 
(Jeorge (Jraliam, Virginia, April 7ih, 1M17; J. din C. 
Ciillniun, .South Carolina, OcIoIht Mih. IH17. Sa-rrlnrm 
of Navy, 11. W. CrowiiiiiH|ii,.|.|, coniluuod; H'ltitS 
Thutnpsoii, .New York, NoverrilM-r :> |i, Hls; JoIid 
Rogers, MatHaehu-i'tiH, .S.-pti-inlM-r Ut, H.'t, H.tiuui-1 
\.. Soulliard, .New Jur->v, Svpi.-rii-KT l>.lh \KJX 
Allorncu-di-neral, Rii-hard 11111111 continued . Wlllliira 
Wirt, VirKiiiia, Niv»<iiib<T 13lli, 1«17. Pf/ntitfutrt. 
General, U. .1. .Mi-lgs, coiiluiuud ; John M<-I.mU^ 
Ohio, Juno 20tli, IKZ). 

Jou.N QuiNCT AnAM*, Proaidcnt. 
X.; I8i5-1««). 
Seeretartf of Statr^ Henrv Clav, Kentucky, Marefc 
7th, 18i5. Secretary of 'Trtaaliry, Ric-hard Ril»h, 
Pennsylvania, .March 7th, 1825. Srrrrlary of War, 
.lames Harbour, Virginia, .March 7th, iHi'i; Pirer B. 
Porter, New York, May 2tjtli lHi«. Sfi-rrlnriiof SaOti, 
S li.Soiithar I, Continued. AtUirney-Urnrrol, Williara 
Wirt, continued. Puatnuuiter-Oeiicral, i Am McLeaik, 
cuntiuued. 

Andrew Jackson, Prcident. 
XI. ant XII.; 18-29-lH:j7. 
Secrelai-y of State, Martin Van Huron, New Vork, 
March (Ith, 1829; Kdward I.i iiikCslou, LouisUiiA, 
M ly 24tli, 1811 ; Louis McL.in-, Delaware, .M ,y /^ith, 
ls:{.3; Jiibn Forsyth, (Jcorgia, June ;^7ili, ItU .S.yr». 
tnrii of rnyi-surv, Samuel I). Inghani, Penn.sylvnnia, 
.March (Uh, '8-'9; Louis Mi-Lanc, Ivlawar -, Auifur-t 
hlh, 18;il; William J. Duane PeniiHylvaiiiii, .May 
29ili, ls:i.3; Roger H. Taney, Marvlan'd, .Septerrit)er 
■2:id. Is.TJ; Levi Woodburv, New Hamp-hiie, Jube 
27tli, 1834. Sccrctanj of U'cir John H. Eaton Te|>. 
ii'-ssee, March 9tlp, 182t); Lewis ('asx, ^Iiciiigar^ 
August 1st, 1831; Benjamin F Butler, .N.-w Yorn. 
March 3d, 18.J7. Secrctaru of iV'tui/, John Brancfi, 
North Carolina. March 9th, 18J.t ; Levi Wo..|bury, 
.New Hami.Bliire, May 2:)d, 1831 ; .Mahlon DieUer?.or», 
New Jersey, June 30th, 1.S.34. Allornei-Oefrra/, J.)l.l> 
.M. Berrien, (icorgia. March 9th. l«2'.t; Roger H. 
Tanev, Mctrvlan<l, Julv 20th, ls.ll ; Henjaniin K. 
Butler, New Vork, November I5tli, 18.^^. P ^t'nasU-r- 
Genera/, Willi:iin T. Barry, Kentueky. JI ireh 9lll, 
1829; Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May Ut, l^.i5. 

Mabtin Van Bcren, President. 
XIII.; 18.37- 1.S41. 
Secretary of Stalr^ .John Forsyth, continued. Sr-T^ 
tary of Treasury, Levi Woodlinry continued. Scerb- 
tari/ nf Ifir, ,loel R. Poin.sett. Soiitli (•ftr.dina, .Mar( fi 
7tli, i.^37. Secretary of Navy, .Mahlon I»|ekers.in, 
continued; Jnuies K. Paulding, .New York, I me 
25th, 1838. Attorney- Generat, Beniamin F Butler; 
Feli.x Grundy, Tennessee, .July 5tn, Ih;J8 : Henrv D. 
• iilpin, Penn.sylvania. January luh. ISIo. P.st' 
ni'Uitcr General, .Vmo^ Kendall, continued ; John .M. 
Niles, Conuecti ut. May 19th, 1840. 

Wm. U. IIabbison and .Ioiin Tyler, PresidentJi. 

XIV.; 18II-18I5. 
Secretin/ of State. I>aniel Websfer, Ma«»"a'"hii«eft/», 
.March Sth,■ls^l: Hueb .S. Legtr-. .'J.viith Carolbia, 
May 9t'i, 1843; A. P Cp-hur. Virginia, Inly 24lh, 
1813; .John C. Calhoun. South Carolina, March fth, 
1844. Sccretaru of Trecvoirji, Thomas Emni:, Ohi«^ 
Mandi 5th, ISM : Waller Forward, Pennsvlva-ila, 
September 13th, ISIl ; John C. Spen-er, New York, 
.March 3(1,1811; (J -orge M. Bibb, Kent-i.-kv. Jiil»e 
1.5tli, 1S44. Sicretartj of Hnr. John Bell, Tenne« e«, 
March .' ih, 1841 ; John Mcl^enn, Ohio, Sepleml^r 
13th, 1841 ; J din C. Sp ncer. New Y >rk. Otof-r 
I2th, 1811 ; James .M. Porter, Pennsvhanii. M'i'ch 
8th, isl't; William Wilkin", Pennsvlvania, Fel*- 
ruarv 15th, ISI4. Sfcrel'iry of Savii.C. K. BaHi'cr, 
North Carolina, .Mnreh 5th, ISO : A. P I'pshur, Vir- 
ginia, September 13th, 1841: Imvi.l Henshnw, Mw^ 
-.achusetfi, Julv 21th, 18^3: T. W. Gilmer. VInfinia, 
Febroarv 15th', |.s44: John Y. Ma«"n. Vinf>nls 
March llth, 1S14. Altnrncy,■Ge■^rrnt..^ >\\n I. Pritt-n- 
den, Kentiiekv, March "th. HII Hos'> 9 I,^e-.r^, 
South Carolin.a, <''ptemVr 13th Hii ; J..hn Ne|«nQ, 
Marvland, Jnlv l-f. 1«I3. fa\fmMtrrGe,trral. Fra'.- 
cH Ctranvrer. N 'W York. Mar-h it I'. HH : Charles K. 
Wickliffe, Kentucky, September 13th, li»*l. 



92 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



James K. Polk, Presidext. 
XV. ; 1845-1849. 
Sccretan/ of State'Ji\mea Buchanan, Pennsylvania, 
March 0th, 184'). Secrc.tnrij of Treasury, Robert J. 
Walker, Mi-sissippi, Man^'n 0th, 184.""). Sccretarii of 
WuT. William L. M:ircy, New York. March 6th, 18t.l 
Necretari/ of Xavi/, Gjoige Bancroft, Massachusetts, 
March loth, 1845; John Y. Mason, Septemher 9th, 
1846, Attorneii-Qeneral, John Y Mason, Virginia, 
Ma;vh 5t,h, 1845; NatliHii ClifTord, Maine, Oetober 
17lh, 1846. Postmaster- Ocneral, Cave Johnson, Ten- 
neisee, March 6th, 1845. 

Zachakt Taylob and Millard Fillmobe, Presidents 
XVI.; 1849-1853. 
(Secretary of State, John M. Clayton, Delaware, 
March 7th, 1840; Daniel Webster," aiassachuselts, 
July 22<i, 1850; Kdward Everett, Massacliusetts, 
DeC'^mher 0th, >I52. Secretari/ of Treasury. W. M. 
Meredith, Pennsylvania, March 8th, 1><4!) ; Thomis 
Corwin, Ohio, July 23il, 18.iO. Secretary or War, 
George W. Crawford, Georgia, March '8th, 1849; 
Winiield Scott {ad iiiterini). .July 2.id,\8i>0 ; Charles 
M. Conrad, Louisiana, August 15ih, 1850. Secretary 
of Nairn, \Villiam B. Preston, Virginia, March Stti, 
1849; William A. Grahatn, North Carolina, July 22d, 
18)1); J. P. Kennedy, Maryland. July 22d, 1852. Sec- 
re.tani of Interior, Thoina-i H. Bwing, Ohio, March 
6th, 1849: A. H. H. Stuart, Virginia, September 12th, 
1850. Attorney Oeneral., Reverdy Johnson, Mary- 
land, March 8th,is49; John J. Crittenden. KentU''ky, 
July 22d, 18.50. Post master -Oeneral, Jacob ('ollamer, 
Vermont, March 8th, 1849; Nathan K. Hall, Ne'* 
York. July 2:5d, 1850; S. D Hubbard, Cunuecticut, 
August 31st, 1852. 

Franklin Piebce, President. 
XVII.; 1853-18.57. 
Secretary of State, Williain L. Marcy, New York, 
March 'ith. 18'>3. Secretari/ of TVeasury, James 
(fUthie, Ken uckj', March 7lh, 1853. Secretary 
<,f War, Jetterson Davi-i, Mis.sissippi, March 7th, 
I8.i3 Secretary of Navy, Jam^-s C. Dobbin, 

North Carolina, March 7'th, 1855. Secretari/ of 
Inti-rior, Robert McClelland, MichigHn, March 7th, 
1K53; Jacob Thompson, Mis-issippi,"March Oth, 1850. 
Attorney-Oeneral, Caleb Custiing, Massachusetts, 
March 7th, 1853. Postmaster Oe-'cral, James Camp- 
bell, Pennsylvania, Marcli 7th, 1853. 

James Buchanan, President. 
XVIII.; 1857 1861. 
Secretary of State. Linvis Cass, Michigan, March 
6th, 1857; J. S. Black, Pennsylvania, December 17th, 
IWio. Secretary of Treasury,' \ii'>viA[ Cobb, Georgia, 
March oth, 1x57 ; Philip F. Thomas, Maryland, 
Dc^cembcr Hth, 1860; John A. Di.x, New York.'janu- 
hry lltn. 1801. Secretari/ of War, John E. Floyd, Vir- 
ginia, March Ot.ti, 18.57: Joseph Holt. Kentn''ky, 
January 18ih,1801. Secretari/ of A^«r;/, Isaac Toueey, 
Connecticut. March Oth, 1857. Secretary of Interior 
Jacob Thompson, continued. Attorneu-General, J. S. 
Black, Pennsylvania, March Oth, 1857; E. M. Stan- 
ton, Pennsylvania, December 20th, 1860. Postmaster- 
Gen^rai, Aaron V. Brown, Tenn ssee, March Oth, 
1857; Joseph Holt, Kentucky. March 14th, 1859; 
Horatio King, Maine, February 12th, 1861. 

Abraham Linco'n and Andhbw Johnson, Presidents. 
XIX. and XX.: 18011809. 
S-.n-etari/ of State, \\\\V\Am II. Seward, New York. 
March 5th, 1801. Sem-lan/ of Treasun/, S. P. Chase, 
0»ii'i, March 5tli, 18 ;i : ' W. P. F.-ssonden, Maine, 
July 1st, 1804: HuL'h McCnlloch. Indiana, M^trch 
7th, 1805. Sex-retar// of Tar, Simon Cameron, Penn- 
syhaiiia, March 5th, 1801 ; Edwin M. Stanton, Penn- 



sylvania, January 15th, 1802; U.S firsLni {ad interim), 
August 12tn, 1867; Edwin M. Stanton (reinstated), 
.lanuary 14th 18l!8; J. M. Schoticld; lIliRois, May 
2Sth, 1808. Sea-etary of Navy, (i\di:^o\\ Welles, Con- 
necticut, March 5th. 1801. Secretary of Interior, 
Caleb P. Smith, March 5th, 1801 ; John P. Usher. In- 
diana. January 8tli, 1803; James Harlan, Iowa, May 
15th, 1805: O. H. Browning, Illinois, July 27th, 1^06. 
AtforiieyOeneral, Edward Bates, Missouri, March 
5th, 1861; Titian J. Cortee, June v:2il, 1803; James 
Speed, Kentucky, December 2d. 1864; Henry Stan- 
I'cry, Ohio, July 2Sd, 1860; William M. Evarts, New 
York, July 15th, 1808. Postma^ter-Oe-eral, Mont- 
gomery Blair, Maryland, March 5th, 1801 : Williara 
Dennison, Ohio, September 24th, 1S64; Alexander 
W. Randall, Wisconsin, July 25th, 1830. 

Ulysses S. Grant, President. 

XXI. and XKII. ; 1869-1877. 
Secretary of State, E. B. Washburne, Illinois, 
March 5th, 1869; Hamilton Fisn, New York, March 
1 Ith, 1809. Secretary of Treosiiri/, George S. Boutwel!, 
Massachusetts, March lith, 18ii9; William A.Rich- 
ardson, Massachusetts, March 17th. 1873 ; Benjamin 
H. Bristow, Kentucky, June 2d, 1S74 ; Lot M. Mor- 
rill, Maine, June 21st. 1870. Secretary of W'rrr, John 
A. Rawlins, Illinois. March 11th, 1809; William T. 
Stierman, Ohio, September 9th, 1869; William W. 
Belknap, Iowa, October 25th, 1809; Alphonso Taft, 
Ohio, March 8ch, 1870; J. D. Cameron, Pennsylvania, 
May 22d, 1870. Secretary of Navy, Adolph E. Borie, 
Pennsylvania INIarch 5th, 1809; George M. Robeson, 
New Jersey, June 25th. 1809. Secretary of Interior, 
Jacob D. Cox, (Jhio, March 5th, 1869; Columhm 
Delano. Ohio, November 1st, 1870; Zachariah Chan- 
dler. MichiRft'i, October 19th, 1875. Attorneii General, 
R. R. Hoar,' Massachusetts, March 5th, 1809; Amos 
T. Akerman, Georgia, June 23d, 1870; George H. 
Williams, Oregon, December, 14th, 1871 ; Edward.') 
Pi-rrepont, New York, April 20th, 1875; Alphonso 
Taft, Ohio. M■^y 22d, 1870. Post master- General, J. A. 
J. Crcwell, Maryland. March ftth, 1869; Mar hall 
Jewell, Connecticut, August 24th. 1874; James M. 
Tyner, Indiana, July 12ih, 1876. 

RuTiiEEFORD B. Hayes, President. 
X.XIII.; 1877-1881. 
Secretary of State, WiUiam M. Evarts, New York, 
March 12tli,''877. Secretary of Treasury, .lohn Sher- 
man, (Jhio, March 8th, 1877. Secretary of H'l?-, George 
W. McCrary, Iowa, March 12th, 1877; Alexander 
Ramsey, Minnesota. December 12th, 1879. Sca-etary 
of Navy, Richard W. Thompson, Indiana, March 
12th, 1877; Nathan Goff, Jr., West Virginia, January 
Oth, 1881. S-cretary of Interior, Ca.r\ Schurz. Mis- 
souri, March 12th,' 187". Attorney-General, Charl'-s 
Devens, Massachusetts, March l2th, 1877. Post- 
master-General, David M. Key, Tennessee, March 
12th, 1877; Horace Maynard, Tennessee, August 
25th, 1880. 

jAimCS A. GAEFIfLD AND CHESTER A. ABTHUE. 

Presidents. 
XXIV.; 1881-1885. 
Secretary of State. James G. Blaine, Maine, March 
5th, 1881; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey, 
December 12th, 1881. Secretary of'Tieasury, William 
H Windom, Minnesota, March 5th. 1881; Charles J. 
Folgfr. New York, October '27th, 1881. Secretary of 
War, Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois, March 5th, 1881. 
Secretary of Navv, W. H. Hunt, Louisiana. March 
5th, 18SI. Secretary of Interior, S. J. Kirkwood, 
Iowa, March 5th, 1881. Attorney-General, Wayne 
MacVeagh, Pennsylvania. March 5th, 1881 ; Benja- 
min H. Brewster. Pennsylvania, December ICth, 
1881. Postmaster-General, Thomas L. James, New 
York, March 5th, 1881; Timothy 0. Howe, Wiscon- 
sin, December 2uth, 1881, 



FORKIGN IMMIGRATION SINCE 1870, BY FISCAL, YEARS.- 


Official. 


Years. 


Number. 


Years. 


Number. 


Y'ears. 


Number. 


IK70 


387,203 
321 ,3r.O 

401.80(5 
4.59,803 




313,339 
227,498 
169,986 
141,857 


1878 


138,409 


1K71 


1875 


1879 


177,826 


1K7 > 


1870 


1880 


457.257 




1877 


1881 


609,431 











Of the arrivals in 1881,410,729 were malesand 2.58,702 females. There were 153.718 from Great Britain 
fltid Ireland; 210,485 from Germany; 21.109 from Austria: ll,89o from China; 102,922 from Quebec and 
Onfario: '4,4:!7 from Ni>va 9coti« : 49.700 from Sweden ; 22,705 from Norway; 15,387 from Italy ; 5,227 from 



France; 9,117 from Denmark, and 11,293 from Switzerland. 



TABULATKD 11 ISTO RY— PATENT PICKS. 



93 



SIGNHRS OP THE DECLARATION OK INOKPENDEXCK. l.\ COXCiRRSH AS.SICN- 

UL.Ki> jij'ky 4Ut, ma. 

ThefolIo\?ing list of members of the CniitlnonUI <".)nKr<''«!i, wlm slRnoil the I>e<-lanti*on of ln(lcpen'irn<v: 
(altho\i;;h tho imm pare infliidoil in tlio Kcnonil ll.st of iliiit t'oiiKrfo", from I77t t<i 177i(), in tctfcn M-pumirly 
for th»' piiriwi'ii' of .showing tlie places and dutvM of tlioir birth, uud Iho tiiuoa uf ihoir tvyfcUra tli'»ii,»,i.,t 
conveuiout reft-rcncc : 



Naubs or TiiK Signers. 



Born at 



AHamo, John Braintreo, Mas«., 10 <")ot. nil.. 

Ada'nN. Siimnel H(>st>n, Mhri., 27 S \>t \TJr2 

Bartleit, JuNJah Vm»"'biiry, .Mass.. in Nov. nj-J. 

Braxton, (barter Newinston, \'ii , In Mi-iil. I7:ir. .. 

Carroll, Ohiis of Carrollton.. AIlnllpoli^, .Md., at S.-ia 17.»7... 

Cna«e, Siimiiol Somorst't t'o., Md., 17 Apr. 17-41 

Clarl{, ANraliam lOli/.abitlitosvii, .\. J., 1.") Feb. 17Ji 

CIvtner. <{.'orj;e I'oil.ididphiii I'a., In 17:i!» 

Ellerv, William .N'mvport, U. I., Ji I>.-o. I7'27 

Floyd, Williuin .Sotlolk Co , N. Y., 17 Dec 17X1 

Franklin, BiMijaiiiin lio.ston, Ma.ss., 17 Jan. 17ii') , 

Gerry, Elbridice Marldidicad, Mas.s., 1 July 1714.. . 

Owinnet, Button IOn){laiid, in 17:t2 

Hall, l.,yinan Connociicuf, in 17:!l 

Hancock, John Brainlrco, Mass., in 17;!7 

Harrison, Benjamin BiMklev, Va., 

Hart, John Hopewldl, N. J., in 1715 



Dbluiatbo Fkoh 



DtB*. 



Hoyward, Thomas, Jr St. Lidio's, S, C, in 174G 

Hewe.', Joseph Kingston, N. J., in 17:ji> 

Hooper, William lioston, Alasg., 17 June, 1742... 

Hopkins, Stephen 8'Mtuate, !\Iass., 7 .M;ir., 17o7.... 

Huntiiii;lon, Samuel Windham, tlonn., 3 July 1732 . 

HookinsoM, Franci.s I'hiladelphia, Pa., in 17.'i7 

JetftTson, Thomas .Sliadwell, Va,, 1< Apr. 17.'U 

Lee, Richard Henrv Stratford, Va.. 20 Jan. 17:12 

Lee, Francis LiRhtfoot [Stratford. Va , 14 ()(;t. 1734 

Lewis, Francis P 'Lindatf, W;dHS, in .Mar. 1713.. 

Livingston, Philip I Albany, N. V., b") Jan. 1716 

Lynch, Thomas, Jr St. (ieorge's, .S. C, 5 Aug. 174'J. 

>fcKean, Thomas Chester Co.. Pa., 10 Mar 1734 . 

Middleton, Arthur JMiddieton Place, S.C., in 1743. 

Morris, Lewis Morrissianna, N. V., in 17215.... 

Morris, Robert i.ancashiro, Enc, Jan. 1733-4., 

Morton, John Ridley, Pa., in 1724 

NelsoiijThom.as, Jr -...iVorlc, Va., 2R Dec. 17:W 

P.-ica, Wm Wye-Hill, Md ,31 O-t. 1740 .... 

Paine. Robert Treat lioston, JIass., in 1731 

Penn, John Caroline Co , Va., 17 May 1741., 

Read, Georpe 'Cecil Co.. Md., in 1734 

Rodney, Ciesar [Dover, Del., in 1730 , 

Ross, George iNew Castle, Del. in 1731J , 

Rush, Benjamin, M.U iByberry. Pa., 24 Dec. 1745 , 

Rutledge, Edward l^'hariesUm, S.C, in Nov. I74J.. 

Sherman, Roger 'Newton, Mass., 19 Apr. 1721.... 

Smith, James ' , Irelail, 



Stockton, Richard Princeton, N. J., 1 Oct. 1730 

Stone, Thomas ICharles Co., Md., in 1742 

Taylor, George , Ireland, in 1710 

Thornton, Matthew ' , Ireland, in 1714 

Walton George iFreilerick Co., Va., in 1740 

Whipple, Wm Kittery, Maine, in 1730 

Williams, Wm Lebanon, Conn., 8 Apr. 1731 

Wib<on, J.imes Scotland, ab^.ut i742 

Witlierspoon, John Yester, Scotland, 5 Feb. 1722 

Wolcott. Oliver Wind.sor, Conn., 26 Nov. 1720 

Wythe, George Elizabeth City Co., Va., in 1726... 



Ma«»>aohn<ietti» 4 .fnlv, 1<I2«. 

'Ma-sa'diiiHiild 2 O.M. imii. 

.N.'w lliiiiipshiru |I0 .May tVf: 

Virginirt 'Id Ui-i, I7!i7. 

.\taryhind 14 .NovimiiImt, iKti 

i.Marylmd 10 June, IhII. 

, New Jersey — 8epi«-inl>fr, 1704. 

Pennsvlvaniu '23 Jan. Imij. 

, R. I. & I'rov. Pi 115 Feh. iKji. 

.New York ' 4 Aim Js.'l. 

, Penn.sylvania., 1I7 April, 1790. 

.Massachusetts iJ Novemlrt-r, 1814 

, lieorgia -27 Mny, 17T7. 

, (ieorgia j— Feb I70(». 

.M>is.sacliusuti>i 8<»ct 17'.»3. 

. Virginia |— April, 17uL 

, New Jersey |I8WI. 

South Carolina — Slarch, 180ft 

,'. North Canilina 'lOttrM. 1779. 

i.N'orthCarolina — Oct. 17!Ht. 

, R. I. & Prov. PI 13 July, 17*5. 

;Coiinecticut 5 Jan. l7'Jti 

[New Jersey 9 May, I7H0. 

Virginia 4 July. H20. 

j Virginia 10 June, 1791. 

■ Virginia — April, 1797. 

LVew York :«• Dee. ItUU. 

'New York 12 Juno, 1778. 

South Carolina 'Lost at sen, 1779 

Delaware 24 June, 1M17. 

South Carolina ■ 1 Jan. I7M7. 

.New York 22 Jan. 1708. 

I Penn.sylvania 8 May, 1N(»C 

Pennsylvania i — April, 1777. 

I Virginia 4 Jan. I7*J. 

I Maryland ' . 1799. 

[M.-iNsachusettd Ill May. I8i)4. 

i North Carolina 120 Oct. IKOO. 

iDelaware I , 1798. 

I Delaware I , I78i. 

Pennsylvania I — July, i779. 

PennsyLania 19 April. 1813. 

South Carolina 2.3 Jan. 1*0. 

'Connecticut '2;i July, 170.3. 

Pennsylvania 11 July, 18<i8. 

New Jersey 28 Feb. 1781. 

.Maryland | 5 Oct. 1787. 

Pennsylvania 2-3 Feb. 1781. 

.New Hampshire 24 June, 1803. 

Georgia ' 2 Feb. 1*4 

New Hampshire 28 Nov. 1785. 

Connecticut 2 Aui;. 1811. 

Pennsvlvania 28 Auk. 1708. 

.New Jersey IS .Nov. 1794. 

Conne' ticut 1 r>ec 1707. 

Virginia | 8 June, 1806. 



AI»TE-\VAR DEBTS OF THE SEVERAL. ST.ATES. 

Table showing the Debts of the several States before the war (ISCOGI). 



Maine 

New Hampshire _ 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island _ 

Connecticut 

New York „ 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Ohio 1 14 2.vi,l73 

Indiana 7,770,233 

Michigan I '2,38.'»,h43 

Illinois ' ll),277,I';l 

Wisconsin H)ii,o(ni 

Minnesota 2.5u,ikio 



In 1860-61. 



Seoo.-ioo 

31,069 

none. 

7.132,627 

none, 

none. 

34,182,070 

1(I4,(KX1 

37,004,002 

none. 



Iowa 2no.one 

Missouri 24,7»4n«io 

Kansas l.W.fWP 

Kentucky 4,7a,«J4 

California - 

Oregon _ ."^^.372 

Virginia .33,248.141 

North Carolina 9.ia»/i05 

South Carolina 3,09I,A74 

Georgia 2,070.710 

Florida .vcnrtt 

Alabama \<4Mli« 

Mississippi iion«'. 

Loui-iana i W,(iz\^>m 

Texas 1 — 

Arkansas ~..l 3,o«,<-*i 

Tennessee lo.Ota,*!'-* 



In t8G»Cl 



94 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 



CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, 

Since the adoption of the Faleral Constitution, March 1st, 1789. 

The following is « list of the Piesidents and Vice-Presidents of thR United States, as well as those who 
werp candidates for each office, since tlie organization of the Uovernment: {vide pp. 21-2r>, 62.) 



1780— George Wnshingion* and John Adams, two 
iernisi, n<i opposition. 

. 17'.t7 — John .Adams, opposed by Thomas Jefferson,* 
vlio, having the ne.xt higliest electoral vote, became 
Xic Prt'sidont. 

1801— Thomas Jefferson* and Aaron Burr; beating 
John .\dams and ('hnrles C. Pinckney.* 

180') — Thomas Jefferson* and Geirge Clinton ; 
beating Charles C. PincKney* and Rufns King 

IrtiHt- James Madison* and George Clinlou; beat- 
ing Charles C. Pm -kncy * 

18 8— .lames Madison* and Eldridge Gerry; beat- 
ing DeWitt Clinton. 

1817 — lames Monroe* and Daniel D.Tompkins; 
beating Kiifiis King. 

18il— James Monroe* and Daniel D.Tompkins; 
beating John Quincy Adams. 

1«2.'>— John Qiiiney Adams and John C. Calhoun :* 
b<^ating .\ndrew Jackson,* Henry Clay,* and Wil- 
liam H. Crawford :* there being four candidates for 
President, and Albert Gallatin for Vice President. 

1829— Andrew Jackson* and John C. Calhoun*; 
beating John Quincy Adams and Richard Kufin. 

1833— Andrew Jackson* and Martin Van Biiren ; 
bfating Henry Clay,* John Floyd,* and William Wirt 
for President; and William Wilkins, John Sergeant, 
and Hen'v Lee* for Vice President. 

1837— Martin Van Buren and Richard M. John- 
6on*: beating William H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, 
and Daniel Webster for President, and John Tyler* 
for Vice President. 

1841 — William H. Harrison and John Tyler* ; beat- 
ing Martin Van Buren and Littleton W. Tazewell.* 

* Candidates from 



Harrison died one month after his inauguration 
and John Tyler* became President for the re.st of 
the term. 

1845— James K. PolU* and George M. Dallas ; beat- 
ing Henry (May* and Theodore Frelinghiiy~en. 

lS4t»-Zachary Taylor* and MilUr<l Fillmore; beat- 
ing Lewis Cass and Martin Van Buren for President,' 
anil William O. Butler* and C. F. Adams, lor Vice 
Pres dent. 

18.'>.3— F-ianklin Pierce and William R. King*; 
beating Wintield Scott and William A. Graham.* 

18a7— Jaines Buchanan and John C. Breckin- 
ridge*; lieating John C. Fremont and Millard Fill- 
more for President, ami William L. Dayton and A. 
J. Donaldson* for Vice President. 

18tU— .Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin; 
heating John Bell, Stephen A. Douglas, and J. C. 
Breckinridge* for President. 

186.") — Abraham Lincoln and ^ ndrew Johnson,* 
Union candidates; beating G. B. MoClellan and G. 
H. Pendleton. 

IhfiO — Ulysses S Grant and Schuyler Colfax; beat- 
in:; Horatio Seymour and Fr^nk P. Blair, jr. 

1873— Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wdson ; beating 
Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown, for President 
and Vice Prrsident. 

1877— Rutherford B. Hayes and Wm. A. Wheeler; 
beating Samuel Tild' n and Thomas A. Hendricks. 

1881 — James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur; 
beating General W. S. Hancock and W. H. English. 
.\rthur succeeded Garfield, after his death from as- 
sassination, Sept. lit, 1881, and David Davis is uovr 
Acting Vice President. 
Southern States. 



KUMBER OF ELECTORATE VOTES TO AVHICH EACH STATE HAS BEEN ENTI- 
TliED. AT EACH ELECTION, 1789-1876. 



States. 


S 


§ 




8 

00 


00 


i 


00 


QO 


00 


00 


00 


s 


00 


3 

00 


oo 


00 
00 


00 


s 


1 


1 


i 


(M 


CO 


1 




















3 


5 


5 


7 


7 
3 


7 
3 


9 
3 


9 
3 


9 
4 
4 


9 
4 
4 


9 

4 
4 


8 
6 
5 


8 
6 
5 


10 

6 

6 


6 
3 
6 
3 

it 
21 
15 
11 

5 

12 

8 

7 

8 

13 

11 

5 

8 

15 

3 

3 

5 

9 

35 

10 

22 

3 

29 

4 

7 

12 

8 

5 

11 

5 

10 

3(,9 

38 


1^ 




















7 




























8 






















1 














3 




7 
3 


9 
3 


9 
3 


9 
3 


9 
3 


9 
3 


9 
4 


9 

4 


9 
4 


8 
3 


8 


a 


8 
3 


8 
3 


6 
3 


6 
3 
3 

10 
9 

12 
4 


6 

I 

!'■' 

13 

4 


6 
3 
3 
10 
11 
13 
4 


6 
3 
3 
10 
11 
13 
4 


6 
3 
3 
9 

16 

13 
h 
3 

11 
7 
7 
7 

12 
8 
4 
7 

11 


6 
3 
3 
9 
16 
13 
8 

iV 

7 
7 
7 

12 
8 
4 
7 

11 
3 
3 
5 
7 

33 
9 

21 
3 

ili 

c 

6 
10 
5 
8 

317 

37 


6 
3 
4 
11 
21 
15 
11 
5 

12 

8 

7 

8 

13 

11 

5 

8 

15 

3 

3 

5 

9 

35 

10 

22 

3 

29 

4 

7 

'I 
5 
11 

5 

366 

37 


R 




3 


3 


3 


Florida 






4 




5 


4 


4 


4 


6 


6 


8 


8 


8 
3 
3 


9 
3 
6 


9 
3 
5 


11 

5 
9 


11 
6 
9 


11 
5 
9 


10 
9 
12 


^?. 


Illinois - 


9-?. 


















3 


15 


















13 


































9 






4 


4 


4 


8 


8 


12 
3 


12 
3 


12 
3 
9 
11 
15 


14 
5 
9 
11 
15 


14 
5 
9 
11 
15 


15 
6 
10 
10 
14 


15 
6 
1(> 
10 
14 
3 


15 
5 
10 
10 
14 
3 


12 
6 
9 
8 

12 
6 


12 
6 
9 
8 

12 
5 


12 
C 
8 
8 

13 


12 
6 
8 
8 

13 
6 


12 
6 
8 
8 

13 
6 
4 
7 
9 


13 






8 
















G 




8 
10 


1(1 
IG 


10 
10 


10 
16 


11 
19 


U] 11 
19 22 


11 

22 


8 




14 




13 




























7 




















3 
3 


3 
3 


3 
3 


4 
4 


4 
4 


4 
4 


6 

7 


6 

7 


7 
9 


7 
9 


9 




















10 




















5 










































3 

5 
7 

33 
9 

21 
3 

20 
4 
G 

10 
G 
5 

10 
5 
8 

314 

36 


3 


New Hamp.sliirc 

New Jersey 


6 

8 
7 


G 
7 
12 
12 


6 
7 
12 
12 


6 
7 
12 
12 


7 
8 

19 
14 
3 


7 
8 
19 
14 
3 


8 
8 
29 
15 
8 


8 
8 
20 
15 
8 


8 
8 

2;t 

15 

8 


8 

8 

36 

15 

16 




7 

8 

4,- 


7 

8 

42 

15 

21 


7 

8 

42 

15 

21 


6 

7 

36 

11 

23 


6 

7 
30 
11 
23 


5 

7 

35 

10 

23 


5 
7 
35 
10 
23 


5 
7 

3a 
111 
23 

3 
27 

4 

8 
12 

4 

15 
...„ 

303 
33 


4 
9 

30 


North Carolina 

OIno 


15! 15 
10 21 


11 

?.3 












3 




10 
3 

7 


15 
4 
8 


15 
4 
8 
3 


15 
4 
8 
3 


20 
4 

10 
6 


20 25 


25 

ll 

8 


25 
4 
11 

8 


28 
4 
11 
11 


28, 30 
4 4 
11 11 
11 15 


11 

15 


30 
4 
11 
15 


2G 
4 
9 

13 


20 
4 
9 

13 
4 
6 

17 
...„ 

290 
1 


27 
4 
8 

12 
4 
5 

15 
...„ 

296 
31 


27 
4 
8 

12 
4 
5 

15 
...„ 

296 
31 


30 


Rhode Island 


4 

in 

5 


4 

n 

8 


4 




9 




12 








13 






4 
21 


4 
21 


4 
1 


6 
24 


G 
24 


8 
25 


8 
25 


a 

25 


7 
24 


7 


7 


7 
23 


7 
2.3 


6 
17 


4- 


Virginia 

West Virginia 


12 


24 


23 


12 
6 
11 


Total 


91 
13 


1,35 
15 


138 
16 


138 
16 


176 
17 


17G 
17 


218 
18 


221 


235 
24 


?61 


?,61 


28 "^ 


294 




294 
26 


275 

26 


401 


Number of States.... 


24 


24 


2. 


38 



\ 



